If you’ve already installed WordPress 2.5 — but only if you’ve already installed it — you may want to install 2.5.1 due to the security issue. That’s what I’m doing.

WordPress has a good, expanded list of instructions for an upgrade, but here’s my “cheat sheet” version. (I’m assuming that you backup your files — using Manage > Export — and your database, regularly.)

1. Deactivate all plugins.
2. Use FTP to delete the wp-admin and wp-includes folders.
3. Upload (with FTP) the new version’s wp-admin and wp-includes folders.
4. Upload (overwrite) all of the files (not the folders) in the main wordpress folder, except wp-config.php, of course.
5. Reactivate your plugins.

That’s it, though the WordPress site will talk you through some wp-content changes that may be necessary.

Also, I tried the new “secret key.” Be sure to add it to the correct location in your wp-config.php file, or you may have problems. In my wp-config.php file (generated by my hosting service during the installation), I added the secret key code as a new line immediately after where it says this:

define(‘DB_COLLATE’, ”);

If you add your own secret key code, use FTP to save the updated wp-config.php file (overwrite the old one) in your WordPress folder, and you should be all set. You will have to log in again, even if you were already logged in. But, in theory anyway, that’s all you’ll need to do.

On a more positive note, the “Add media” function seems to work better now. When I say that I want the graphic to go on the left, it really shows up there, aligned with the text. Life is good!

That said… I’m leaving most of my websites in WordPress 2.3.3 (the one illustrated in my book) until this new upgrade stabilizes. That’s when I’ll expand the Sites that Soar! book — or create a new, separate edition — with WP 2.5 illustrations and tips.

I doubt that I’ll change the book until June 2008 at the very soonest. A new version of 2.5 with this many changes… well, that suggests that there will be more changes in the immediate future.

There are many reasons why I didn’t recommend WordPress 2.5… until now.  (Security issues make it imperative to upgrade to 2.5.1 immediately.)

One reason why I was hesitant about WP 2.5.x is Category ID numbers. You can’t see them as easily in WordPress 2.5, and you’ll need those numbers for themes such as Branford Magazine and Mimbo.

(I still highly recommend the Branford Magazine theme, or the Mimbo theme, which provided much of the code for Branford Magazine’s basic design.)

Many of us are hoping that this WordPress issue will be fixed in the next WordPress upgrade. In the meantime, there are three ways to work around the problem: Rollover, click, or (as of late April 2008) with an Alpha plugin.

ROLLOVER

To find the Category number in WordPress 2.5, go to Manage > Categories. In that panel, roll your cursor over the category name for which you need an ID number.

The number will appear at the lower right corner of your screen.

Here’s an illustration:

In the example above, my “Design secrets” category’s ID number is 4.

Or, you can click on the category name to see the ID number.

CLICK

If you click on the category name as if you’re going to edit it, the category’s ID number will appear at the top of your screen, as a URL. The ID number is at the far right (end) of that URL.

Or, you can use a plugin that’s been released in April 2008, and — as of today (19 Apr 08) — is still in Alpha mode. (“Alpha” mode means that there may be significant bugs in this plugin, and you are taking a risk if you install it.)

PLUGIN

Oliver Schloebe has created a handy plugin to solve the problem. Though it is still in Alpha mode, I installed it and it worked fine for this website.

Important note: I do not intend to install this plugin at my larger websites until it is at least in Beta mode. If you install it and it causes problems with WordPress or your website, I cannot help you fix that.

The plugin is called Reveal IDs for WP Admin 2.5

Download, unzip, and upload/install it according to the instructions at that link.

Then, activate it in your Plugins tab.

Go to your Settings tab.

Uncheck everything on the list.

Save your changes.

Recheck the box that enables you to see the Category ID numbers. (As of 19 April, this part of the plugin is in Alpha mode.)

Save your changes.

Go to Manage > Categories and the ID numbers should show up to the right of your category names.

Here’s a screenshot of how it looks at this website:

As you can see, the ID number appears to the right of each category name.

TO FIND OUT MORE

To stay current on this issue, visit the WordPress Support forum for news. Search using words such as “category numbers 2.5″ and check the latest discussions about this problem.

Here’s one post about the issue: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/162394

Meanwhile, please do upgrade to the newest version of WordPress.  There are some huge security issues with the earlier versions.

The only way I can see it is if I open my WordPress admin panel in Internet Explorer.

It’s there, but this is another reason why I recommend not upgrading to WordPress 2.5 until issues like these have been resolved. (It’s April 2008 as I’m writing this, and if I hadn’t already installed it, I’d wait until at least June or July to upgrade to 2.5.)

While I’m writing about it, WP-Contact Form isn’t the perfect solution to the Expanded WP Content Form problems with WordPress 2.5. In addition to losing the spam deterrents, on some servers WP-Contact Form broke the ‘Add media’ upload images function.

To upload images if you’re facing this problem, deactivate WP-Contact Form in your Plugins panel. Upload your images. Reactivate WP-Contact Form. (Generally, your preferences will still be there when it’s reactivated, but double-check to be sure.)

On some (but not all) servers, the Extended WP Contact Form plugin doesn’t work. For me, that’s an important issue.

Are WordPress 2.5′s improvements worthwhile? Not yet.

The new WordPress (2.5) is cleaner to look at and it seems to run a little faster. But–with 20/20 hindsight after a day of testing it–my advice is to install WordPress 2.3.3, and wait at least a couple of weeks.

My sites that haven’t been upgraded to 2.5 are going to stay as they are until late May 2008, at the soonest. By then, the bugs should be worked out of 2.5, as well as the plugins.

If you install WordPress 2.5 anyway…

Nothing terrible will happen if you install WordPress 2.5. Oh, I can’t promise that all of my recommended plugins will work, but that’s the only problem.

The WordPress 2.5 control panels do look a little different than the screenshots in my Sites that Soar! book.

However, the design concepts are the same in both WordPress 2.3.3 and WordPress 2.5. I don’t think that the screenshot differences will cause problems.

When I write a WordPress 2.5 version with new screenshots (probably in June, when the dust has settled with 2.5), my book customers will be able to download a free copy.

Meanwhile, I’m regretting upgrading my larger sites to WordPress 2.5. There are too many headaches with it, especially with important plugins.

I had two big problems when I upgraded to WordPress 2.5. One plugin had a fatal error, and I couldn’t upload new images in the “add media” popup window.

I was ready to revert to 2.3 until I found the solutions. Here they are:

The image upload solution was in the WordPress Support forum.

In a nutshell, if you’re getting the HTTP error, you’ll need to add this to your .htaccess file in your WordPress root directory:

<IfModule mod_security.c>
<Files async-upload.php>
SecFilterEngine Off
SecFilterScanPOST Off
</Files>
</IfModule>

(Your WordPress root directory is the highest directory in your WordPress installation. It’s the folder that contains all the WordPress files and folders at your website. It has folders /wp-admin/, /wp-content/, and /wp-includes/. Don’t go into any of those folders. Add the code into the .htaccess file–which you’ll edit in any text editor or HTML editor [in code]–and then upload it via FTP.)

If that doesn’t work (or if you’re getting a different error message), see the WordPress forum, you can always reinstall 2.3.3 and your site should be back to normal.

I like everything else in 2.5 pretty well… I think.

The plugin that had a fatal error was Popularity Contest. The solution to this came from Blogvaria.

Go into your desktop copy of Popularity Contest. The folder probably says “popularity-contest” on it. Open that in any HTML editor or text editor. (I’m using 1st Page 2000, which keeps the line numbers in any file.)

Near the top, around line 59, it says this:

if (!isset($wpdb)) {
require(‘../../wp-blog-header.php’);
akpc_init();

That’s the section that you’re going to change, manually. Here’s what Blogvaria says to do:

Open popularity-contest.php and scroll down to line 59.

Replace

require(’../../wp-blog-header.php’);

with

require(’../wp-blog-header.php’);

IMPORTANT: Ordinarily, this kind of post will be in the password-protected section for people who’ve bought my book, Sites that Soar! This public post is to show you the kind of information I cheerfully share with my readers.