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Category: Updates

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We will be upgrading the WordPress software that runs sites.dartmouth.edu on Thursday, June 18 starting at 10:00am. WordPress 4.2.2 includes a number of important security updates.

We don't anticipate any noticeable downtime, but please stay out of your site during the upgrade. Site owners will receive a reminder email shortly before the launch, and another email when it is safe to log back into their sites again.

Questions? Please contact wordpress@dartmouth.edu.

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The sites.dartmouth.edu server will be down for maintenance on Thursday December 11, beginning at 10am. Please do not edit your site during this time, as your changes may be lost.

During this maintenance window, we will be installing security updates to WordPress core, plugins and themes.

We are adding a new plugin: Simple 301 Redirects. This plugin allows you to automatically redirect site visitors from one page to another on your site, or to another site entirely. This can be useful if you move your site to a new URL, but visitors still have your previous sites.dartmouth.edu URL bookmarked.

We will not be retiring any plugins or themes at this time. However, the following themes are still in a “deprecated” state:

  • Atahualpa
  • Blogolife
  • Delicate
  • Graphene
  • Mystique
  • P2
  • Pagelines
  • Radius
  • Responsive
  • Weaver-ii
  • Zenon-lite

This means that these themes are no longer available as new options. If you are currently using one of these deprecated themes, you may continue to do so. However, if you switch to a different theme, you will not be able to switch back to a deprecated theme later.

(These themes have been deprecated since January 2014, so this is not a change, just a reminder.)

If you have questions about the security update, please contact: web.support@dartmouth.edu

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As a follow-up to my previous post, we have discovered additional websites on the central WordPress instance that rely on plugins and themes we were planning to remove. We are still planning to remove these themes and plugins eventually, but we wanted to give you ample time for the transition.

Themes

We will now be keeping all the existing themes on the system through Tuesday's upgrade. The themes I mentioned previously will be phased out, most likely in June, so you should still transition them off your site before then.

Tomorrow (Tuesday), these themes will be converted to a "deprecated" status. This means that if your website is using one of these themes, it will still work past Tuesday. However, the themes will not be available for other sites to choose. Also, if you switch away from a deprecated theme to another after Tuesday, you cannot then switch back to the deprecated theme later.

We also will no longer be supporting the deprecated themes. After Tuesday, they truly will be "use at your own risk." This means that we will not be testing these themes for bugs in future WordPress updates, and they might not work properly with certain plugins on your site.

Themes to be deprecated -- kept on Tuesday, removed later

  • Atahualpa
  • Blogolife
  • Radius
  • Delicate
  • Graphene
  • Mystique
  • P2
  • Pagelines
  • Responsive
  • Radius
  • Weaver II

Plugins to be removed on Tuesday

  • WP-Touch
  • Weaver File Access Plugin
  • Categories to Tags Converter
  • Import Blogroll with Categories
  • Local Time Clock
  • Page Restrict

Plugins to be removed later

  • WP-Post Ratings
  • Simple Section Navigation
  • Feed WordPress
  • Promotion Slider

Published on

Hello, WordPress site owners!

We will be upgrading the WordPress software that runs sites.dartmouth.edu on Tuesday, January 21 starting at 10:00am. WordPress 3.8 includes security updates as well as a slightly different appearance to the administrative interface.

We don't anticipate any noticeable downtime, but please stay out of your site during the upgrade. Site owners will receive a reminder email shortly before the launch, and another email when it is safe to log back into their sites again.

As part of the upgrade, we are adding a new plugin: Password Protected, which gives you the option to lock your entire website behind a single password. The update includes one new theme, Twenty Fourteen.

We will also be removing several plugins and themes.

Plugins to be removed:

  • WP-Post Ratings
  • WP-Touch
  • Weaver File Access Plugin
  • Categories to Tags Converter (used in conjunction with the WordPress importer)
  • Import Blogroll with Categories (used in conjunction with the WordPress importer)
  • Promotion Slider
  • Page Restrict

If your site uses any of these plugins, that functionality will no longer be available after the upgrade.

Themes to be removed:

  • Atahualpa
  • Blogolife
  • Radius
  • Delicate
  • Graphene
  • Mystique
  • P2
  • Pagelines
  • Responsive
  • Radius
  • Weaver II

Please login to your site before the 21st and check to see if your site uses one of these themes (under "Appearance" in your Dashboard). If it does, please select a different theme that is not on the list to be removed. All sites that are still using one of the removed themes on January 21st will be switched over to the Dartmouth Custom theme. If that theme is not to your liking, you can change it later.

The reasons for a plugin or theme's removal may vary, but are generally due to security problems, functionality no longer working properly, the plugin/theme no longer being supported by its developer, conflicts with other plugins or themes, or its being overly complicated to use.

Auto-deletion of spam comments

After the upgrade, we will be turning on a feature that will automatically delete spam comments submitted on posts over one month old. Legitimate comments will be unaffected; this only applies to comments that are marked as "spam" by the spam filters. This process happens behind the scenes; most site owners will likely not even notice.

Questions? Please contact web.support@dartmouth.edu .