Movin’ on up

Bloggers have a variety of reasons to migrate from one system to WordPress:

✦ Curiosity: There is a lot of buzz around the use of WordPress and the

whole community of WordPress users. People are naturally curious to
check out something that all the cool kids are doing.

✦ More control of your blog: This reason applies particularly to those
who have a blog on Blogspot, TypePad, or any other hosted service.
Hosted programs limit what you can do, create, and mess with. When
it comes to plugins, add-ons, and theme creation, hosting a WordPress
blog on your own Web server wins hands down. Additionally, you have
complete control of your data, archives, and backup capability when
you host your blog on your own server.

✦ Ease of use: Many people find the WordPress interface easier to use,
more understandable, and a great deal more user-friendly than many
of the other blogging platforms available today.

The hosted version of WordPress.com and the self-hosted version of

WordPress.org allow you to migrate your blog to their platforms; however, WordPress.com does not provide as many options for import as WordPress. org does. The following is a list of blogging platforms that have built-in
importers, or import plugins, for migration to WordPress:

✦ Blogger

✦ Movable Type
✦ TypePad

✦ Vox

✦ Posterous
✦ TextPattern
✦ RSS Feeds
✦ GreyMatter
✦ DotClear
✦ Blogware

✦ WordPress.com

In the WordPress.org software (self-hosted), the importers are added to the

installation as plugins. The importer plugins included in the preceding list
are plugins packaged within the WordPress.org software or found by search-
ing in the Plugins Directory at http://wordpress.org/extend/
plugins/tags/importer. You can import content from several other
platforms by installing other plugins from the WordPress Plugins Directory,
but you may have to search a bit on Google to find them.

Read More

Migrating Your Existing Blog to WordPress

For each blogging platform, the WordPress.org platform provides you with a quick and easy way to install plugins that allows you to import and use your content right away. The importers are packaged in a plugin format because most people use an importer just once, and some people don’t use the

importer tools at all. The plugins are there for you to use if you need them. WordPress.com, on the other hand, has the importers built into the software. Note the differences for the version you are using.

Read More

Migrating Your Existing Blog to WordPress

So you have a blog on a different blogging system and want to move your

blog to WordPress? This chapter helps you accomplish just that. WordPress makes it relatively easy to pack up your data and archives from one blog platform and move to a new WordPress blog.

WordPress lets you move your blog from such platforms as Blogspot,

TypePad, and Movable Type. It also gives you a nifty way to migrate from
any blogging platform via RSS feeds, as long as the platform you’re import-
ing from has an RSS feed available. Some platforms, such as MySpace,
have some limitations on RSS feed availability, so be sure to check with
your platform provider. In this chapter, you discover how to prepare your
blog for migration and how to move from the specific platforms for which
WordPress provides importer plugins.

Read More

Upgrading WordPress Manually

The upgrade process occurs on a regular basis, at least three or four times per

year. For some users, this is a frustrating reality of using WordPress; however,
this active development environment is part of what makes WordPress the
most popular platform available. Because WordPress is always adding great
new features and functions to the platform, upgrading always ensures that
you’re on top of the game and using the latest tools and features.

If you’re the type of person who is uncomfortable with performing administrative tasks, such as upgrading and creating database backups, you can hire someone to perform these tasks for you — either a member of your company (if you are a business) or a WordPress consultant skilled in the practice of performing these tasks. Book I, Chapter 4 includes a listing of experienced consultants who can lend a hand.

Read More

Upgrading WordPress Manually

Upgrading WordPress Manually

The second and least used method of upgrading WordPress is the manual

method. The method is least used mainly because the automatic method, dis-
cussed in the preceding section, is so quick and easy to accomplish. However,
certain circumstances — probably related to the inability of your hosting envi-
ronment to accommodate the automatic method — exist where you can man-
ually upgrade WordPress, so we include the description of the process here.

To upgrade WordPress manually:

 1. Back up your WordPress Web site and deactivate all plugins.

Refer to Steps 1 and 2 in the preceding “Upgrading WordPress Automatically” section.

2. Navigate to the WordPress Updates page by clicking the Please
Update Now link.

3. Click the Download button.

This opens a dialog box that allows you to save the .zip file of the

latest WordPress download package to your local computer, as shown in Figure 6-6.

4. Select a location to store the download package and click Save.

The .zip file downloads to your selected location on your computer.

5. Browse to the .zip file on your computer.

6. Unzip the file.

Use a program like WinZip (www.winzip.com).

7. Connect to your Web server via FTP.

See Book II, Chapter 2 for a refresher on how to use FTP.

8. Delete all the files and folders in your existing WordPress installation
directory except the following:

•  /wp-content folder

•  .htaccess

•  wp-config.php

9. Upload the contents of the /wordpress folder to your Web server —

     not the folder itself.

Most FTP client software lets you select all the files to drag and drop them to your Web server. Other programs have you highlight the files and click a Transfer button.

10. Navigate to the following URL on your Website: http://
yourdomain.com/wp-admin.

Don’t panic — your database still needs to be upgraded to the latest ver-
sion; so instead of seeing your Web site on your domain, you see a message
telling you that a database upgrade is required, as shown in Figure 6-7.

 

 

 

 

 

 

11. Click the Upgrade WordPress Database button.

WordPress initiates the upgrade of the MySQL database associated with your Web site. When the database upgrade is complete, the page refreshes and displays a message that the process has finished.

12. Click the Continue button.

Your browser loads the WordPress login page. The upgrade is complete
and you can continue using WordPress with the newly upgraded features

Read More

Upgrading WordPress Manually

To update WordPress automatically, follow these steps:

1. Back up your WordPress Web site.

Backing up your Web site before updating is an important step in case something goes wrong with the upgrade. Give yourself some peace of mind knowing that you have a full copy of your Web site that can be restored, if needed. My advice is not to skip this step under any circumstances.

2. Deactivate all plugins.

This prevents any plugin conflicts caused by the upgraded version of

WordPress from affecting the upgrade process, and ensures that your

Web site won’t break after the upgrade is completed. More information on
working with and managing plugins can be found in Book VII; for the pur-
poses of this step, you can deactivate plugins by following these steps:

a. Choose Plugins➪Plugins on the Dashboard.

The Plugins page appears.

b. Select all plugins by checking the box to the left of the plugin
names listed on that page (see Figure 6-4).

c. In the drop-down menu at the top, select Deactivate.

d. Click the Apply button.

3. Choose Dashboard➪Updates.

The WordPress Updates page appears.

4. Click the Update Automatically button.

The Update WordPress page appears with a series of messages (as shown in Figure 6-5).

5. Click the Go to Dashboard link.

The Dashboard page appears in your Web browser. Notice that both the update alert message at the top of the site, and the notification bubble on the Dashboard menu are no longer visible. Your WordPress installation is now using the latest version of WordPress.

Read More

Upgrading WordPress Automatically

1. Log in to the cPanel for your hosting account.

Typically, browse to http://yourdomain.com/cpanel to bring up
the login screen for your cPanel. Enter your specific hosting account
username and password in the login fields and click OK to log in.

2. Click the phpMyAdmin icon.

The phpMyAdmin interface opens and displays your database.

3. Click the name of the database that you want to back up.

If you have more than one database in your account, the left-side menu
in phpMyAdmin displays the names of all of them. Click the one you

want to back up; the database loads in the main interface window.

4. Click the Export tab at the top of the screen.

The page refreshes and displays the backup utility page.

5. Select the Save as File box.

6. Select the “zipped” option.

This compiles the database backup file in a .zip file and prepares it for download.

7. Click the Go button.

A pop-up window appears, allowing you to select a location on your computer to store the database backup file.

8. Click the Save button to download it and save it to your computer.

Book II, Chapter 7 contains in-depth information on making a complete
backup of your Web site, including all your files, plugins, themes, and
images. For the purposes of upgrading, a database backup is sufficient,

but be sure to check out that chapter for valuable information on extensive backups, including how to restore a database backup in case you ever need to go through that process.

Read More

Backing Up Your Database

Before upgrading your WordPress software installation, make sure you back up your database. This step isn’t required, of course, but it’s a smart step to take to safeguard your Web site and ensure you have a complete copy of your Web site data in the event that your upgrade goes wrong.

The best way to back up your database is to use the MySQL administration
interface provided to you by your Web hosting provider. (Book II, Chapter 5
takes you through the steps of creating a new database by using the phpMy-
Admin interface.)

cPanel is a Web hosting interface provided by many Web hosts as a Web
hosting account management tool that contains phpMyAdmin as the pre-
ferred tool to use to manage and administer databases. Not all Web hosts
use cPanel or phpMyAdmin, however, so if yours doesn’t, you need to con-
sult the user documentation for the tools that your Web host provides. The
instructions in this chapter are provided by using cPanel and phpMyAdmin.

The following takes you through the steps of creating a database backup, using the same phpMyAdmin interface:

Read More

Backup your database and files

The second link, Please Update Now, takes you to another page in the

WordPress Dashboard — the WordPress Updates page, as shown in Figure 6-3.

Important: before updating, please backup your database and files. For help with updates, visit the Updating WordPress Codex page

At the very top of the WordPress Updates page is another important message for you:

 

 

Both links in the message take you to pages in the WordPress Codex that
contain helpful information on creating backups and updating WordPress.

Book II, Chapter 7 has extensive information on how to back up your WordPress Web site, content, and files.

The WordPress Updates page tells you that an update version of WordPress is available. You can update two ways:

 

✦ Automatically, by using the built-in WordPress updater

✦ Manually, by downloading the files and installing them on your server These ways to update are discussed later in the chapter.

Read More

Getting Notified of an Available Upgrade

Say you have WordPress installed and you’ve been happily publishing content to your Web site with it for several weeks, maybe even months, then one day you log in to your Dashboard and see a message at the top of your screen you’ve never seen before that reads, “WordPress X.X.X is available! Please update now.” (Figure 6-2 shows the message and a small black circle, or notification bubble, on the left side of the page.)

 

Both the message at the top of the page and the notification bubble in the

Dashboard menu are visual indicators that you’re using an outdated version of WordPress and that you can (and need to) upgrade the software.

The message at the top of your Dashboard includes two links that you can
click for more information. (Refer to Figure 6-2.) The first is a link called
WordPress 3.0.1. Clicking this link takes you to the WordPress Codex page
titled Version 3.0.1, which is filled with information about the version
upgrade, including

 

✦ Installation/upgrade information

✦ Summary of the development cycle for this version ✦ List of files that have been revised

 

Read More

Getting Notified of an Available Upgrade

After you install WordPress and log in for the first time, you can see the version number at the bottom-right corner of the WordPress Dashboard, as shown in Fig

its platform roughly once every 120 days (or every 4 months). That chapter also explains why you need to keep your WordPress software up-to-date by using the most recent version for security purposes, mostly, but also to make sure you’re taking advantage of all the latest features the WordPress developers pack within every major new release.
In this chapter, you discover the WordPress upgrade notification system
and find out what to do when WordPress notifies you that a new version
is available. This chapter also covers the best practices to upgrade the
WordPress platform on your site to ensure the best possible outcome
(that is, how not to break your Web site after a WordPress upgrade).

ure 6-1. Therefore, if anyone asks what version you’re using, you know exactly where to look to find out.

Read More

Upgrading WordPress

The schedule of WordPress development and release cycles shows you that WordPress releases a new version (upgrade) of

its platform roughly once every 120 days (or every 4 months). That chapter also explains why you need to keep your WordPress software up-to-date by using the most recent version for security purposes, mostly, but also to make sure you’re taking advantage of all the latest features the WordPress developers pack within every major new release.

In this chapter, you discover the WordPress upgrade notification system
and find out what to do when WordPress notifies you that a new version
is available. This chapter also covers the best practices to upgrade the
WordPress platform on your site to ensure the best possible outcome
(that is, how not to break your Web site after a WordPress upgrade).

Read More

BrowserCam

BrowserCam (www.browsercam.com) is another online

cross-browser compatibility-testing tool that captures your Web site and
takes a picture of it in different browsers. BrowserCam even has a tool
that allows you to access its computers remotely so you can see your
Web site in a live browser environment, instead of just getting a screen-
shot of your Web site. This service isn’t free; the cost starts at $39.95
per month.

Read More

Browsershots.org

This is an online, browser-based tool. Visit the

Browsershots.org Web site (http://browsershots.org), enter your
desired URL in the Enter URL Here field at the top of the site, and then
choose your desired browsers and operating systems. Browsershots.
org takes a screenshot of your Web site in each of the browsers that you
indicated so you can see what your Web site looks like in each. From
there, you can fix any problems and retest again, if needed.

Read More

Layout Engines, Browser Types, and CSS Version Support

Layout Engine         Browser System                  Supports CSS Version

Gecko                   Mozilla Firefox                    CSS v1, v2, v3 (partially) *

Presto                    Opera                              CSS v1, v2, v3 (partially) *

Trident                  Internet Explorer              CSS v1, v2, v3 (slightly) *

WebKit                   Google Chrome, Safari         CSS v1, v2, v3 (partially) *

*Partially and slightly indicate that the layout engines listed don’t fully support CSS v3, at this time. Partial support indicates that the layout engine understands CSS v3 properties, but they aren’t supported entirely. Slight support indicates that the layout engine is understood by the browser, but support is incomplete, and at times, buggy.

 The absolute best way to test your Web site across the various browser sys-

tems is to download the browser to your computer and then load your Web
site in it, checking for correct rendering as you go. However, if you only have
a Windows computer, you can’t really test your Web site on a Mac, and vice
versa. Don’t fret, though, because here are two alternatives for you:

Read More