How to Check the Update Status of Your WordPress Plugins
By Lorelle VanFossen, posted Jan 27 2010 at 10:00 am | View Comments
WordPress 2.9 brought the ability to “mass update” your out-of-date WordPress Plugins. Neil Matthews of WP Dude shows you step-by-step how the new feature works. It is found on the Upgrade panel in your WordPress Administration Panel, not on the Plugin Panel. You can update Plugins individually or in one mass, speeding up the process.
As important as it is to update WordPress, especially when there is a mandatory update to a security issue, updating your WordPress Theme and Plugins is just as critical.
WordPress Plugins are especially vulnerable as many are not written by experts or enthusiastically supported by their authors. There is no centralized documentation for writing a “secure” WordPress Plugin, updated with each new lesson learned from a security exploit or vulnerability in WordPress, PHP, MySQL, jQuery, AJAX, or JavaScript, making it a challenge to keep Plugins easily updated as well as safe.
The WordPress Plugin Directory and WordPress development team is working to improve documentation, education, and security which is why the new Plugin Upgrade feature is so important, keeping you informed of Plugins that require updates.
However, it does have limits. Only WordPress Plugins listed in the WordPress Plugin Directory are included in the Plugin Upgrade for easy upgrading. If you are using a Plugin downloaded and installed from another resource, WordPress cannot verify that Plugin’s history unless the Plugin includes the proper code to hook into the Plugin Upgrade feature. Check with the Plugin author to see if they have updated the Plugin accordingly.
