Work From Home 4 Life

Depending on how you came to learn about creating a hosted Wordpress Blog you may find that your Wordpress blogging software is out of date.

If you have a hosted Wordpress blog installed on your site and you are not using the latest version you will see a message in your back office/wp-admin/dashboard stating you need to upgrade. Like many software producers, WordPress periodically updates their software, hopefully full of improvements.

I was first introduced to hosted Wordpress blogs through the NZPCS Million Dollar Blueprint and my first blog was this one you are now reading… Work From Home 4 Life.

Way back then the version I uploaded was 2.0 (yes I know, back in the dark ages) but it was part of a software package setup and being a complete newbie I didn’t know any better.

Of course I could have used Fantasico to install Wordpress, which gives the latest version available, but I find that the MySQL database names assigned (wdp1, wdp2, etc) not descriptive enough. I prefer to manually install so I can assign my own related database name. (However I should note that a Fantasico installed blog is much easier to upgrade)

I noticed straight away that it was out of date so I went looking for information on how to update my blog. I had already updated the theme to a widget enabled one which is relatively easy. (I found out later that I wasn’t supposed to so I created another unchanged work from home blog for my team members to emulate as per the program instructions)

However, the instructions on how to upgrade posted on the WordPress Codex site was so daunting that I just left it. I did make an attempt but blew it somehow… its safer to leave sleeping dogs lie.

Now there was nothing wrong with that strategy on the face of it, until I tried to use plugins and themes not compatible with my dinosaur!

What to do… what to do… what to do…

Enter my latest discovery!

Wordpress Automatic Upgrade Plugin

Now I can’t claim the finders fee for this one. Credit goes to Caroline Middlebrook, a fellow 30 Day Challenger. She mentions the plugin in her free ebook How to Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress. The ebook is well worth a read if you are new to Wordpress and creating niche sites using Wordpress. I followed her suggestions and applied it to my Breastfeeding Site.

Now getting back to the Automatic Upgrade Plugin…

The plugin is available for free at Techie Buzz and is easily installed into you blog as other plugins are. I first installed on a blog that was relatively new (not much content to lose and rebuild) to limit the damage if it didn’t work. I wanted to make sure that it worked OK before using it on this one.

Upgrade Success!

The Plugin worked like a dream come true! No more sweating about screwing up your blog during the upgrade process!
This blog and some of my other one are now upgraded to WordPress 2.5. which is the latest and greatest version. It has had a complete revamp of the admin area witha fresh new look. It take a bit of getting used to because it looks so different but I like it.

The Upgrade Process

The plugin takes you through a series of simple steps. Just follow the prompts and do what is prompted.

Installing the Plugin:

1. Download the plugin from Techie Buzz
2. Using FTP upload the plugin into the plugins folder in the wp-content directory of your blog on your web server. (I upload the zip file (faster) then extract the contents using cPanel File manager. You can extract the zip file on your computer then upload the extracted plugin folder if you prefer to do it that way.)
3. Log into your Dashboard, go to the plugins tab, and activate the plugin.

Using the Plugin:

Go to Manage Tab and click on new sub-tab Automatic Upgrade. You will notice that it has a TASK OUTPUT section and a TASK STATUS section.

Manual Upgrade Process:

1. Under TASK STATUS you will see a link that says Click here, do that now.
2. Download the current wordpress installation files that have just been back-upped.
3. Select database items you want backed up then click on Start DB Backup
4. Download database Backup File
5. Get the latest version of Wordpress: By far the easiest way to do this is to select the recommended option which is Get the lastest Version from wordpress.org. click on Lets go
6. The next task is to put your site into maintenance mode while you complete the upgrade process.
7. De-activate all plugins. Clicking on CLICK HERE will do this for you so you don’t need to go to your Plugins tab to do it manually.
8. Installation Upgrade. Click on CLICK HERE to do this task. (The moment of truth)

Automatic Upgrade:

This process is quick and easy but does not allow you to download your file backups. I strongly suggest you do a manual back up before starting the Automated version.

• Under TASK STATUS you will see a link that says Automated version, do that now.

Finalizing the Installation:

1. SUCCESS! But there are still a couple of things to do… First go to upgrade link by click on CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE THE FINAL STEP. (opens a new browser window or tab)
2. Click on Upgrade Wordpress link then Continue link in new window. You will now notice that the Login page to your blog looks different… this is the Wordpress 2.5 new look.
3. Go back to the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade tab to re-activate your plugins
4. Login back into your blog, Go to Plugins and check that they are all activated.

Thats it! All Done! Your Blog is now upgraded to Wordpress 2.5
(at the time of this writing)

Now it might look like a hassle judging by the steps I just took you through but believe me this plugin takes away all the pain of upgrading your Wordpress blog. You don’t have to play with any code and you only need to use your mouse to click on the link to the next step.

I can’t thank the creator of this plugin enough and believe me when I say you will feel the same way once you have used it.

A word on automatically upgrading plugins
To use the upgrade automatically link on the plugin page in WordPress 2.5.1, make sure the plugin is activated first.