WordPress 3.0 is becoming more like an elite CMS. Unfortunately, advance features that can only be of any use to WordPress theme developers are somethings that look really gibberish to WordPress’s newcomers, an example would be the creation of custom taxonomies. WordPress 3.0 is way more powerful than older WordPress versions, which means it’s a little more complicate to install than older WordPress versions. Any user who wants to use WordPress 3.0 as a single site, the installation process isn’t going to be hard, it’s only a matter of adding new security keys to replace a dumb default security keys inside wp-config.php, and the rest of the installation process should be the same as one would go about installing the older WordPress versions. For someone has no idea what the security keys are, just take a look at wp-config.php closely, within this file, there should be a link which pointed you to somewhere on the web to generate security keys on the fly.
The installation for WordPress 3.0 is only get more confusing when one decides to activate WordPress Network which allows users to create more than one unique blog. Fortunately, to a seasonal WordPress users, the activation of Network isn’t that hard. By following the instruction closely, users need to deactivate their plugins, backup all files and directories, backup the database, backup the wp-config.php and .htacess file for redundancy measures before activating Network. Even if one isn’t going to activate Network, the previous recommended steps are the must do steps; too many people had upgraded their blogs but discovered that their blogs could not be recovered for they who had forgotten about the backup process completely. Backups are done? Activating the Network, users only have to visit /wp-admin/network.php directly in their browsers, following the instruction that display by network.php, one cannot go wrong in activating the WordPress Network.
Sometimes, the first time encounter that one has had with network.php through browsers, the codes to be entered into .htaccess that displayed by network.php may not be the correct codes since wp-config.php has not yet had correctly edited with the right codes. By entering the correct codes/information for wp-config.php which has instructed by /wp-admin/network.php for the first time, it’s now that you can be rest assured the second time around, accessing /wp-admin/network.php through a browser will reveal the correct codes for .htaccess file. Without having the correct codes for .htaccess file, sites can only be created but cannot be displayed correctly and sites’ backends will only show Not Found page. Site is a unique blog that WordPress Network allows users to create, and an authorized user can create more than one site.
WordPress users who are upgrading their older WordPress versions to WordPress 3.0 may also face problems such as cannot access the backends for new sites at all, sometimes even the main site’s backend will have access problem. This is why it’s utterly important for one to disable all installed plugins before going ahead and upgrading to WordPress 3.0. When done upgrading to WordPress 3.0, one can go into wp-config.php and change “define(‘WP_DEBUG’, false);” to “define(‘WP_DEBUG’, true);” — refresh the site to show the errors that are associated with the installing plugins and other related hidden elements. Copy down those error notices/warnings, then go back into wp-config.php and revert the “true” part to “false” again to ensure no error will be displayed to visitors of your blog. It can be a huge security issue if those important errors are showing up to just about anyone, because anyone can use those information to exploit your blog. With those error notices/warnings on hand, one can go about WordPress forum to ask for help; one can also deactivate each plugin at a time to see if any error will go away, and upgrading to newer plugins to completely do away with those errors.
Also, most likely that one will encounter a Not Found error page when click on a single post to show a specific entry on its own page when activating WordPress 3.0 Network feature. The hiccup is largely due to the structural change of permalinks right after the activation of the Network feature. To fix this problem, one can go to Permalinks link which can be found right under Settings, switch permalinks to default, click “Save Changes,” switch back to the original permalinks setting, and then click “Save Changes” again to get rid of the error Not Found for single post.
To simplify the process even more, one can always sign up with a web hosting service that allows one click installation for WordPress. The web hosting service does the dirty work, and you just sit back and create contents for your blog. The installation, maintenance, and performance processes can be covered by your web hosting service, that’s if you find a good web hosting service. Obviously, content creation process for a blog is an ongoing thing, one has to be creatively stubborn about writing new contents to have a successful blog! Have fun with your blog that is powering by WordPress 3.0!
