WordPress 2.7 has been released and many bloggers will be thinking about the upgrade and whether it will cause any problems for their plugins or theme. The good news is that you can test the upgrade to WordPress 2.7 without risking your live blog.  In this post I will explain how.

1. Create a local copy of your WordPress blog to perform the testing.  You can follow my guide here on how to do this with WAMPServer.
2. Make sure your blog theme and all of your plugins have been installed on the test blog and updated to the latest versions.
3. Download and install the WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin.  This plugin automates the process of upgrading to the latest version of WordPress and handles all of the important things such as backing up your files and databases first.  You can read about the pros and cons of different WordPress upgrade methods here.
4. Once the WPAU plugin is activated you will see this notification in your Dashboard.
5. Click on the link to start the upgrade process, and follow the prompts at each step.  Make sure you download the backups that WPAU generates at each step!
6. Once the upgrade is complete you can use your test blog to verify that your theme displays properly, and all of your plugins are functioning correctly.  Make sure you test out each plugin’s functionality, navigate through several posts and pages, and post some test comments to be sure it is all working.

Once you’re happy that the upgrade was successful you can install the WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin on your live blog and run the upgrade there as well.

Want to know more about some of the new features in WordPress 2.7?  Check out my posts:

• New Dashboard features
• New plugin management features
• Improved media and image settings
• Bulk post editing

Tagged as: Plugins, Releases, Upgrade, WordPress