Now that WP-United v0.8 is released, you will be wondering how to upgrade an existing v0.7x installation.

The procedure is simple. However, while you are upgrading, site visitors will receive errors, and certain pages will be inaccessible. It is therefore important that you bring your site offline during the upgrade process. The easiest way is probably to require a username and password using your .htaccess and an htpasswd file.

Once your site is offline, you are ready to upgrade. Open the file contrib/upgrading_from_v0.5.5_or_later/upgrade.xml in your browser, and read through the instructions before beginning.

Then follow the below steps:

• Delete your phpbb-root/wp-united directory from your server — it contains old files that need to be removed.
• Perform all the file copies and edits indicated in the upgrade.xml file — there are edits to three files, and you need to copy everything from root to your live site. If you renamed or moved blog.php, don’t forget to replace it with the new one for v0.8, and then edit it and provide the path back to phpBB, like you did before.
• Next, open up the file wp-united/options.php on your server,find the option WPU_DISABLE, and change the option from FALSE to TRUE. This will temporarily disable WP-United so you can complete the upgrade.
• Visit your phpBB Admin Control Panel, and purge the phpBB cache. This is important, without this the new WP-United hooks may not run.
• Visit the WP-United Setup Wizard, and run it all the way through.
• When completed, go back to your wp-united/options.php and change WPU_DISABLE from TRUE back to FALSE

Your upgrade should now be complete. Surf your site and play with the various new options. When satisfied, re-enable access to your site.

Remember that WP-United v0.8 contains many additions and changes. It is recommended that you test it on an offline copy of your forum first to ensure the upgrade will fit your needs before upgrading your live site.

Happy blogging!