Well kids, the time is near, the mission’s clear… and it’s later than you think! You still have time, but you need to act quick and start coming up with an action plan to account for the what’s coming in late June. Don’t worry… this isn’t another Harold Camping end-of-the-world date revision (although we applaud you for keeping us on our toes, Big H), but rather something much more practical and, dare I say, real. Wordpress 3.2 slated for release in late June, and with it come a few key dependancies that you simply must make sure you are ready for lest you be left behind.
Web Designers Rejoice – Down with Internet Explorer!
…or at least down with Internet Explorer 6 (hey, it’s a start). Of course, even Microsoft is counting down to the death of IE6, but it’s awfully nice to see in online print. And if you happen to still be using IE6, please don’t take this the wrong way, but 2001 called and even it doesn’t want it’s browser back. Also notable in the Internet Explorer arena is that this will be one of the last trips in the WordPress release world that supports IE7 as well. If you haven’t already done so, take this as a sign and just go ahead and and make that hefty financial investment of FREE and get yourself a modern browser… Chrome or Firefox will do just fine, thanks.
The Big Daddys – MySQL 5 and PHP 5
Till now, WordPress has been happy to play nicely with your server running PHP 4 or MySQL 4, but no longer. Theoretically, this shouldn’t be that big of a deal… both MySQL 5 and PHP 5 have been out and readily available for years, and at this point have been largely adapted by major hosting providers like Hostgator, Bluehost & Godaddy. However, if you run your own web server or are hosted on a relatively small server, you may still be out-of-date and not even realize it.
If you have no idea whether your server is ready for WordPress 3.2 or not and aren’t all that sure how to find out, don’t fret – there’s a plugin for that. Ryan Duff has authored a simple plugin called WordPress Requirements Check, and you can download it from the WordPress Plugin Repository here. WordPress Requirements Check just gives you a pass or fail rating, and let’s you know exactly what needs to be upgraded in the event that you do fail.
“Help, my hosting company sucks and I don’t know what to do!”
Well actually, I’m sure the folks at your hosting company are very nice people, and maybe there are even reasons that they don’t support the requirements necessary for WordPress 3.2 (although I can’t think of what any might be). It’s possible you just haven’t upgraded your hosting plan in a decade or so, and they have you set up on a legacy server… crazier things have happened. If you realize you don’t have the minimum requirements for WordPress 3.2 but have been with your hosting company for quite some time and are otherwise happy with them, give them a call and see if they can’t help you out. In most cases, providers can offer you services that will work well for you in the long run.
Should you need to migrate to a different hosting provider, there are plenty of choose from. I’d argue that the most important thing to make sure you have available to you with your new hosting provider is cPanel, arguably the best hosting control panel for the typical hosting customer on the market. cPanel gives you easy access to all of the different things you need to do from a hosting perspective, but what’s really wonderful about it is that it’s easily migrated between servers. If you are running your website with a host that provides cPanel, you can easily move your website to a different hosting provider who uses cPanel. Further, most companies do use cPanel, and those that don’t typically use an inferior control panel or their own proprietary panel, often designed to make it difficult for a client to move to a different provider if they so choose.
Who should I look to for a host?
There are literally thousands of hosts will do a reasonable job for you, and there are a lot of factors to consider. I’d argue that past making sure that your host supports the technologies needed for you to run your website properly, ensuring that you feel comfortable with the support team’s expertise and availability is paramount above all else. However, if you have a WordPress website with an low to intermediate amount of traffic, any of the following hosting providers offer cPanel access and will do just fabulous for you:
- Hostgator – Probably the largest hosting provider on the Web, Hostgator provides an array of bulk hosting services that are suitable for small to mid-sized web sites and web site resellers alike. Check out Hostgator here.
- BlueHost – One of the largest competitors to Hostgator, BlueHost offers an array of services very similar to Hostgator. Check out BlueHost here.
- Green Media Hosting – The hosting company I manage, specializing in providing superior hosting service with a personalized touch. Green Media Hosting is a great solution if you are looking for somebody to be a singe point of contact for all of your web services… DNS, hosting, email, and web development. Check out Green Media Hosting here.
