This is nightmare! After upgrading my v1.5.4 SimpleViewer to version 2, to my horror, none of my galleries worked! Upon further googling then only I found out that the new version has been written from the ground up, leaving earlier adopters like yours truly, dangling. The author of the software was also very unhelpful, they never give us any steps on how to migrate our galleries over. * snort ! * The least they could do was to highlight what’s in the new version that is not in the old! Fortunately the author of the software came up with a workaround, but I have yet to try it. Besides, I would prefer to conform to new standards rather than to get myself stuck in old codes, especially if the new ones are better.

I will document down what are changed, and perhaps more importantly, how you can convert your previous versions of 1.5.4 SimpleViewer plugin for WordPress to version 2.0.4

The left SV menu

As you can see, the left menu contains only “Edit Galleries”, no “Add Gallery”. Which means that you no longer add a SV gallery before you create your post. The gallery is actually added at the same time as the creation of your post. This is a very important departure from the previous versions that makes all the difference, as far as I know. My guess is as good as yours as far as why they want to do this. It does not add to the overall experience of using the plugin, as you will realize later, and I painfully discovered.

To add a new post with SV gallery, you first create a new WordPress post using the normal way. Then you attach images to the post, just like you would upload those images directly onto that post.

Add an Image here

Select your image files and go. You do not need to “Insert into Post” the images. They will somehow be “attached” to your post now. Weird concept, I know. They do not offer an option to “unattach” the images, but that’s another rambling.

Next comes the interesting part, insert the SimpleViewer gallery itself. Click on the SV “eye” button.

Add SimpleViewer Gallery

The option screen below will be shown:

SV gallery option screen

This option screen should be quite familiar. Most of the options from previous SimpleViewer are there, but note the Image Source. By default Flickr is selected. This means that you can actually stream your images from your Flickr account! YAY! This is the only good news about SV v2, although I would actually want a Picasa gallery instead.

For our purpose of migration, we shall now choose WordPress Library. Here’s the funny thing, it does not allow you to choose WHICH directory to pull from. It will only pull images that are attached to this post, as highlighted in the earlier steps. Click “Add Gallery” and you’re good to go.

So how do we salvage our galleries? First as you will probably guessed by now, you will need to move your images to the wp-content/uploads folder in your server. But you can’t just plonk the entire folder there. You should instead move them to their respective month-year locations. I know what you’re thinking, I can always disable the “Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders” in Settings – Media. But I tried, my Media Library still does not see my folder! Grrr!!!

With that done, you will still need to generate the various thumbnails in order to be attached properly to your post. That’s where Add from Server comes in handy. Install that plugin and get some work done.

Time to get dirty. Edit your old post. Click “Add An Image”. Assuming you have already installed “Add from Server”, you should see this:

Add from Server

Navigate to the location where you saved your images earlier in the server.

Navigate to your folder

Select all the images there. Leave the “Do not add selected files to current post Gallery” checkbox unchecked. Click Import.

Select all and Import

Click “Media Library” and your images should now be added to the post. This is shown next to the Gallery tab. The number next to the Gallery shows how many images are now attached to your post. Click on the Gallery tab.

Click Media Library and Gallery (xx) should appear

The stupid thing here is that the files are arranged with the newest image first. I don’t know about you, but I want the viewers to view my first images, first. So you might want to arrange the images here. Click on “Descending”, then “Save all changes”. Close the option screen and return to your post. Do not click “Insert Gallery”.

*Optional * You may also include the captions here, which will appear in the final SV gallery. But I have too many captions in too many galleries, so I will do that manually in later steps.

Click on the SV eye icon. Here you will choose the options for your gallery like background colour, location of the thumbnails, theme, etc. To mimic closely the look of the previous gallery, choose:

1. Image source = WordPress Library
2. Gallery style = Modern
3. Background Colour = 000000 (black, optional)
4. Frame Width = (Anything more than zero, optional)

Click Add Gallery. You will notice the new line of SV codes in your post now. You may now remove the old SV codes. Save your post. That’s it for the steps in WordPress.

But there is more. I don’t know where the bug is, but most of the times the images will not load properly in the final SV gallery. This will require one final workaround. Note the gallery_id in the SV code. Go to your wp-content/uploads folder using your FTP client. Find the XML file that corresponds to the gallery_id earlier. Edit it and you will find that sometimes the location will be jumbled up. The behaviour is random, so I can’t really pinpoint what error you will see. But using a simple text editor, you will be able to fix it in no time.

Remember I mentioned that I can also capture the caption from my previous galleries? Well, the good news is that the “caption” node is mostly similar between the old and new XML. So using a combination of a spreadsheet editor and text editor, you will be able to import the old captions over, without ever losing anything!

That’s a very long and tiring workaround, I know. But it beats having to upload ALL my images and typing all the captions again! If you have a better idea, I’m all ears!

Now if you’d excuse me, I have a hundred more galleries to migrate …..

Yay!! I did it! I upgraded both the WordPress core and the theme. The old theme was getting kinda old, and there was a lot of problems with it. Example, it did not support picture captioning, and strikethrough text was buggy. There were a lot more problems than that, so I was only too glad to get rid of it and get a new grunge look. But just for memory’s sake, here’s a snapshot of the old theme, in case you might miss it:

The old Simpress theme

This is not THE ULTIMATE must-have wp plugin list for everyone. Neither is this a TOP TEN most popular list. This is just a list for me to remind myself, in case my site needs to be re-installed for some reason. (But wait a minute, if I need to re-install my site, I wouldn’t be able to access this list in the first place! There, I just hit myself in the foot!) Let’s hope Google cache is able to cache my post in case the unexpected happens! =P

Here is the list in order of importance.

1) WordPress Automatic Upgrade

Most used plugin of them all. Better get used to the very frequent wordpress updates. Unlike the Microsoft world, the open source world updates itself very fast. This is a bad thing if you don’t have this plugin. Manual update of your site sucks!

http://techie-buzz.com/wordpress-plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade-12-release.html

2) WordPress Database Backup

I set the database backup to be sent to my mailbox every week. Although I have never had the need to restore the database before (touch wood), I don’t really intend to. But perhaps it would be wise to do a BCP run, just in case. Aiyaa …. wait till I’m free lar.

http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup

3. WP Security Scan

This is one of those plugins that you set one time and you forget about it. But nevertheless, its importance can never be overstressed. It’s kinda like the anti-virus software for your wordpress!

http://semperfiwebdesign.com/plugins/wp-security-scan/

4. Feed reading Blogroll

This was how I got in touch back with my friends. I need this to see what my friends are up to. Facebook update is getting tiresome nowadays; it’s only filled with mindless updates about how my long-lost childhood friend needs help to fight off a dragon or a mafia gang in Cuba. Blogrolls are different. I know that they are real updates, and that they really made the effort to share their life with us. Well, except for that cute Korean babe site that I also have in my blogroll. *Ahem*

http://www.weinschenker.name/plugin-feed-reading-blogroll/

5. Google XML Sitemaps

Again this is another site that you tend to forget about, but its importance can never be underestimated. Google is the largest search engine in the web world, and it makes sense if your site is visible to Google, if you intend to be searched. Set it one time, and you just let it run!

http://www.arnebrachhold.de/redir/sitemap-home/

6. Popularity Contest

This is how I know that people love my post about my Altis and also my other older post about how to insert a Youtube movie in your Friendster account. I wonder why they love it so much. Nowadays I rarely use Friendster, and I think the steps are long outdated. Kinda biased, maybe I should reset the count already.

http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress

7. All in One SEO Pack

I don’t know if this should be in this list. I already have the Google XML sitemap installed, so should I still install this? I use this is a plugin because a lot of other wordpress bloggers use it. Is it redundant? I don’t know, but so far my posts shows in Google fairly quickly. Could be the Google sitemap at work or this one.

http://semperfiwebdesign.com/

Honourable mentions

1. Akismet

This should not be in Honourable mentions, it should instead be in one of the top in my list. It saves me a lot of the spam comments that I suffered while still using Drupal. Ever since I was in WordPress, it’s been smooth sailing all the way! The reason Akismet is in this list is because it is installed in WordPress by default!

http://akismet.com/

2. Random Blogroll

I used this before I used the Feed Reading Blogroll. Served me well for a while. But the lack of updates turns me off after a while.

http://www.goldfries.com/

3. Random Posts

Only used in the left column. I think this is not really visible. People who goes to my site rarely want to bump into an article by chance. They normally have something to search.

http://rmarsh.com/plugins/random-posts/

4. Post-Plugin Library

Does nothing by itself but supplies common code for the Similar Posts, Recent Posts, Random Posts, and Recent Comments plugins.

http://rmarsh.com/plugins/post-plugin-library/

So there you have it. My list of plugins in my site. What plugins do you have in your site?

Why was I so ignorant not to use it before! Had I used this earlier, I wouldn’t have had so many headaches everytime I upgrade to the next version of WordPress!

I have used WordPress Automatic Upgrade (WAU) for my upgrade from version 2.6 to 2.6.2, the latest version as of today. And boy was I impressed! The entire step is guided step-by-step, including the option to backup the original files or the database. I have always wanted to install this plugin anyway since WordPress 2.5.1.

The first thing you’ll notice is the two warnings. One is the generic notice saying that the version of WordPress that I am using is outdated. The second is the notice from WAU to upgrade automatically:

Just click to upgrade!

Next you will need to provide the credentials to your own website. Basically this will be the same info as your FTP login name and password

You are given the option to backup your files. I am a bit paranoia, I choose to download it and save it on my local machine, just in case

You may now choose the tables to backup into. All the main tables are automatically selected, while you can opt NOT to select the additional tables. Yeah right!

You are prompted to save the backed up database file

Okay, time to get started. Click on "Let's go" to begin downloading the upgrade files to your server

Okay, NOW you can start. Sheeesh, talk about being long winded

OKay, I won’t go into the details, but basically each steps tells you what is being done, and whether it is successful or not. They are:

• Going into Maintenance Mode.
• Deactivates all plugins
• Upgrades all files
• Reactivates all plugins

And that’s it, you’re done!

Congratulations!

The last step is basically the same as the last step in the manual upgrading way; the upgrading of the database

Okay, this is the final FINAL step, I promise! Sheesh....

Well, in fact, the reactivating of the plugins did not happen at all. When I load my page, it shows blank. It’s the same problem with my previous upgrades, I suspect. A simple reactivation of my plugins solves all problems.

This site is in dire need of an upgrade for a long time. If you have been to that site, you would have noticed the skewed arrangement of the blog. Very unprofessional!

Notice the blank empty spaces?

You'll have to scroll all the way down to see the entries

I have also received complaint that some of my friends were not able to comment on the posts in this particular website. I suspect the theme is the culprit here.

Now that I have bid adieu to the old theme, and say hello to the new Photos@Jacky Yong, courtesy of GeckoAndFly. I have modified his Studio Press Black theme to suit mine. Very nice theme, IMHO. Tell me what you think of the new theme!

Finally, after much delay, upgraded myself into WordPress 2.6. Nothing much happened, the only biggest issue was that Alex King’s Popularity Contest is still not working. Activating it causes a “Fatal Error” to be displayed. But that is not news since WordPress 2.5. According to websites, Alex King is too busy to clean up his own mess.

There is an easy workable solution to this. Just go edit the popularity-contest.php file located in your plugins folder and go to line 59. Just change from this to this:

require('../../wp-blog-header.php');

to this:

require('../wp-blog-header.php');

And everything just falls into place. But that didn’t come with some silly human mistakes as well, mistakes that led me to debug php codes until the wee hours of the morning! My wife is calling me back to sleep already, and Yan Yan is crying for milk. I better sign off now.