This Saturday, the first stable wordpress 2.5 was finally released. After some delays and two beta release candidates, wordpress as reached another new level.
I could mention the new features that come with the new version, and how awesome the new control panel was, but i won’t do that. First, im not in the mood for that, and second, my first impression on the new cpanel was not that good lol.
Last week, with the release of the final version of the options theme, i decided to upgrade to the wordpress RC-2 in order to properly use the new theme, which was WP 2.5 specific.
I had to do some research first on how to safely upgrade my wordpress installation, and spent some time reading about the possible incompatibilities with some plugins.
So, after some research i decided that it was time to backup my database (obviously), not only from this blog, but from all my sql driven sites. Heck, if i was downloading one database why not download all of them and spare some time in the future?
Now, with all backups placed in a “safe” place it was time for the next phase:
Checking plugins issues with WP 2.5
Every wordpress blogger will have for certain, plugins installed, and most of you will be like me, a plugin addict, that installs almost all new plugins that appear lol. But this new version is different in so many ways, that some plugins might not work correctly, or not work at all.
So, a mandatory stop is the Wordpress Codex where you can find a list of compatible plugins, and a list of plugins that don’t work with this new version. Just browse the list and see if there’s a plugin that you use and it is known not to work with WP 2.5. Just take notice that if your plugin is not on the list, that does not necessarily mean that it is compatible.
This may be also useful. There is a plugin called Wordpress Upgrade Preflight Check that will generate a list of all your installed plugin, and it will tell you if there’s issues with the wordpress version you want to install. Unfortunately, the plugin author has not released yet a version that checks problems in upgrading to 2.5. It only does to version 2.3. But check the plugin page often, as i expect a release soon.
Now, with instant upgrade plugin, i just click to install the latest stable version of wordpress and voila! You have upgraded easily your blog and in a safe way.
Now, you just need to test your blog to see if you find any conflict with your plugins, and if everything is fine then, there is nothing more to say than:
Enjoy the wordpress features and happy blogging!
Btw, i made a new bans site