Play Work Play Studio

WordPress 2.3.2 is out, and we’ve just recently upgraded this site accordingly. The list of bug fixes can be checked here.

Standard Upgrade Procedure

The usual upgrading process goes like this:

1. Backup everything in your site (files and MySQL DB).
2. Deactivate plugins.
3. Get the latest WordPress files and overwrite the old files. Deleting first instead of overwriting is also encouraged.
4. Visit the wp-admin/upgrade.php page to auto-upgrade the database structure.
5. Check permalinks structure and update .htaccess if necessary.
6. Reactivate all plugins.
7. Done.

The Sneaky Way

Now, just as an experiment, I tried another way to upgrade this install my way. As a disclaimer, I don’t recommend anyone to try this. It’s just an experiment, mmkay?

So, this is what I do:

1. Backup everything.
2. Deactivate plugins.
3. Download the latest WordPress files.
4. Overwrite only the files changed from previous version. The list of revised files for this version can be found both here or from the WordPress Trac diff here. For future versions, I’m sure the changed files will be mentioned as well.
5. Visit the wp-admin/upgrade.php page to auto-upgrade the database structure.
6. Permalinks and .htaccess shouldn’t get changed I’m sure. Heck, I didn’t overwrite it! But it’s always a good thing to check.
7. Reactivate all plugins.
8. Done.

Everything seems to be doing fine after I did this. Well, you can read this, can’t you?

Pro and Cons

Pro:

• Good if your connection is slow. Only upload a few files instead of the entire WordPress files.
• Can learn the inner workings of WordPress a little more.
• It’s a bit more risky and challenging, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Cons:

• Must be extra careful when overwriting. Gotta have the correct files to upload.
• It’s a bit more risky and challenging, if you’re against that sort of thing.

Other Notes

• After reactivating WordPress Stats plugin, it asked me to input my WP API Key again. This bugged me a bit, afraid that my old stats is already gone. After entering the API Key again, I found that the stats does not duplicate (i.e.: it seems to resume the previous stats), so hopefully nothing goes wrong. I will need to check more whether the traffic actually updates or not (note: the Stats get updated about once in 3 minutes—although my personal experience says 10 minutes).
  UPDATE:The Stats plugin works. So, it seems that the key re-entering thing does not break anything.
• Also note that Akismet does not ask for API Key upon reactivating. Hello, Automattic?
• It would be a good idea to use Maintenance Mode plugin during the upgrade process. We apologize for any weirdness you get during our recent upgrading attempt.