Sometimes, I wonder if I really ought to feel happy about Wordpress upgrades. In theory, it means getting bugs fixed, maybe get additional features — in general, added usability. But upgrading isn’t always that simple. You have to turn off all plug-ins and, sometimes, after the upgrade some of them will no longer be compatible. Then, you have to start fiddling with the sidebar widgets. In some cases, you have to delete blocks of code manually to get rid of the ones for the incompatible plug-ins.
In short, it’s becoming a huge headache. Something went wrong with the upgrade of SassyLawyer.com and I thought it might be a server issue (that’s why my last two op-ed columns were posted here). Dreamhost is weird sometimes. What works in the Dreamhost server does not always work with my dedicated server and vice versa. So, I tried upgrading another blog in the dedicated server and the upgrade turned out to be an even bigger mess. And that is why the template of this blog keeps changing — the times they change are the times I need a break from the upgrading saga.
Now, I’m asking myself what I’m going to do about HEdCen.com and Pinoy Moms Network, both of which need to be upgraded. Not to mention this blog and Pinoy Cook. In fact, both HEdCen.com and PMN need an overhaul and I can’t move until I can successfully upgrade them. Thing is, I can live with whatever disaster if it’s just my blog. But HEdCen.com and PMN are community blogs and if I mess up somewhere, it’s going to be a big, big, big headache.
Which all brings me to a conversation with Max Limpag a couple of months back. We were talking about Drupal and he says it really has a lot of possibilities — way beyond what Wordpress can do. I installed Drupal in a domain that I was not using for any project and… shucks, to be honest, it bled my brain dry. I’m sure I can learn it. The question is how long will it take to get used to it? I read somewhere that a Wordpress blog can be ported to Drupal. The question is how many trials and errors before everything is running smoothly?
Duh, I need a drink. I hope Speedy gets home soon so he can fix some Margaritas.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Geoff Hankerson 01.03.08 at 11:11 pm
I’m a Drupal user and have very little experience with Wordpress. Most of my Drupal upgrades (usually security patches) have gone smoothly but in one case I had some minor problems. Still I do make a copy of my site on my machine first and try the update locally first to make sure it goes smoothly. Sounds like you might want to adopt this practice too. To be honest, I don’t know that this issue alone warrants moving to Drupal. Try your updates offline locally first, then if all goes well, do it on your live site. That way if something goes wrong, you don’t have an emergency brewing
Connie Veneracion 01.04.08 at 3:18 am
Hi Geoff. It’s 3.17 a.m. and that’s what I’m doing. Downloading my blogs for backup. The discussion about Drupal goes way back before I had trouble with the upgrades. More of a which is the better CMS discussion.
Christian Cabuay 01.05.08 at 5:49 am
I’ve used Drupal on past projects and it’s more complicated than WP. I’m back on WP and stick to only using plugins that have a dedicated team behind them.
kotsengkuba 01.05.08 at 2:58 pm
What I’m thinking is, if the current Wordpress version doesn’t give you any headache, there’s no need to upgrade to the latest one. hehehe
Connie Veneracion 01.05.08 at 3:57 pm
Sabi kasi may security issues daw. Eh takot ako sa ganyan. Bummer, really.
sofie 01.18.08 at 7:57 pm
Hello Connie,
I was just checking sassylawyer.com and read your message. Didn’t you find that one click upgrade button where sassylawyer is being hosted. If you don’t have it, it’s just a glitch, you can write to your host and ask about it. They will put it up for you and you can upgrade your site in just one click.
Hope this will help.
Have a nice week!
Connie Veneracion 01.18.08 at 9:41 pm
Hi Sofie. Can’t use the one-click upgrade because that blog was manually installed. There were internal folders already prior to the install. If it were only that easy…
sofie 01.18.08 at 11:54 pm
Hello again Connie,
Ah , that’s why.
But why not try to re-install it using the one click button, just make sure you have your latest database back-up. Then just upload the database at the phpmyadmin, and then your WordPress theme and Plugins via http://FTP.
Next time you upgrade, you always have the option to use the one click upgrade button or do it manually yourself.
Another suggestion, why not reinstall it in a folder so your other internal folders will not be affected. Configure it later at the options so it will still call sassylawyer.com instead of sassylawyer.com/folder.
If you have any questions, you can email me. I might be able to help you. Hey, I’m not asking for any payment ha.
Just would like to help you.
Ok theh, have a nice week!
sofie 01.19.08 at 1:20 am
Hello again!
You don’t have, of course, to upload your database again since you’ll be using the same database
even if you re-install it in a folder.