Lots and lots of bugs and sleepless nights and no paid work later. Here is the next version of WPAU ^[1]. I have fixed almost all of the bugs you have reported which I heartily thank each and every one of you for. Here is the NextG version of the plugin which works on most of the servers that have different users for FTP and web.Here is what I mean by that

On some shared servers the webserver (Apache) is the same for multiple user and in those cases the Apache user was not allowed to access files uploaded using a FTP client. To overcome the situation I added a preliminary check where it checks if the plugin is able to update the site or not.

If the error is due to FTP user and webuser being different you will be asked for your FTP credentials. We do not save any of this information with us and the information will be discarded at the end of the upgrade.

This is necessary if you need to run a automatic upgrade on your server, without this the information the plugin will not run.

What do we do with the FTP information?

With the FTP information you provide WPAU will change file permissions so that WPAU can write the files to your server. Once the upgrade is over WPAU will automatically change the permissions back to read only.

This step has been added so that you do not have to do the permission change manually. Only in certain rare cases will it fail to upgrade permission’s and ask you to do so manually.

Here are some of the bug fixes for the latest version.

• Runs a premilinary check to see if your server is compatible so that WPAU can run
• Advices to clear backups from past upgrades
• Fixed errors for virtually hosted sites
• Automatically change permissions for upgrade after asking FTP credentials
• Fixed bug where DB error was reported when WPAU used to fail
• Fixed bug where you could not see log when the WPAU used to fail
• Updated FAQ to add the new questions
• Fixed issues to only backup and upgrade core WP files (This was a issue when WP was hosted in root directory)
• Fixed a issue where wp_redirect was not working due to header file already being included in the plugin
• Cleaned up the code to make it better

That’s it folks, all your bugs and abuses are welcome since it helps me make this plugin better. I hope you will in future use this plugin to upgrade your wordpress installation without any errors and headaches.

Also with so much love and people reporting bugs I am so glad that I have been able to fix most of

Frequently Asked Questions

What is WordPress Automatic Upgrade?

WordPress Automatic Upgrade (WPAU) is a plugin that automatically upgrades your wordpress version to the latest files provided by wordpress.org.

Should I interfere with the WordPress Automatic Plugin Process?

No never, If the plugin fails it fails for a reason please do not interfere with any process that fails.

Do I need to change permissions on files?

No WPAU will ask you for your FTP credentials and do it automatically.

Why does WPAU run the preliminary checks?

WPAU runs the preliminary checks to determine in conditions in which it can feasibly update your site to the latest version provided by WordPress.

Why does WPAU ask me to clean up files?

When you run the plugin once we create backup files at the end of the process you need to delete these. If you missed deleting these files then WPAU will ask you to run cleanup before continuing.

Why use this plugin?

WordPress releases regular updates and security fixes to the software and after sometime makes it mandatory. Every time you have to manually upgrade your WordPress installation. This plugin helps

you to upgrade your installation without any efforts. We also ensure you will always download the latest version.

Which version of the WordPress does it upgrade to?

It upgrades to the latest version that WordPress has made available for download.

What is the lowest version from which I can upgrade?

The lowest version of WordPress I have tested this to work is with WordPress 1.5.

What files do you upgrade

This plugin only upgrades the files that are essential which includes the file in wp-includes, wp-admin and the root directory

I made some modification in the themes, will that be affected?

No, we do not touch those files at all. We only upgrade files in the root directory and wp-includes and wp-admin directory.

I modified the plugin files to play around and something went wrong, will you provide support for that?

No, this plugin is intended to run as it is. Support is free except when u modify it.

My site is in maintenance mode and the plugin did not complete. What do I do now?

Only under some rare condition will this happen. To get your site back online you need to do these things.

1. Login to your site using FTP.
2. Delete the index.php file.
3. Rename the index.php.wpau.bak file to index.php

Performing these steps should remove the maintenance mode message.

Why does the plugin say that it cannot upgrade my site?

We run preliminary checks to see if the plugin can run well with your site. Only in certain cases it will tell you that it cannot upgrade your site because the functionality of the plugin depends on it.

Why I am asked for my FTP credentials?

Initially we try to check whether your WordPress installation is writable or not. If we find that its not writable we ask you for you FTP credentials so that we can do the necessary things to make it

writable.

What do you do when you get my FTP credentials?

First of all for security reasons we do not store your FTP Credentials. We only use it to change the file permission so that the plugin can run normally.

Once we run the appropriate steps to check that everything is alright only then will the plugin continue the further steps.

What do you do when I give you my FTP credentials?

When you provide us with your FTP credentials we log into your site using FTP and change the permissions on files and directories such that it can be written by a file running on your server.

Is changing the permission on my site essential?

If you are asking in regards to WPAU absolutely. In order to complete the automatic upgrade we need write permissions to your site.

When will be asked for my FTP credentials and why?

You will only be asked for your FTP credentials when we cannot write to your server.

Why?

Some shared servers run different the webserver and apache as different users which is for security reason. In that case when we using the webserver cannot modify the files you have uploaded using a

FTP client.

In such a case we could ask you to do the steps required manually, but in the sense of automatic we want to make sure your upgrade is really automatic. When you provide us with those details we do

not store it (though we may ask you for this everytime we determine your server is unaccesible for us) we maintain a security level which no other plugins can exploit over and above the one

WordPress provides.

We are very much that this plugin should be automatic and only if our preliminary checks fail initially we will ask you for the FTP credentials. You will never be asked for that when the plugin can run

without the credentials.

If I am running on a server where FTP user and webserver user are different will I be able to overwrite / delete files using FTP

Yes absolutely. The plugin makes sure that whichever files it writes can be deleted by the user without having to contact the system administrator.

Why don’t you provide a option for me to upload the version I want?

Couple of things here. a. You should always upgrade to the latest version provided by WordPress. b. I do not want users to upload files that requires me to do multiple validations. The WordPress files that this plugin downloads is the best one I could use.

Will it remember the plugins that were active?

Yes it will remember the plugins that were active before upgradation and only activate those plugins.

How much bandwidth does the plugin use?

The plugin using about 2-3MB of your bandwidth to download files. You will use more than that in a regular upgrade process.

How long will my files and db backups be available?

This plugin is to be used for a continious process till completion, it provides you with backups which you should download before moving to the next step. If you do not download the backups, at the

end of the process you will be given an option to download it. Clicking clean up will delete those backup files.

Where are the files and db backup stored?

The files are db backups are stored in a folder called wpau-backup in the root folder of your site.

Does WordPress automatic upgrade provide a rollback?

No it does not, the function of WPAU is to seamlessly upgrade your versions. Rollback features will be added in future versions.

he bugs in this plugin. Though this plugin is still in infancy and all your bugs will help in bettering it and making it a real good plugin.

I sincerely thank everyone for using this plugin and telling me the bugs and hopefully this will be a real good way people would trust to upgrade their WordPress installation without battling a eye lid.

Installation

To do a new installation of the plugin, please follow these steps

1. Download the wordpress-automatic-upgrade.zip file to your local machine.
2. Unzip the file
3. Upload wordpress-automatic-upgrade folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
4. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

If you have already installed the plugin

1. De-activate the plugin
2. Download the latest files
3. Follow the new installation steps

ChangeLog

• Version 0.1 released Tuesday, July 17th 2007
• Version 0.4 released Thursday, July 26th 2007

License

All files and their contents are licensed under the General Public License(GPL).

Support

If you feel this plugin has helped you can leave a small donation towards further plugin development.

Download

Download WordPress Automatic Upgrade v0.4 ^[2] downloaded times

Please note this plugin is still in beta state and may have bugs. If you find any bugs or want to report any problems you have faced please feel free to leave your comments or you can send me a email at wpplugins@techie-buzz.com ^[3]