I had officially retired WordPress Automatic Upgrade sometime back, however after several emails to upgrade the plugin and issues for upgrading using WordPress core update in WordPress 2.7 and above, and emails from the Automattic team, I have finally released a update that addresses couple of issues.

The issues that are fixed are as follows.

• Fixed an issue which disallowed core updates to occur when WPAU was updated in WP 2.7 and above.
• Updated the code to display nag on WordPress 2.7 and above.

This takes care of problems faced by several users, you can download the latest update from the official WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin page, or directly update it using the plugin updater in WordPress core.

WPAU has had a great journey helping people and creating problems for few of you, but it’s finally time to say goodbye to all the well wishers as well as the people who thought WPAU was a worst plugin they every came across.

The problem with extending something in a popular software always has it’s expiry date and likewise WPAU has to come to a end. Why? Because WordPress is building this into it’s core in WordPress 2.7.

So is this good news or bad?

It is a absolutely good news not only for me but for people who use WordPress, for me because I wrote the plugin to fill in a void in the core code, having it in the core code not only gives me joy, but to millions of other WordPress users too.

So Now You Stop Replying To My Emails and Support Questions?

Not until WordPress 2.7 has released, for those who have emailed me know that I have always replied back with a response as a solution or as a help to solve a problem, for those that I did not reply back there were already published solution which I did not reply to.

What Next?

Well I have several plugins planned in for the future, you can definitely know that I won’t stop working on plugins, every software no matter how advanced they are lack features, and I will definitely be the first one to do something to fill in those voids, if you have any suggestions you want me to develop, feel free to contact me and I will try and develop those.

I am very delighted and totally over the moon to inform you that WordPress Automatic Upgrade (WPAU) has been rated #8 in the Top 10 WordPress plugins at WordCamp San Francisco, this definitely lifts my spirits to a new high to develop and distribute useful plugins to the WordPress community.

I am really elated right now, thanks to all of you who have been using WPAU and to those who have reviewed it, for all those interested I am just few hours away from releasing another plugin that would make your life easier, look forward to it.

Here is a list of top 10 plugins from WordCamp San Francisco:

10. cforms
9. wp-polls
8. WP Automatic Upgrade
7. wp-cache
6. wp-db-backup
5. stats
4. nextgen-gallery
3. google-sitemap-generator
2. all-in-one-seo-pack
1. Akismet

Thanks once again, this bumped my spirits to a new level. You can check out the entire WordCamp San Francisco event details at ZDNet.

Update Feb 19th 2009: If you are having issues with upgrading WordPress 2.7 and above, or if WPAU is not displaying a nag to upgrade, we have released a newer version, please read the release post for WordPress Automatic Upgrade 1.2.5.

Update: WordPress Automatic Upgrade is completely compatible with WordPress 2.6, so go ahead and upgrade now. Enjoy.

Update 1:49 AM EST: Released 1.2.0.1 to update user debug message to use forums instead of emailing me.

Update 2:36 AM EST: Released 1.2.0.2 to fix a issue with Snoopy being instantiated twice on home page loads.

Update 2:46 AM EST: All download links for WPAU lead to the latest release, if you are a regular user you will receive a push update to upgrade the plugin to WordPress 1.2.0.2, please do that it’s mandatory.

Update Friday, July 18 8:30 PM EST: Pushed a new release 1.2.1 which allows users to skip files and database backup steps, this feature was requested by several users.

Update August 21st, 2008: Pushed a new released 1.2.2 to properly fix bugs, also added a new nag to the dashboard when files from old upgrade are not cleared out.

Matt really put me in a fix by releasing WordPress 2.6 almost a month ahead of the scheduled date, this definitely put several of my plans down the drain. That said this version upgrade is just a push release to fix critical bugs that users have been complaining about.

There will be a major release in the next week or two that will bring in a much needed interface changes I have been working on. That said here is a major revision that fixes several bugs and also improves in some areas.

WordPress Automatic Upgrade Consists of quite a few fixes as listed below:

• Fixed a major issue where plugins could not be activated, due to WP installation logging users out after upgrades.
• Fixed a issue where users were not being able to download backup files when WordPress URL and Blog URL were different.
• WordPress Automatic Upgrade will only run if your WordPress is out of date.
• WPAU now uses Snoopy to download files rather than using regular PHP methods.
• Added a WPAU Nag where users will see a message to start automatic upgrade if a new version is available.
• Automatic Upgrade option will only be visible to Administrators.
• Disabled Automated Mode.
• Few other minor changes.

Unfortunately this version does not include fixes where WordPress Automatic Upgrade fails while putting the site into maintenance mode. I have posted a little workaround on the forum for such situations, allowing users to still use WPAU.

I request all the users of WPAU to use the support forum to post your bugs and feature requests, as it’s really painful for me to sift through 100s of mails and comments to find your bug.

Note: While re-activating plugins WordPress may log you out, but do not worry WPAU will take care of the logout and finish the upgrade like normal once you login, just remember to stay in the same browser instance you started the upgrade in.

The automated mode option has been disabled since I am working on a new interface which is much more interactive and worthwhile, so I am phasing out Automatic mode with this release. If anyone of you wants the automatic mode to still work contact me and I will send you the version with automatic mode enabled.

Well like I said there are several features I am leaving out of this release and will bundle it with the WordPress Automatic Upgrade 1.3 which I am working on. Here are a list of features that will be included in WordPress Automatic Upgrade 1.3.

• A better user interface including verbose output where users will see what’s being done in real time.
• Ability to skip certain tasks or run tasks on demand, so users can run file backups, database backups etc selectively.
• Ability for users to choose the language of WordPress they want to download from.
• Complete Internationalization support.
• Cleanup of code to make WPAU more faster.

Also don’t forget to use the Support forum for WordPress Automatic Upgrade to send me your bugs and queries.

I have already pushed the latest release through WordPress Extend SVN Repository, so old users should see a notice to upgrade the plugin.

Download WordPress Automatic Upgrade 1.2 downloaded times

To all those who are using WordPress Automatic Upgrade and may have upgraded to WordPress 2.5 there is a bug which was reported earlier which breaks automatic plugin updates which is a feature in WordPress 2.5.

This feature breaks because of a library we used to handle zip files which is also used by the plugin updater. Since the plugin updater does not need to check if the class in question has already been instantiated I have changed the code in the plugin to ensure that the PclZip library is not loaded while updating a plugin.

Anyway for those who do want to continue using WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin please update to the latest version first or else if you are already using WordPress 2.5 first deactivate the plugin and then update and activate it.

I take immense pleasure in saying this too that WPAU has reached version 1.0 and actively supports upgrading from WordPress 2.5 to any new version that may be released.

Download: WordPress Automatic Upgrade v1.0