Wordpress 2.6.2 and Automatic Updating

Wordpress version 2.6.2 is out, fixing a few security holes. If you haven’t already, you should upgrade your installation as soon as possible.

I think I’ve mentioned it here before, but if you’re not running the Automatic Upgrade plugin, stop and add it to the top of your to-do list. True to it’s name, the plugin does all the work of updating your Wordpress install with just a series of clicks. This is especially useful for users who may be afraid of uploading a bunch of files or perhaps don’t have FTP access to their blog.

From a technical perspective, the plugin does a lot of nice things on the system side. First, it gives you zip files containing your content and database backups. It’s more a just-in-case thing, but nice to have. Then, it puts your blog into a maintenance mode. That way, people aren’t leaving comments or trying to log in during the upgrade. It will also de-activate your plugins, again, to reduce the possible errors that may pop up. The plugin then gets new files from Wordpress directly, updates your install, turns everything back on and asks you to clean up the cruft leftover.

Upgrading today took 3 minutes, which is a small price to pay to make sure your install is safe and secure.

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Written by: Mike | September 9, 2008 | Filed Under PHP, Security, wordpress 

Comments

One Response to “Wordpress 2.6.2 and Automatic Updating”

  1. Kyle James on September 9th, 2008 12:44 pm

    I totally agree. Definitely a must. What you forgot to mention is that the plugin also makes it super easy to update your plugins. That’s right no download the newest plugin from the site unzip then upload to the directory. Simply click on the link and it handles it all pretty like.

    Such a time saver!

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