how i learned to stop worrying and love the update button

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Update Button

Chris Koerner@ckoerner

I’m Chris Koerner one of the organizers of WordCamp and co-organizer of the St. Louis WordPress CommunityI use WordPress to help local non-profits and small business build a strong web presence.

wptavern.com

Before we begin I should tell you how nervous I was putting this together.

At the beginning of this moth WP Tavern put up a great article talking about how the adoption of more recent version of WordPress has improved.

Welp, there goes my WordCamp presentation! ;) wptavern.com/wordpress-vers…

Chris Koerner

8:23 PM - 2 Mar 2015

@ckoerner

I was like, well, there goes my presentation. No need to worry, everyone is updating WordPress like it’s cool.

I was about to just give up.

I was like, well, there goes my presentation. No need to worry, everyone is updating WordPress like it’s cool.

I was about to just give up.

wptavern.com

Then they posted another article, the same day about auto updates in WordPress

So then I was like, Ok. well. There was a lot of contention in that comment thread.

Ok, nevermind. The WordCamp talk is back on.

Chris Koerner

wptavern.com/its-time-for-w...

8:23 PM - 2 Mar 2015

@ckoerner

So then I was like, Ok. well. There was a lot of contention in that comment thread.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

So, in the span of a day I went from (click)to this (click)

┬─┬ ノ( ゜-゜ノ)

So, in the span of a day I went from (click)to this (click)

Introduction

IntroductionI was inspired when Matt called it out in his keynote this past October

“Version fragmentation is a big challenge for WordPress, only a quarter of users are currently on the latest release.”

He shared stats on the percentage of installs

BAM - 3 slides in and I already name dropped Mullenweg. Yeah. I am so embarrassed.

“Version fragmentation is a big challenge for WordPress, only a quarter of users are currently on the latest release.”

Matt Mullenweg, CEO Automattic

He shared stats on the percentage of installs

BAM - 3 slides in and I already name dropped Mullenweg. Yeah. I am so embarrassed.

https://wordpress.org/about/stats/

Recent updates to how stats show that the break down is a little better, but not great.

2012

That’s a marked improvement from just a few years agoThat pink at 50% is very 3.0 - the 3 releases behind the most available

http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/plugin-backwards-compatibility/

Why?

Ok, I’ll cut to the chase. Why should you update your (and your clients) WordPress sites?

Get Paid

This is something you can charge clients for. It’s called maintenance! Build in a retainer. Make it a monthly or yearly thing.

I’ll keep your site updated to help protect it from vulnerabilities and to keep it up-to-date with the latest version of the software. Here’s what goes into doing all that. It’s X extra and I highly encourage it.

Ff they say no and come to you 6 months later asking for a change or update - add in the cost to update the site before you work on it!

iThemes wrote about how to do this a year ago. https://ithemes.com/2014/02/06/selling-wordpress-maintenance/

Who Needs WordPress Maintenance?Who doesn’t need it?

Avoid Future Headaches

With a show of hands, how many times have you revisited code for a client? Revisited a site you built, that was functioning fine, but now you want/need to do something to it. Guess what? Keeping on top of updates and slowing updating will cause less headaches.adding a new plugin to an old install of WP?updating a plugin?updating WP?AGH, if I had only keep on top of updates!?sour milk?

Upgrading Across Multiple Versions If you plan on upgrading across more than two major releases, please consider upgrading incrementally to avoid potential conflicts and minimize the risks of database damage. For example, if you plan on upgrading from 2.5 to 4.1.1, upgrade to 2.7 first, followed by 2.9, then 3.1, and so on. Essentially, it's okay to skip one release, but never skip TWO when upgrading.

Don’t get left behind!

It is going to be much easier to update small releases incrementally than trying to jump through these hoops.Keep up

http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress_-_Extended_Instructions#Upgrading_Across_Multiple_Versions

Peace of Mind

Sleep better when you hear there’s a new update out for WordPressis my site secure?update more, troubleshoot lesshappier clients, no scrambling to fix things.

One bad practice I see a lot of people make - make clients admins - however I know people do it. Guess what. The can see those ‘update’ buttons all over the admin UI.

Guess what people love to do? Push buttons!

Who get’s blamed!? Who’s going to get the phone calls?

Be a Good Citizen

Be part of the solution. We should spend as much time talking about supporting and maintenance of the sites we create as we do about ‘security’ and ‘seo’ and the best SASS mix-ins.

You ever hear those reports that some new vulnerably has been discovered? I hate those. They make WordPress look ‘scary’.

https://wordpress.org/news/category/security/

Updating PHP is everyone’s responsibility

Side note, if your host is using ancient version of PHP (say 5.2) bug them about updating that to a newer version.

Coen Jacobs a developer who worked on WooCommercehttp://coenjacobs.me/updating-php-everyones-responsibility/

http://www.wpupdatephp.com

Go ahead. Take a look at that. Look at the date since your launched that site. How many security-specific WordPress core-only updates have there been? How many security fixes are in each? Some have 7 or more bundled fixes!Think about your plugins, your themes!

How?

How do you keep WordPress up to date without going insane?

No More Cowboys

Dev environmentthis ain’t the wild westMAMP, https://bitnami.comGet a development environment - local or remotetools to migrate - https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-wp-migration/

Children are the Future

For FSMS, use a child theme! This is anecdotal, but I can’t count the number of times people have told me they’ve been turned off from updating because they’re afraid to loose any customizations.

This applies to themes

Back That Site Up

Make a solid backup.both the database (your content and configuration) but your files as well! test it.lots of tools here - Backup Buddy is one - InfiniteWP

WordPress. Then Plugins

update wordpress first, then plugins

Check the codex article on updating WordPress

RTFM

Read the update notes - especially breaking changes!changes to database schema - WooCommerce 2.0 kertuffleI mentioned Coen Jacobs earlier, he also talked about 2.0 on his blog.

ACF - with the update to 5.0 Pro it really freaked out a lot of people. Why? Cause they didn’t RTFM!

themes - especially if you're not using a child theme - but you wouldn’t do that would you!?header.php might change - class or ids might have new names (your custom header.php or style.css might need a tweak

WooCommerce 2.0 was a major update, a lot changed. We changed some vital elements in the template files, so that everybody using custom templates in their theme had to update these templates as well. While we thought to be well prepared, there were many users complaining about this. They either didn’t realise they had to update their templates, or simply didn’t know what to do. What mattered to them is that they ended up with a broken website after the update.

Coen Jacobs

To WooCommerce’s defense, this was a huge update to their plugin, a plugin that is much more complicated on it’s own - a plugin with plugins.

His advice is incredibly helpful. If you’re a WP user, read the release notes, follow the blog and updates of the developers who make core plugins you rely on.

Developers, you can never over-communicate a big backwards-compatibly breaking change!

Test

How do you test?Great solution at wptest.io for test content and structure - all the fixings are there from individual posts to archive pages and everything in between.

phpunit - https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/automated-testing/selenium - firefox extension. You can record and playback interactions with your sitechecklist - heck, go low tech. Create a list of all the features you have on your site. Update your dev environment and run through them. What breaks?Debug

Sell It

Most importantly set things up at the get go with new clients.Make keeping your WordPress sites part of just what you do.Contact old clients and let them know of your new service.Tell them you heard at a conference from this handsome and charming guy that you should keep your site up to date.Email them when you update the site successfully. Brag about new features that you didn’t make - updates to visual editor - drag and drop images, etc.Remind them that you’re still there, that you’re going the extra mile(which, really isn’t an actual mile)

Developers!

Developers, you can help! Encourage folks to update. Test your stuff on more than just the latest WP release

Test your stuff - http://wptest.iohttp://www.slideshare.net/ptahdunbar/automated-testing-in-wordpress-really

Give Feedback

Help wordpress plugin and theme authors Using their plugins? - hit wp.org and let them know it works - it helps other folks looking for plugs and wanting to know compatibility

When?

Now! Right now. I hope this has given you a few ideas on how to approach updatesDon’t get left behind. Only easier to start today.April 22nd is the scheduled release for 4.2

http://wptavern.com/its-time-for-wordpress-to-automatically-update-themes-plugins-and-core-by-default

apps auto update, Laptops, OSes, Browsers, why not your plugins and themes?

It’s Time For WordPress to Automatically Update Themes,

Plugins, and Core by Default

We’re not read for auto updates just yet. This is that article I mentioned earlier from WP Tavern. I’ve been reading WP Tavern for years, and I’ve never seen so many comment so quickly. Over 100 the last time I looked.

That’s the eventual future. As Gary Pendergast mentioned in the comments,

“Will it happen? Of course. There are plenty of plugins and services that encourage it, Jetpack Manage is the just the latest in a long line. But when we’re talking about auto-updating nearly a quarter of the internet, we have to take it in baby steps. We need to be confident enough in the update process, in core’s backwards compatibility, and in the failure handling that we’re not going to break millions of sites.”

Where?

Find out more, check out these resources..wordpress stats - pluginsadoption ratesCodex!Meetups! Start your own

• http://codex.wordpress.org/Configuring_Automatic_Background_Updates

• http://www.mayecreate.com/2013/04/why-you-should-update-wordpress/

• http://codex.wordpress.org/Updating_WordPress

• http://optimwise.com/why-update-wordpress-and-plugins/

• https://yoast.com/upgrade-wordpress/

• http://websynthesis.com/updating-wordpress/

• https://ithemes.com/2009/06/15/wp-qa-when-should-i-update-wordpress/

• http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/ultimate-guide-to-upgrade-wordpress-for-beginners-infograph/

• http://wptavern.com/wpupdatephp-project-aims-to-help-wordpress-users-get-on-newer-versions-of-php

• http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/think-twice-before-you-upgrade-that-wordpress-plugin/

• http://torquemag.io/lessons-can-learn-jetpack-helped-wordpress-succeed/

http://codex.wordpress.org/Configuring_Automatic_Background_Updateshttp://www.mayecreate.com/2013/04/why-you-should-update-wordpress/http://codex.wordpress.org/Updating_WordPresshttp://optimwise.com/why-update-wordpress-and-plugins/https://yoast.com/upgrade-wordpress/http://websynthesis.com/updating-wordpress/https://ithemes.com/2009/06/15/wp-qa-when-should-i-update-wordpress/http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/ultimate-guide-to-upgrade-wordpress-for-beginners-infograph/http://wptavern.com/wpupdatephp-project-aims-to-help-wordpress-users-get-on-newer-versions-of-php

Why?

Get Paid Avoid Headaches

Peace of Mind Be a Good Citizen

Recap the Why

How?

Use a Development Environment Child Themes

Backups WordPress. Then Plugins

RTFM Test Sell

Developers Give Feedback

Recap the How

Thank YouChris Koerner

@ckoerner

Thank you all for your time. Look for a copy of my presentation on the WordCamp siteIf we have time I’d love to chat for a few minutes or you can find me at the Speaker follow-up tomorrow afternoon.

how i learned to stop worrying and love the update button

Technology

recent version of wordpress

matt mullenweg

clients wordpress sites

latest release

big challenge

percentage of installsbam

quarter of users

ceo automattiche shared