Zirpy

One of WordPress 2.5’s new and very nice feature is its plugin auto update. On previous versions, when you login to your admin panel and then see your list of plugins, when there’s an update for a plugin, you will be notified, and you’ll have to update the plugin manually.

Now, there’s another option, you can update the plugin automatically! Just click the link, and the update is done for you in just seconds. That’s great, right? But remember, you can only use this feature on plugins that are registered on wordpress.org.

But you also must be careful when using this cool feature. A while ago, I was just using the WP-Postviews plugin by Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan. And when I entered the plugin list page to activate it, there was a notice below the plugin’s name and description that says like this:

There is a new version of WP-PostViews Widget available. Download version 2.20 here or upgrade automatically.

Notice that the words in bold make a link to update the plugin automatically. Because I’ve used the auto update feature and really like it, I just clicked on it and hoped the plugin was updated. But I was wrong! WordPress said that the update process was successful! But when I go to the plugin list page, the WP-PostViews disappeared! Even more strange, a new plugin appeared, it’s WP-DBManager! I just realised that the plugin auto update feature had updated the wrong plugin.

I then had to upload WP-PostViews again, and after I checked, there was no new version

So, if you want to use this cool feature, please just be careful. Look at the link first and see where it goes. In my case above, the link points to WP-DBManager, not to WP-PostViews, that’s why it got the wrong plugin. See the image above.