The WordPress Upgrade Aftermath
In the previous post I talked about all the reasons to upgrade to version 2.6.+. After doing a few and researching some issues I thought I may warn you of what you may be in for.
First and foremost is backing up your files and database. Believe me this is critical because I needed it on all upgrades I performed. WordPress categories are not getting translated over in some instances and since I am still relatively “Geek Impaired” I had to manually add the categories back into the databases by hand. I researched this for quite some time and found no way import them into the database. So if any one reading this knows how to do it pelase share it with us!
Then there is the automatic upgrade options and plugins, well it seems that certain settings need to be set on the server for access to the tmp folder. If you don’t have access to or know how to make these changes then you are stuck with the same old manual upgrade process. I found that setting the file permissions to 777 on the entire blog or site may work to use these options but then you need to go back and secure your blog and change all the file permissions back. By the time I did all that I could have upgraded everything five times! Oh and one of my blogs got hacked in the short time I changed the settings to 777 throwing all kinds of porn links on a few posts. I noticed the site really crawling and then started seeing the porn posting and, oh hell it was a mess…
If you were or are using Ultimate Tag Warrior on WordPress prior to version 2.5 good news so far. With the import option, Manage, Import, Ultimate Tag Warrior in the dashboard, bringing back your tags and the post relationships was a snap. I wish there was a category option in there too! Well there is a WordPress import but I didn’t want to add duplicate content or know if it would recognize the old categories and convert them.
Some of the smaller blogs I upgraded for clients have been easier so far simply because they had only a few plugins and categories on them. But my other site took me a while to upgrade simply because it had a lot of plugin compatibility issues and way to many categories to manually add back.
All in all I guess it isn’t all that bad but if you are a complete newbie or very Geek Impaired I suggest you do your homework first or get some help!
If anyone can shed some light on the several issues I encountered on here feel free to comment, or contact me if you want to make a guest post here with the fix.
Here is short post on my other blog about the upgrade process: WordPress Upgrade Frustrations
WordPress WordPress Upgrade
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5 Responses to "The WordPress Upgrade Aftermath"
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Hmm, I get the feeling you need to secure your server if changing file permissions is opening you up to hackers … Don’t get me wrong. Maintaining file and directory permissions is always a good idea, but you should be restricting access to your server only to trusted users. Don’t enable telnet; use ssh. Try to use sftp, not ftp. Don’t allow root to log in via ssh or sftp — instead have root sudo under a trusted id.
Get your sysadmin to harden your server using iptables (firewall), perhaps setting it up in a start-up script using an IP blacklist. If you log in only from a single static IP, you could be even more secure by locking all other IPs from ssh and sftp. Unless you’re doing something other than hosting a blog, no one else should even be able to try logging in via ssh.
Learn how to use chmod. “chmod 777″ is a blunt instrument. Try doing stuff like “chmod a+w” which gives everyone write permissions to the files indicated.
We are in the early stages of planning a blog and are not entirely sure the direction we’ll take. We understand that WordPress is the preferred way to go, but we obviously need help and need to learn as much as we can before we begin, as you suggest. We probably will use one of the many WordPress templates available, which hopefully will facilitate the development process. Thank you for your valuable advice.
The best way to learn is to start using it, it is easy to make changes on the fly. So many people contact me wanting every little detail explained up-front, they want the theme to be exactly as they picture it, want lists of plugins all explained and installed, and on and on… Over analyzing something to the point of paralysis never got anything done.
The beauty of WordPress is its flexibility and scalability changing the look is as simple as uploading a new theme, adding functionality is as easy as uploading new plugins. And reverting back is as simple too.
Just do it.
Every upgrade I’ve had with my WP blogs brings at least a minor disaster. It never goes smoothly. 5 minute upgrade my ass.
For some reason I’m sticking with the older versions of wordpress, they work for me much better. I updated on of my blogs, and realized how much of waste of time it was. Anyway I recommend to everybody to watch it, the new wordpress is really complicated.