WordPress 2.3 Simple Upgrade Tutorial

The recent release of WordPress 2.3 with new features and database changes begs the question, how should a webmaster plan and then implement the enhancement. Any upgrade that involves database changes should be undertaken carefully, and preparation is key to a successful enchance.

Typically, most webmasters install custom themes and extra plugins, and of course they upload extra files such as images to their /wp-content/uploads folder. All of these files need to be backed up and stored off server prior to undertaking the enhancement process. The database itself also needs to be backed up.

Backing up the particular site information is first achieved by installing the BackUpWordpress plugin and selecting the default backup options which will create a compressed file of the complete site including files and database. If anything does go wrong it should be relativelyeasy to restore this and import the particular database into MySQL using phpMyAdmin or the particular host's preferred database manager.Once you are certain the particular site has been backed up, you're ready to start preparing for the enhancement.

Are the plugins and chosen theme complying with WordPress 2.3? Most modern themes shouldn't cause any problem except that non v2.3 themes may not take into account the tags code needed to make use of the new tags feature of WordPress 2.3. This is at least simple update to make, and only involves adding extra php code to the theme's index.php and single.php.

Open up index.php and single.php in your favorite text editor and hunt for the following code, and just add the following code '); ?> before or after depends on where you want the tags will be displayed (before or after the document).

The plugins used in the site will need to be inspect against the list of complying plugins. Any plugin that isn't complying will likely not work correctly or at all. You may need to contact the plugin author for an update or discontinue using that plugin until an update is available.

You should now be ready to enhancement the particular installation to WordPress 2.3, and if your host provides wget functionality only copy the zip file to your server then unzip them directly into the WordPress folder. If wget isn't available to you, then you'll need to download the zip file and use an ftp client to upload the unzipped files.

Once you've installed your WordPress files, make sure your WordPress 2.3 complying theme is uploaded to /wp-content/themes. Did you need updated plugins? Upload these to /wp-content/plugins. You should now be ready to initiate the WordPress update script.

Navigate to the admin section of the particular site, WordPress 2.3 will automatically discover that an transformation is required. Once completed, and if all has gone to plan, you should be able to login to Dashboard without any difficulty. Good luck.

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