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, just in time for users to experiment using it with the upcoming WordPress 3.8.1 release. It provides a user interface for configuring update settings within the WordPress admin at Settings >> Updates.
The WP Updates Settings plugin includes a comprehensive list of update options, including translation files, as well as a few other extras such as contextual help:
- Show/hide Updates notification
- Use default WordPress behaviors
- Enable/Disable Updates capabilities to Administrator users
- Set Major Core Automatic Background Updates
- Set Minor Core Automatic Background Updates
- Set Plugin Automatic Background Updates
- Set Theme Automatic Background Updates
- Set Translation files Automatic Background Updates
- Contextual Help
- Translation MO/PO files
- Clean uninstall
This plugin provides a good option for WordPress users who want to change some extra settings, such as adding in automatic theme updates, but are intimidated by editing the wp-config.php file.
If you try the plugin for awhile but want to uninstall it later, the default update settings are restored (core updates for minor versions). I’ve got it installed on a WordPress site to fully test whether my update settings are correctly recorded and implemented when WordPress 3.8.1 is released. I’ll report back here when it is complete.
WP Updates Settings is the first plugin to provide a comprehensive UI for the most common selections users would otherwise define in wp-config.php. Download it for free from the WordPress plugin repository.
“Advanced Automatic Updates” plugin seems a better tool for this. We have been using it since shortly after the 3.7 release with good success.