Worpress requires updates frequently. Most updates are minor, fixing bugs and security holes. For instance, going from version 2.7 to 2.7.1 is a minor update to patch small things. Alternatively, going from version 2.7 - 2.8 is a significant version change which changes more than little patches and which can significantly alter the admin backend.

Before starting the upgrade process, always backup the database and the directory files. The upgrade should be executed completely on the itnewstest site and exhaustively tested before applying to the itnews site.

When upgrading, the files found in the root directory, the wp-admin folder, and the wp-includes folder are typically the only ones that need to be modified. The wp-content folder, which holds all of the plugins and templates (the heavily customized and modified files) can be left alone. Nonetheless, within the root directory and the wp-admin folder, there are a few customizations that need to be perserved in the upgrade process. The following files have customizations that need perserving:

• /wp-settings.php not necessary with wamp setup (current production server), still necessary with wimp setup (test server)
• /robots.txt - must be retained, do not delete/overwrite
• /favicon.ico - must be retained, do not delete/overwrite
• /wp-admin/edit.php (deprecated - no longer necessary as of WP 2.7)

If the upgrade is minor, you can find the files that need replacing by going to Wordpress and finding the list of file changes. If it is not too exhaustive a list, it is just as easy to copy over the select files as it is to replace all the files. Simply download the new version of wordpress and copy over the files from and to the appropriate directories, one-by-one. If the list of changed files is massive, you may want to copy and replace whole directories. When doing this you need to be careful to first make the changes noted above to the select custom files, in the wordpress version you downloaded, before copying and replacing. The reason it is preferable to copy the files one-by-one is that there is less of a chance that something will go inadvertently wrong. It is more tedious and requires a high attention to detail (so that you don't miss any files or put them in the wrong place), but is less likely to cause headaches once upgraded.

If the upgrade is a major version change, it is best to copy over whole directories instead of individual changes. Once again, you must pay close attention to making changes to the files above before copying/replacing. It is also best to schedule a major upgrade during slow/down time from the newsletter process so as to allow for ample time after the upgrade to fix and modify anything that has changed in the new version.

As always, Wordpress provides good instructions for how to carry out the upgrade process.