WordPress 2.7 Beta 3 is available for download now and I’ve been testing out some of the new features.  In this post I’ll demonstrate how WordPress 2.7 lets you automatically update your WordPress installation to the latest version.

Prior to WordPress 2.7 the user had to choose one of several upgrade options:

• Manual upgrade
• Fantastico upgrade (or other web host provided update scripts)
• WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin (aka WPAU)

I found the easiest option for me was the WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin, and so I was excited when automatic upgrades were announced as a new core feature in the upcoming WordPress 2.7 release.  The WordPress team has been going down this road with the core product, plugins, and themes all set to have automatic upgrade options built in with WordPress 2.7 (plugins already received this upgrade functionality in WordPress 2.6, which has been further enhanced in 2.7).

Upgrading to the latest WordPress build

The new WordPress sidebar has an Update item listed in the Tools section towards the bottom.

Clicking Update takes you to the Upgrade WordPress page.  A warning message reminds you to backup your database and files before upgrading, and provides a link to the WordPress Codex pages containing backups advice.  This is one area in which the WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin is more useful – WPAU automatically creates backups for you and presents you with a link to download them.

Once you click “Upgrade Automatically” nothing seems to happen for a few moments.  Some people might get nervous at this point but if you just wait patiently it eventually displays a completion message.

This is another area where I prefer WPAU, because it shows you more progress as the upgrade occurs and lets you know that things are happening.  There is no moment where you aren’t sure if things are okay or if the upgrade has frozen.

As this is still Beta 3 the upgrade process may be improved but as it stands it is a simple and easy way for WordPress users to upgrade their blogs without messing around with third party scripts or having to FTP files to your web host.  Just be sure to always backup your files and database first in case the upgrade causes any issues that you need to recover from.

Tagged as: Releases, Upgrades, WordPress