WordPress auto-install and upgrade

Automatic installations are something that’s usually developed by the hosting provider in-house, or they purchase an annual or monthly license to a service like Fantastico.

Automatic upgrades, on the other hand, are done through the WordPress admin panel and should be available under most hosting providers.

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Core_Update_Host_Compatibility is a list of hosts that have been tried by users and confirmed to have worked with the automatic update.

mrmist – Many Thanks

My Host isn’t listed at all, although they (anonymous) are giving themselves to be substantial players.

For the record, my Host doesn’t claim to be an authority on WP or DirectAdmin but says the matter of “permission”, which is the hassle with Auto-Updates, should be fixable via a risky setting.
He says putting the Plugin Folder and the individual plugin folder permissions at 777 will make it work (it doesn’t) but that doing so would leave the Blog susceptible to hacks. I can accept it would create a susceptibility.

My Host does use latest Unix and PHP so that would not be the hassle. I suspect there is some form of “identity’ crisis, whereby my User identity – Admin identity clash somehow. You know Admin is associated with WP at Setup. Users (Blog Contributors) can have Admin rights throughout WP Dashboard but are distinct from the WP Admin Name and Password and are also distinct from the DirectAdmin Username and Password.

I tried creating an Admin in WP Dashboard with the same Username and Password and it had no effect about a year ago. It wasn’t critical then because Plugin Manager showed which plugins had updates available. I just Downloaded the zip and used FTP to Install and Dashboard to Activate.
Now Plugin Manager doesn’t show which ones have updates available (realise, most of the time NONE have updates available but now and then one or even sometimes two on the same day can provide updates) so the only alternative is to hunt through home pages of plugin developers, looking for Version data to compare with what is listed next to the plugin in the Plugin Manager. A drag!

This problem is only in WP 3.0 RC1; RC3 and WP 3.0

I have reverted to 2.9.2 during testing with RC1 and RC3 so I know the hassle is only within the Plugin Manager architecture of WP 3

I sense the reasoning was ‘someone’ decide that this feature was no longer required in light of Auto-Update and Multi-Site facilities.

WRONG – those of us still just using WP for a Blog don’t need MS but DO like to know WHICH Plugins have updates.

Until WP fix it we will continue to publicly pillory them at https://www.wenublog.com and on Twitter and anywhere else we get the opportunity.

wow, what a dag, it looks like all updates now sit under the menu item {Dashboard > Updates} for wordpress version, plugins and themes. Are u saying you cannot see this, i updated all my plugins all at the same time there.

Yep, there’s definitely still notification for out of date plugins.

Ouch, I’m sorry that you have been so offended by the latest release of this volunteer-built and volunteer-supported free blogging platform.

As maoski mentioned, do you not see the new all-in-one automatic update system at Dashboard/Updates in your admin panel?

The availability of auto-update would depend on the security settings for your blog, however, if you’ve been previously able to update plugins you should still be able to do that now.

In fact, you should still see the “update available” numbers next to both “Plugins” and “Update” (under Dashboard). If not, please can you provide details of what does appear in your “Plugins” section.

Look. I’ll go and ‘revert’ a Plugin. I have earlier versions still on my harddrive.
I’ll Activate a superceded version in the Plugin Manager and see if it tells me the status – meaning, that a newer version is available for that plugin.
What has been happening in the past is simply that the Plugin Status indicated on the Dashboard PAGE is that it says (for instance one (1) plugin update is available) but not WHICH Plugin – and yes, as indicated, Automatic Updates doesn’t work on these Shared Hosting arrangements so people like us need to use Manual methods.
Manual for us is not a problem because – get this – we only have one Blog to update, not the much vaunted “tens of thousands.” MS means nothing to us.
Scrambling all over the Plugin Manager, clicking on “visit plugin site” to compare the installed version with the Developer site version [IS A BUG] “K! WE HAVE A BUG!”
Or not. For at least the second time I wil go and revert a Plugin and verify the fault persists. We are nice here.
It is, after all, Angel Central.

Sorry you’re having trouble with this.

I can’t offer much more than the fact that available plugin updates are indicated and identified in both the Updates and Plugins sections of the admin panel on several of the blogs that I manage (all on shared hosting with different providers, BTW).

On your blog post, Jacob Black mentioned bumping PHP’s memory allocation, which you might want to try. Here are five ways to increase PHP’s memory allocation:

1. Try the Memory Bump plugin:
https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/memory-bump/

2. If you have access to your PHP.ini file, change the line in PHP.ini
If your line shows 32M try 64M:
memory_limit = 64M ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (64MB)

3. If you don't have access to PHP.ini try adding this to an .htaccess file:
php_value memory_limit 64M

4. Try adding this line to your wp-config.php file:
Increasing memory allocated to PHP
define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '64M');

5. Talk to your host.

If that doesn’t work, maybe it’s time to switch to a new hosting provider (especially one that works with the automated updates feature)?

Both the Dashboard – Updates screen and the Plugins – Plugins screen should show which plugins require updating.

Can you post some screenshots of what you are seeing?

Thank You for the specific suggestions. It may shortly come to that.
SITREP on the action I took as promised:
The Plugin I chose was WPtouch – I reverted it to version. 1.9.12
On return to Dashboard the Plugin was still Deactivated so nothing showed.
Activated the Plugin without hassles – following displays:
Dashboard showed usual Dropdown:
Dashboard
Updates (with a black square behind a white 1) was RED in WP 2.9.2
Exploit Scanner
Site Stats
Akismet Stats

Further down the page was of course Plugins (with same B/W indicator of One Plugin update available.

Clicked on Plugins (which was also BOLD btw) and Plugin Manager came up, showing the list of Plugins installed, including WPtouch with the version number 1.9.12 – AND NO INDICATION THAT THIS WAS THE PLUGIN WITH THE UPDATE AVAILABLE (not shouting – just drawing attention)

Now I know WPtouch is the plugin with update 1.9.13 available but it’s the last one on the list and to find it I would have to click on “Visit plugin site” of every plugin before I would find that 1.9.13 is available and I only have 1.9.12 installed.
That’s a bug.

I shall now explore my options as suggested above. Not sure where PHP.ini is but I can check the others in DirectAdmin
There is also a suggestion I may play with, from an Italian here in the forum, which suggested adding:
define(‘FS_CHMOD_FILE’,0755);
define(‘FS_CHMOD_DIR’,0755);
to WP-config.php

I think you clearly see the small defect I am upset about, simply because there must be many out there with this problem – but they may not even be aware of it yet, depending on what Plugins they use and whether any updates have been posted for THEM since they installed WP 3.0 We tested with RC1 and RC3 and bleated about this for weeks now with no real result until today’s final umbrage.

BB2 (or longer as the case may be)
Raiofoz

OK
I have no access to PHP.ini (could not find it and PHPMyadmin says “no rights” ) [shared hosting I would expect]
Updated wp-config.php to include:
define(‘FS_CHMOD_FILE’,0755);
define(‘FS_CHMOD_DIR’,0755);
define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’64M’);

Had no effect whatsoever – didn’t even crash the blog ??

As that did nothing I will revert to the previous WP-Config.php
and update WPtouch back to its 1.9.13 state.

I consider this “not resolved”

mrmist says:
“Both the Dashboard – Updates screen and the Plugins – Plugins screen should show which plugins require updating.”
The Dashboard Updates in the past only said HOW MANY were avilable, (such as (1) or (2)) not which ones.
The Plugin Manager ALWAYS showed the update VERSION available if one was.
I think this is a simple thing for WP Developers to fix but it seems like it was something overlooked in the haste to incorporate MU into WP and to ‘box in’ Auto-Update as if it was universally applicable.

It’s not.
I’ll watch traffic and see how Guran goes with this over the next week or so. I expect it will be fixed.
Raiofoz

I have the con.
All plugins are back at current version.
WP 3.0 is running perfectly.
No Plugin updates are indicated as available.
Guran

Can I ask how long you waited for a known plugin update notice to appear? WP only phones home once or twice a day, so if you just “missed” the last call, it could take up to 24 hours before there’s another. If this is to be submitted as an issue, I think it would be sensible to rule out any time factor first.

OK there’s something not clear here, because you’re not seeing what you should.

This –

https://www.misthaven.eu/image/plugin_update.jpg

Is what you should be seeing. The plugin available to be updated is clearly shown (it’s expertly highlighted by myself in the jpg.)

Please post a jpg of what you’re seeing, and tell us in which browser.

Also, which plugins are you running?

ETA: The functionality to see which plugins have updates waiting from within the screen called “plugins” has not changed in 3.0, you can still see them listed there.