Over the Labor Day weekend, this blog was upgraded from version 1.5 to 2.2 of WordPress. It took eight hours to complete; mostly due to customization of the look-n-feel, and I chose to replace the header graphic.
The blog was live and accessible within the first hour – it just wasn’t stylized to my website. Readers could still make their way through and get the information that they were looking for.
How’d I do it? Following the instructions at the WordPress site for upgrading WordPress 1.5 to 2.2:
- I backed up the database and programs to my local system.
- I downloaded the new WordPress programs
- I deleted some files and folders at the live site (per instructions)
- I uploaded the new files and folders to the live area, careful to not overwrite any of the files and folders that I had left from the previous version.
- I ran the upgrade program, and, the blog was accessible within 1 minute. The database conversion was automatic and took only 20 seconds (for 50+ entries).
- I went into the admin and chose the Widgets and Plugins that I wanted.
- I added a blog entry announcing that I was upgrading the blog (in case readers were seeing things change or out of synch).
All of that took about an hour (as I checked and double checked files and folders). The widget maintenance module provided in this new version made it very easy to customize the right sidebar. For this version of my blog, I added the AWSOM Drop Down Archive Plugin (which you see at the top of the blog).
About 5 hours were spent customizing the new programs as I had customized the old. There are more programs in this version, so I had to customize more. Plus, I spent about one hour creating a new header graphic, and another hour lining up the text presentation on the background, and making the three columns play together.
A typical WordPress blog has two columns, the body and the sidebar navigation. I like to have my website’s navigation visible as well, so I added a third column on the left.
All in all it was not difficult work. More time consuming than I had wanted it to be, but, hey, now it is totally customized to my liking.
Happy blogging!