Check Your WP Plug-Ins When Updating WordPress
With Apologies to Kramer
Recently, I made a comment about the Kramer plug-in, stating that Kramer had been “doing a number” on one of my other blog sites. As it turns out, Kramer was likely not the culprit, but one or more other plug-ins were.
Let it be known that this my public apology for wrongly accusing Kramer.
WordPress Plug-Ins Need Updating Too
As it turns out, one or more other plug-ins have been causing the mischief, causing me to come to one conclusion: just as WordPress itself is frequently updated, so are some of the plug-ins. At least they should be.
Google Sitemap Plug-In, Problem #1
It turns out that the problem I was having with the site in question (white pages following the posting of new entries) was caused by the Sitemap plug-in. A lot of googling on my part revealed that I wasn’t the only one having this problem and the solution became apparent when I drilled down through some information uncovered on one of the WordPress help sites. I deleted the old plug-in and downloaded the new one which, as it turns out, was about the fifth revision since I originally installed the plug-in earlier this year.
Database Plug-In, Possible Problem #2
The second problem I am having is the automatic backing up my databases. Up until I installed WP 2.2 on four blogs, this plug-in has worked out fine. Now it doesn’t. Although I haven’t checked for an update, I can make a reasonable assumption that this plug-in needs to be updated too. Yes, later this busy Monday I’ll do a bit of investigating and make whatever change needs to be made.
Routinely Check Your WordPress Plug-Ins For Updates
WordPress does a very good job of notifying bloggers about updates, but in many cases you are on your own when it comes to plug-ins. Some plug-in authors offer an email notification service to let you know when their plug-in has been updated, so this is a good thing to do if available. Otherwise, checking each plug-in periodically for an update seems wise and can save you a bunch of aggravation later on.
Now, That’s A Wrap!
I haven’t updated this blog yet as 200+ file changes means that this task will take some time, never mind the plug-in updates too. I’m satisfied with the status quo as long as no security issue shows up due to my delay. If you do get a blank screen when visiting this blog over the next few weeks then that means one of two things: the blog has been compromised or I am knee deep in an update.
I hope that the answer to that problem is the latter, not the former!
I had a problem with Ultimate Tag Warrior when I upgraded, as WP now has its own way of handling tags. I found various ways of dealing with it online, the best here:
http://moeffju.net/blog/2007/04/10/utw-wordpress-22-tags/
But in the end, all I had to do was disable ‘use URL rewriting’. Luckily all my other plugins seem to work fine.
That is good you found the problem, John. It took me awhile to uncover what was going on with my blogs, but I think I have resolved the problem at least as it pertains to WP 2.2.