Things to do before upgrading wordpress!

Wordpress upgrade can be nightmare for few people as you may face problems if at all you are not very good in coding or troubleshooting. It may be a case that the existing plugin or theme may not be supported by the new wordpress version, then you’ll be left alone as you may be dependent on the actual author of that theme or plugin (Just like me, my theme was not supported and there is not new version of that theme till this date.). But, I’ve learned a lesson from this incident and from next time onwards, before upgrading the wordpress, I’ll make sure that I’ll follow my own tutorial :)

Here’s what can be done to save ourselves from the headache, which even Michael Arrington (Techcrunch Founder) had to experience and now I think that why I didn’t write this tutorial a while back.

Well, to make sure that all your plugins and theme work correctly with the new wordpress version, you can follow this tutorial and I’m sure that you’ll save yourself from headache. Here’s what you can try before upgrading the wordpress :

What will I need, to test all this ?

Good question! Well, it will not take anything from your pocket and it will need following things, your time, windows based computer and the Internet connection.

Alright tell me fast, I am getting impatient!

OK ok, here’s what you can do to save yourself from the headache. Please make sure that this is just for testing things and after testing things you should uninstall the software (which I’ll ask you to install) because it will be web server and if the web server is left on then it may cause some security problems. Now, lets do some rock n roll and then read on…

1. Download WampServer : This is a web server, which installs PHP, MYSQL and APACHE on a windows based machine and that too quite easily. You can do it, without worrying about these big terms and thinking that only tech geeks can do it. You can download wampserver from their website directly. And then install it as well.

2. Switch off your firewall : If you are using any firewall, then if you can take the risk of switching it off then do it, because while you’ll be installing it, you’ll get lot of pop-ups. But, if you don’t want to do it, then simply allow any request you get.

3. Download the latest copy of wordpress : You can download the latest copy of wordpress from this page and then extract the copy of that wordpress in a folder in WWW directory of wampserver. Try to make the directory structure as the following : C:\wamp\wordpress\

4. Test the installation of WampServer : You can test the installation of WampServer by simply going on to http://localhost considering the fact that you’ve kept the default installation and not changed anything while installing wamp. If you get the page, then you can take that everything went fine.

5. Create the database : Again taking that things were kept default during installation, you can go on to http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ and then go in create database and name it as wordpress.

6. Create the wp-config.php : Open wp-config-sample.php in notepad and then make the following changes in it; where it says database name, type wordpress and where it asks for database username and password, over there type username as root and leave the password as blank. Alternatively you can download this file and place it in this directory C:\wamp\wordpress\ (but it will only work, if you have followed what i’ve written till this time.)

7. Install wordpress in 2 simple steps : After that, simply open the following URL : http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php and then follow the instructions. It’s only 2 step installation and then you’ll be ready to play around with your wordpress.

Once the installation will be complete you’ll be given a username and password and then you can actually place the plugins and theme and activate them and test them, to see if they’ll work with the newer version of wordpress or not. I’m sure that this 7 step tutorial will save you from headache which many have gone through.

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