Experiences On Upgrading To WordPress 2.1.2
Last week I read from Problogger.net that there’s a severe security issue with the WordPress 2.1.1 installation. A hacker had altered the WP source code, so it was important to make this upgrade. Thanks to the WP crew, there’s a really good guide for upgrading to WP 2.1.2. I thought about writing the instructions here, but the guide is so good and rich in detail, so there was no sense writing it all over again. But I wanted to share my thoughts on this upgrade and also add info about the tools that helped me.
First, the time wasted on this upgrade must be massive. It took me 30-45 min to make the upgrade in addition to read the upgrade guide, so in total it took roughly 1 hour. Now think about those millions of WP users, that had to make this 1 hour effort… MILLIONS OF HOURS just because one individual had to show off his black hat skills. I hope you break your hand or something equally painful… I thank you for teaching me patience.
Second, I was happy to notice that my hosting company has very powerful tools in their arsenal:
- The database backup was a picnic. On the page where all my databases are listed there’s a backup button. With a single press it created the SQL file on my web root folder. I didn’t even have to use phpMyAdmin. Plain and simple, thankyouverymuch!
- Network drive. Servage offers free tool called Servage Web Drive, which shows my web folders in the Windows Explorer as a network drive. Sure, I could just use the FTP capabilities of Explorer, but this network drive is IMHO an elegant solution.
- Unzip tool. WP comes in zipped package, so you usually have to unzip it on your local computer. Servage has implemented the unzip function (plus others, e.g. importing SQL files with couple of clicks) to their web admin interface. This allows me to upload the zip files and unzip them on the server itself. This saves a lot of hassle, since I don’t have to wait hours while FTP’ing thousands of files instead of 1 zip file. Also the file permissions stay the same as they were set in the zip file in the first place.
I have now activated the plugins, taken a fresh backup of the 2.1.2 version and right now everything seems to be working. Any comments on the WP upgrade topic are appreciated!