I finally upgraded this blog to version 2.5.1, from 2.1.2. So there was a database upgrade, introduction of draggable widgets, and a few other things.

I also changed hosts, moving from a Canadian company to an Aussie host. Rather than get the new host to copy from the old one, I did it myself, unloading the database, copying the code, and reloading the database, and changing the domain delegation. Amazingly it worked first time. I let the host change settle in for a few days, before doing the WP upgrade.

I didn’t widgetise my template. To do that, I probably would have had to override too many sidebar headings, or learn how to use SIFR, so I avoided the fuss. Although we did widgetise the old template used for the blog at work, the other week.

The main reason to widgetise, IMHO, is to easily take advantage of new widgets. Duh. It just avoids having to add specific new code for things like the tag cloud, search box, calendar, and the piece e resistance, the text box. I like the fact that you can have an admin-driven text box added to your sidebar. It’s useful for making announcements, or other generic text.

My template, which is really really old, was a bit butchered. It was my first piece of PHP modification, and it still doesn’t have a link back to the home page if you click on the logo. And I can’t remember what font I used in the sidebar, so the Tag heading doesn’t match the others. But that doesn’t really matter.

The other cool bit, is refreshing the plugins. Lots of useful plugins have been created since I first wrote it, in particular, wp-cache, xml-sitemaps, sociable, and all-in-one-seo. I ditched the four separate seo plugins I had been using, and replaced them with all-in-one-seo, although it did mean losing the tags I had created with the old plugin. Tough.

At work we (I) am creating tutorials for updating WordPress, for use by clients that we build WordPress blogs for. Although so far, the tutorials are a bit blurry. Stay tuned for an announcement on when they are ready.

cheers