All our OM4 websites run on WordPress. Each time a WordPress upgrade or patch is released, we assess it and apply it.

When security patches are released, we apply them promptly.

With larger upgrades, it might take us a bit longer to make sure any required changes are integrated to enable new functionality. Some upgrades introduce a lot of new functionality that require changes to theme files. Sometimes plugins aren’t compatible with updates and we have to co-ordinate the update with plugin updates to keep everything working together.

We’ve been doing this ever since launching our first WordPress site, and plan to keep doing it. As Matt says, there are no guarantees, but it is a good strategy for keeping your WordPress website secure.

Keeping WordPress Secure

These are handy features. We do WordPress upgrades for a lot of clients, and to avoid upgrade glitches here are some things that are useful to do well before applying the upgrade.

1. Review the changes and the impact they will have

Go through the release notes for the upgrade or patch and see what is changing. What will be the impact on Dashboard users and site visitors? Do you need to let anyone know before things change?

2. Look for dependencies

Does anything else depend on something that is changing? If WordPress is removing a hook that is used by your theme or a plugin, it helps to identify this upfront so you can prepare for it.

3. Upgrade themes and plugins to take advantage of new features

Most WordPress upgrades introduce new features, and many of these require changes to themes and plugins to take advantage of. For example, here is the list of changes recommended to upgrade to WordPress 2.7. You need to be particularly careful if you have customised theme files.

4. Test

Even the best laid plans can go astray, so do the upgrade on a test version of your website and check the upgrade goes smoothly. Check your server logs to make sure you don’t have any new errors appearing, and if you have a high volume website, you may want to run performance tests that compare before/after results.

5. Now you can upgrade!

Running your upgrades after you have assessed impacts, checked dependencies, made required code changes and completed testing should reduce the chance of having an unexpected glitch after your update.

You should have a full backup of your site before you upgrade, and an understanding of how to restore from that backup if you need to.

Avoiding glitches when upgrading WordPress

WordPress 2.7 Dashboard

The 2.7 Dashboard is a great piece of work. The menus have changed a bit, but the new menus are very easy to understand so you shouldn’t have trouble using them.

There are many new features in the Dashboard that are intuitive to use.

If you would like to get a quick overview of the changes that are coming, you can play the video below. And you can read a more detailed list of the changes in text form as well.

If there is anything that doesn’t make sense to you, pop on to our forums and you can ask any questions there.

WordPress 2.7 for MU