WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin – review

I will start with the fact that the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin (WPAU) is great tool and a “must have” for people who are running a few WordPress installation. Since the good folks over at WordPress are shipping a new version every few months you must be tired from all the upgrades you have done. If so, this is the plugin for you. WPAU is a plugin that automatically upgrades your wordpress version to the latest files provided by wordpress.org.

The plugin

Here is what WPAU does:

  1. Backs up the files and makes available a link to download it.
  2. Backs up the database and makes available a link to download it.
  3. Downloads the latest files from http://wordpress.org/latest.zip and unzips it.
  4. Puts the site in maintenance mode.
  5. De-activates all active plugins and remembers it.
  6. Upgrades wordpress files.
  7. Gives you a link that will open in a new window to upgrade installation.
  8. Re-activates the plugins.

wpau1.PNG

The plugin runs in two modes. The first is manual were you go through the steps above one-by-one. The second is automatic were you click one link and sit back until the upgrade is done.

Personal experience

I have personally checked the plugin on 6 wp installs, upgrading from versions 2.0.3 and 2.2. The manual upgrade worked without any problem at all (one minor issue that was theme related with no relation to the plugin). The automatic upgrade went fine when upgrading from version 2.2 to the current while upgrading automatically from 2.0.3 had a small problem. After the upgrade I had to click the database upgrade link and thats it.

Update: I have just ran the WPAu plugin on my Water Simulation Packages blog which was still running on WordPress 1.5.2 and the upgrade worked great!!!

Is it for you?

You should not try to use this plugin if you made any changes to the core files of WordPress!!!

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