WordPress MU

I am totally new to WPMU and I hope you have the patience to assist me with this basic question.

I am trying to install some plugins on my fresh WPMU installation, which works beautifully, by the way.

I do the usual: download the zip file and upload the plugin through the admin page. I was able to install some plugins (All in One SEO Pack, Easy AdSenser, amongst others), but for most plugins I only get the message "Unpacking the plugin package" and nothing else.

I think I saw somewhere the comment that there isn't a place that lists the compatible WPMU plugins, right?! Does the message above mean that the plugin is not compatible?

ps. I tried installing via FTP, with weird results (after installed and activated, my widget screen got all messed up). It went back to normal after I deleted the plugin.

No, it means the plugin installer is buggy in the release.

But I am installing plugins that I've installed before in other blogs and also some plugins that are on the Highest Rated list from WP.org (for instance, Sociable is one of them).

Is it possible that my plugin installer (from within my Admin area) got "tired" of installing plugins? I say that because I was able to install a lot of plugins, then, all of a sudden, it stopped!

Quite strange.

But I am installing plugins that I've installed before in other blog

You're not installing them on WordPress but Wordpress Multiuser. Two different platforms that, while similar, do have differences. Not all Wordpress plugins will work on WPMu. Many of them require some modification. Some flat out will not work.

...Which is one of the reasons why many of us are not using the automatic install but still doing it by hand, first testing them on a testbed setup.

edit: Even to the point of turning off such features.

"and also some plugins that are on the Highest Rated list from WP.org "

All thsoe ratings mean is that they are popular. They don't mean that they are the best-written and easiest ones out there. They are also rated by the community, not the staff of wp.org, and not all of them are tested with WPMU.

andrea (or anyone), what's your current recommended process for upgrading plugins on WPMU installs hosting lots of blogs?

The typical recommendation for "disable the plugin, add new plugin to plugins folder, re-enable plugin" just doesn't seem feasible since a given plugin may only be activated on a fraction of the blogs.

I'm using plugin commander, so I won't have the plugin installer feature even when it is eventually working correctly, but I'm also not auto-activating all the plugins either.

So what's your process for plugin upgrade management?

(Yes, I've search the forums for this but between version changes and such I don't haven't found a good process.)

I warn users, I pick a low traffic time, and I just replace the old plugin via ftp / cpanel / ssh / whatever.

Having a testbed running a local copy of XAMPP on your home computer or laptop is a very good idea. Test features and upgrades first to make sure they work and nothing breaks.

I've got dev/test instances. That's not a problem.

But when you upgrade the plugin on the production server, do you go into each blog's dashboard, deactivate it, upload the new plugin (via ftp/ssh/whatever) and then go back into each blog and reactivate the plugin if it used it previously or are you just replacing the plugin without deactivating it first?

I just can't see the maintainability of disabling the plugins in each blog and reactivating when there are hundreds of blogs so I have to believe there's an approach I'm missing.

You can do that. Test just overwriting the code on your test server and if that works, do that on the main server.

Never had an issue with upgrading a single plugin with the site still up and running. The only way I can see it as an issue would be if the upgrade to the plugin made some serious changes to the install. In that case, there's a siteshutdown plugin kicking around here somewhere that one can use.

If you;re eyeing a specific plugin, please let us know but I've never seen an issue.

In other words, all of three of us have said "no we don't disable the plugin first". :)

Removing the old plugin effectively disables it anyway.

Thanks all. I had gotten the feel that maybe you didn't disable the plugins first, but in searches I couldn't find anyplace where it was said explicitly.

In our dev/test we've done upgrades like you mention. But I've just been skittish of pushing that process to production without checking with the brain trust here to see if I was missing anything critical. Especially since the plugin authors (like for Subscribe2 or CFormsII) seem rather adamant about disabling them first.

I had gotten the feel that

Kind of. More of "Upgrade on the testbed without turning it off, see if it works, and then go from there" upgrading. :)

I have a feeling that in the case of the examples you provide, they may be concerned about loosing data if you upgrade while someone is trying to access those features. The shutdown plugin may be a good idea in that case.

Is it the one metioned in this thread?
http://premium.wpmudev.org/forums/topic.php?id=544

If so, I just downloaded it and I'll give it a look. Thanks.

That's the one.

For awhile, we were suggesting to folks that they turn that plugin on while running the Site Admin -> Upgrades script to get all of the databases up to date after upgrading the software but Andrea (and I believe someone else) reported that the upgrading didn't occur when the plugin was active. Not sure if that ever got followed up. The database doesn't change that much any more so it;s not as big of an issue as it was say 12 months ago.

edit: Oh and +1 for letting your endusers know when you;re upgrading and getting feedback from them. You can test all day long but they are your best sources for knowing what's broken around the site. (One of my installs gives a free month of upgraded service for a legit bug report.)

Oh and +1 for letting your endusers know when you;re upgrading

Haha, yeah. In the last upgrade we installed the mass mailer plugin to send email notifications prior to any upgrades.