Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Tag: beta

  • The Big Upgrade

    The Big Upgrade

    My Experience with upgrading to WordPress V7, using the Full Site Editor and Block Theme

    I’ve been following the WordPress V7 development and using it on some of my other less important blog sites as an experiment, training and exploration of features.

    Over the last few days I made the push to upgrade the Tempus Fugit blog, my original blog with a fair bit of history, to the V7 RC2 and a Full Site Editor (FSE) block template. The template I’ve chosen is the Twenty Twenty Five template that is currently the most current WordPress provided FSE block template.

    The Bumps

    The upgrade was not without a few bumps along the way. First up is a backup of everything, I’ve been burned before so now I’m a big backup believer. Also, my hosting service, BlueHost, offers a tool to create a staging site and also push the staging site back up to production. This seems like a good idea and it is also the 1st problem. I click the button to create the staging site and it gets an error 😕.

    After about 1hr with a support agent in a chat session I learned that because my blog was migrated from a different hosting service it doesn’t have the BlueHost plugin. One of the functions of this plugin is to manage the staging site. Who know? Not me.

    Plugin installed and the staging site is created. Basically, it copies all the WP files to a new staging sub-directory (/blog/staging/3706), copies all the database tables to new tables with a “staging” prefix and then adjusts wpconfig to point to the new tables with the staging prefix in the same database.

    Next up is to apply the new theme which is quite different from my last theme and then continue to make all sorts of adjustments to use templates, template parts etc. A big part of the work was recreating the menu template part. It’s working, but I’m not too happy with the look just yet. More work ahead.

    A couple of big processes left. One works fine and the other, well that took a bit more effort.

    WordPress V7 RC2

    Moving from WP 6.9.x to WP 7 RC2 required installing the WordPress Beta Tester Plugin plugin and adjusting the settings to “bleeding edge” (yikes!) and pressing the “upgrade” button. Turning back is possible, but probably not that easy. The upgrade works and initial testing is good, nothing seems broken. Some more updating of the staging site and I’m ready to promote it to production.

    Going Production

    Promoting to production is as simple as a click of a button. The BlueHost plugin should copy all the WP files and SQL tables over the current production content. Sadly, this only sort of works. The file copy is successful but the SQL database import to production fails.

    Some Googling w/AI and I learn there are several ways to do this process manually. The number one recommendation is to call Bluehost support since it’s their plugin that failed. So, I take the easier (?) way out and chat with support and they are fairly quick to resolve without too much wait time.

    So, we’re up and running. I’m still not quite satisfied with the look and feel. There will be some more tweaking in the days ahead. But for now I’ve made the jump to the current WordPress world.

  • Beta, beta, beta… beta?

    I like software. I like all the new features that come with new versions of software. Most of my career was writing software applications, installing packaged software, integrating software application and designing software solution.

    I like computers and all the hardware that comes along with computers. Everything it takes to implement software solutions.

    Perhaps I’m a bit of a geek.

    Most of the career was using IBM hardware and software and then there was the 11 years working for IBM. All that IBM stuff ended when I retired and I went over to the dark side, Apple.

    Right after retirement there was the purchase of the MacBook Pro, then an iPad mini, then a MacBook for Shirley, and of course iPhones for both of us and lots of upgrades there to the latest and greatest. An Apple TV for the basement TV and another one for the living room TV. Shirley gave me an Apple Watch as a birthday present and AirPod pros. An iPad Pro replaced the mini and a newer MacBook Pro joined the team when the original one could no longer be updated with the current operating systems.

    Apple lost out on the smart speaker category and we went with Google and then Sonos products.

    So, what’s all this beta, beta stuff. Well, beta software is the latest version but not fully finished and tested for public consumption. Using beta software is fun because you get all the new features but also a little dangerous in that it may not work. In fact in “may not work” to the extent that your computer or iPhone stops working all together and it can be quite difficult to revert to the previous working version.

    Recently, on June 5, 2023, Apple announced new hardware and software at their World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC). Typically, new operating system software is announced and the developer beta is available immediately, and the public beta lags about one month. Developer beta is a little risky but public beta is typically more stable and less risky to use.

    iPhone 14 Pro is first up for a beta update

    I didn’t watch the WWDC until today but I saw some info on the iPhone iOS17.0 and it had some interesting features I wanted to try so I upgraded my iPhone 14 Pro to the public beta of iOS17.0. So far, after a couple of days, no problem. Beta #1.

    Guys enjoying the nice weather just outside the SBGH main floor lobby

    Emboldened by the success of my Beta #1 upgrade it was on to the iPad and iPadOS 17.0. The iPhone update took a while on the slow wifi in my room so I went down to the main floor hospital lobby, sat in a nice comfy club chair where the wifi was much faster. The iPad updated fairly quickly while I was writing another post. Again, no problems so far. Beta #2 completed.

    I only have one more Apple device with me so it’s on to upgrading the watch. I wasn’t in a hurry and heading off to bed seemed like a good idea. Again, slow wifi made this a good over night project.

    Two days does seem like a bit of a long wait ?

    Again, Beta #3 was a success. What is the 4th beta? Well, it’s the one I’m most conservative about, the MacBook Pro which is currently at home and I think it will stay there. I really can’t afford to have that computer out of service.

    Over the next few days I’ll explore all the new capabilities of the iPhone, iPad and Watch on the latest operating systems.