WordPress MU

So, I'm soon going to upgrade for the first time ever! Currently running a three months old version of MU, which I made some considerable hacks in. I don't mind getting rid of those hacks, but my question is this:

Can I just hit the upgrade-button and hope for the best?

Because, I've been playing around with RC4 on a test-server and made some small hacks here and there. Can I just upload those files and overwrite the existing ones on the live-server? I know my (hacked) RC4 is working fine on my test-server with the settings that I like :)

The upgrade button just updates the databases for each blog. (At least that's how I understand it.)

I'd go the backup everything (wp-content at the very least, and the database) that you can, overwrite the files, run teh backup script and prey method. :)

OMG, I was hoping no praying would be necessary :D

So, the best way (perhaps) would be to:

1. Backup everything (sure thing!)
2. Overwrite existing files.
3. Close my eyes and hit the Upgrade-button.
4. Pray and open my eyes.

BTW, would it work if I just deleted everything, made a fresh install and imported the database?

That's exactly how I upgraded (steps 1 thru 4).

It should work if you took the other approach. I've done it with regular WP installs (especially when switching servers). The only time I've tried it with MU was locally.

I gotta admit that I just cut and paste out of trac every morning. It's on my daily to do list even. :)

Dang, I need to start doing that...

I set up an svn with trunk and local and sync with trac about every other day. When I am ready to upgrade my Feb install I'm going to overwrite the live files with my local version which is being tested on a regular basis. Of course I am making nightly backups of the db and entire wpmu folder and storing those on a different server with a seven day history.

Stutley,

I have a very slow but steady method that is much less scary.

I have a separate subdomain http://www.domain.com/blognightly/ and play there with a couple phoney blogs(in a separate db as well). A "sandbox server" so I'm told.

I then COPY my current themes/plugs/hacks/blogs.dir/ from my working install into the /blognightly/ and see if all is well. I fiddled away for days (couple hours here, there) till the new was "stable" and presentable. Making my custom home.php look nice with wp-signup.php instead of wp-newblog.php took a bunch more time than I thought. It takes a while to scour for error_log files, displaced widgets, broken path javas in K2 for example, etc. (I'm a no vhosts, AKA subdomain, install. WARNINGS re paths in the database tables if you are too!).

Even more impressed with wpmu now!! It plays perfectly with subdomains as far as I can tell.

The last step is to move all files of current into an /old/ folder.

Then move all from /blognightly/ to /www/. And edit the config.php to hit the right database. IF/when you can get to the Upgrade link, hit it. Wait as it chews through the blogs 5 at a time. Done.

/old/ sticks around incase I missed a css hack here, or plugin tweak there. I'll chuck it after traffic to my site picks up in September.

Download a new nightly into /blognightly/ and start again.

I don't rush to delete anything. Renaming a file.php to oldfile.php has saved my bacon a few times(especially the old htaccess)

As well, before the big move, I widgetized 100+ more themes. Added a handful of new plugins and widgets. Only side effect of the whole deal was many blogs flipped back to Kubrick as default. I use a userthemes.php plugin and many users where immune to my jibbing with the system themes anyway (I learned just how important the /blogs.dir/ is).

D. Sader

Another reason for the copy and paste method is that the host I'm currently using works with CPanel and CPanel won't allow you to overwrite files from a zip.

Update:

I found my approach :)

My testsite and livesite is hosted at the same server. I have one folder named "test" and one folder named "www" - the latter being the livesite.

So I had the working RC4 in the test-folder. Then I simply renamed "test" to "www" and "www" to "test". I updated the wp-config.php-file in the new www-folder, copied all themes, plugins and the blog.dir-folder to the new www-folder. The I hit the upgrade-button, closed my eyes and waited for like half an hour. And voila! Quite painless.

There was one error though. Some blogs were completely blank (as in white, not deleted). It helped by changing the theme. A couple of others showed mysql-errors when trying to display the blogroll. Found no solution to that, thoughm but luckily it was blogs scheduled for deletion anyway :D

cpanel sukks... especially when there's no SSH access either!! Any suggestions for some PHP filemanager that can do this??

Actually CPanel has built in SSH support via a JAVA program. You need to ask your host to turn it on for your account.

There is also the option of just allowing SSH normally outside of the backend.

I tried! They rule other wise but not on this point :(

Actually allowing SSH access to a box is leaving you wide open for attacks. Gotta agree with most hosts for not allowing this.

Although CPanel seems to have "jailed" their SSH access pretty well. I've never heard of any issues but I only run a single CPanel box.

Renaming changed files to oldfile.whatever is a good idea.

@ dsader, can you release any/most/all of your widgetized themes, maybe for the theme pack at wpmudev? Got a 4-column widgetized theme? I hear someone's looking for one...

andrea_r,

A popular theme source for me when upgrading themes:

http://www.emilyrobbins.com/how-to-blog/comprehensive-list-of-615-free-wordpress-15-and-20-themes-templates-available-for-download-266.htm

Widgetizing a theme is easiest on a singal sidebar theme, no doubt. The instructions to do so came from the same page as the widget plugin. http://automattic.com/code/widgets/themes/

I have a Striped Plus, 4 sidebars widgetized. I don't know if it came with widgets or not. I had to tinker with it to work with mu usertheme.php plugin, though.

I need to package/sort my themes up into manageable piles first. My plan is to start by writing more apt descriptions in each stylesheet. . . descriptions a normal person can visualize. No time.

D. Sader