WordPress’ Core systems team had an eventful Friday when an error in the auto-update system caused sites to update to WordPress 5.5.3-alpha-49449, including live production sites with no auto-update constants defined. Those who received an email about the update logged into their sites to see the message: “BETA TESTERS: This site is set up to install…
WordPress contributors, developers, and community members are currently debating a proposal to would implement a new policy regarding security support for older versions. The discussion began last week when security team lead Jake Spurlock asked for feedback on different approaches to backporting security fixes to older versions. Following up on this discussion, Ian Dunn, a…
WordPress 4.2.3, a critical security release, was automatically pushed out to users yesterday to fix an XSS vulnerability. Shortly afterwards, the WordPress.org support forums were flooded with reports of websites broken by the update. Roughly eight hours later Robert Chapin (@miqrogroove) published a post to the Make.WordPress.org/Core blog, detailing changes to the Shortcode API that…
WordPress 3.9.1 was released late last week, resolving 34 bugs. This maintenance release includes several important fixes for multisite, TinyMCE, the customizer, widgets, and the new audio/video playlists. Site administrators who are still doing manual updates are encouraged to bring their sites up to the latest. WordPress lead developer Andrew Nacin reported that in the…
WordPress 3.8.1 was released today with more than 30 tickets resolved for this milestone. Automatic background updates will be gradually rolled out over the next 24 hours. One of the most notable fixes was switching Twitter oEmbed to SSL. Twitter changed its API, which broke Twitter oEmbed links across all WordPress installations. If you’ve got…
One of the most exciting features in WordPress 3.7 was the ability for WordPress to stay up to date through automatic background updates. However, WordPress provides no easy way to change your update settings in the admin. Update settings require manual configuration in your wp-config.php file. WP Updates Settings is a new plugin released today,…
For the past two years or so, Hotfix has been one of those essential WordPress plugins that many users have added immediately upon installation. This plugin was created by Mark Jaquith in early 2011 to provide early, automatic fixes for WordPress based on the version you’re using. He created it during a time when WordPress…
Most WordPress maintenance releases are nothing to write home about, but WordPress 3.7.1 is one for the history books. This is the first maintenance release where users don’t have to lift a finger to get their sites upgraded. Sites already running WordPress 3.7 will soon be automatically upgraded to the latest and greatest. The release…
Over the weekend, WordPress developers Andrew Nacin and Dion Hulse released an official WordPress.org plugin that enables users to test their sites’ compatibility with the background updates feature, introduced in WordPress 3.7. Background Update Tester is an official plugin, released under the WordPress.org account. It was created to help users diagnose problems that prevent WordPress…
Today following the release of WordPress 3.7 many users are wondering where the settings page is to configure these options. The answer is that there is no settings page in the WordPress admin. If you upgrade to WordPress 3.7, the default behavior is that you’ll be automatically upgraded for security and minor releases. The fact…
WordPress 3.7 has been released and the big news is that WordPress now has the ability to update itself. This begins a new era of automatic background updates for security and minor releases. Web hosts around the world have been eagerly awaiting this release and are cheering its arrival. The upgrade process has been greatly…
Managed updates have always been one of the main selling points for WP Engine’s WordPress hosting packages. Customers have the luxury of never having to update their own sites because WP Engine keeps them on the cutting edge: We keep your site secure without you having to think about it. Whenever WordPress issues a security…
The first WordPress 3.7 Release Candidate was sent out into the wild last Friday. So far it’s been testing very well. The flagship feature of this release is the ability for WordPress to automatically update itself, as highlighted in the customary haiku: WordPress three seven A self-updating engine Lies beneath the hood Automatic background updates…