Category Archives: Upgrade

Upgrade to WordPress 5.0 February 15, 2019

On Friday, February 15 from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., we will be upgrading blog.ryerson.ca to version 5.0, “Bebo”. During this time, the system will not be available.

Welcome to ‘Gutenberg’

Last year, we announced that a new way of editing posts – a block editor called ‘Gutenberg’ – would be coming soon. WordPress 5.0 includes Gutenberg as the default content editor.

This may present a bit of a learning curve for some. It would be ideal if everyone could take some time to become familiar with this new editor, but we understand that not everyone has extra time. As such, there will be a new plugin called “Classic Editor” that each blog administrator can choose to enable if they would prefer to stick with the “old” post editor for the remainder of the term.

For details on the coming upgrade, please see the WordPress release notes: WordPress 5.0 “Bebo”.


How will my blog be impacted?

As always, we are conducting a broad range of tests to ensure the upgrade doesn’t negatively impact our network of sites. Unfortunately, we cannot test all combinations of plugins, themes and content types. If we find any issues related to the upgrade, I will update this post (see the list below).

After the upgrade is complete, please contact us if you have any issues with areas of your site that worked prior to the update.


Known issues with WordPress (v 5.0x)

Impacted areaDescriptionStatus
Categories – when assigned in Post Editor screen.Some users receive an error message when attempting to save/publish a post with certain categories selected.

Workaround:
In the list of posts, use the ‘Quick Edit’ feature to assign categories after the post has been completed and published.

Known issues with Gutenberg

Impacted areaDescriptionStatus
Audio/video playlists – no blockThere is no audio/video playlist block at this time.

Workaround:
Use the “Shortcode” Gutenberg block, with the playlist shortcode. Details can be found on the WordPress codex.
Button block doesn’t respect colour selections when using Twenty fourteen theme.
Despite selecting foreground and backgroundcolours, the button background appears bright green (from the Twenty Fourteen theme)Workaround: Instead of selecting one of the colour options you see, click the multicoloured wheel and select a ‘custom’ colour. These seem to work as expected.
Add block option (“+”) does not always display between blocks.When you hover on the borders in between, above and below blocks, the + icon should appear to add a block in that space. Sometimes the one above the currently selected block does not appear.Workaround: Try selecting another block, to shift the focus OR save your post as a draft and reload the post editor.

blog.ryerson.ca: Outage December 18

On Tuesday, December 18 from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., we will be upgrading the version of PHP that runs on blog.ryerson.ca. During this time, the system will not be available.

UPDATE December 5: Please note that this upgrade will not include an update to WordPress 5.0. This will be scheduled for the new year.

Recommendation for Fall 2018 course blogs

As this upgrade may impact the way that some of the blogs run, we strongly recommend that the grading of all Fall 2018 blogs be completed prior to the December 18 update.

An email has been sent out to all instructors who have course blogs running this term.


How will my blog.ryerson.ca blog be impacted?

Our initial tests have not shown much impact to specific blog functionality, however, we cannot test all combinations of plugins, themes and content types. If we find any issues related to the upgrade, I will update this post (see the list below).

After the upgrade is complete, please contact us if you have any issues with areas of your site that worked prior to the update.


Known issues after the PHP 7.1 upgrade

Impacted areaDescription
Theme: Under the influenceBroken after PHP 7.1 upgrade.
Few blogs are using this theme, and owners have been contacted. As this theme is no longer being developed, it will be removed from blog.ryerson.ca.

Upgrade to blog.ryerson.ca on Friday, December 01, 2017 – WordPress 4.9, ‘Tipton’

blog.ryerson.ca will be upgraded to WordPress 4.9 on Friday, December 01, 2017 between 6:00am and 8:00am.

blog.ryerson.ca users, and visitors to your sites, may experience a brief outage during this time.

This upgrade includes some feature changes, security fixes and performance updates.
For more information, see:
https://wordpress.org/news/2017/11/tipton/.

Please report any problems you may experience post-upgrade via the form linked on our Contact Us page.

What’s New in “Tipton”?

  • A new widget for easily adding a gallery.
  • An improved text widget, adding the ability to embed media.
  • Customizer updates that allow you to save changes as ‘draft’ or schedule them to release at a later date.

Upgrade on Friday, July 14, 2017 – blog.ryerson.ca to upgrade to WordPress 4.8, ‘Evans’

blog.ryerson.ca will be upgraded to WordPress 4.8 on Friday, July 14, 2017 between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m.

blog.ryerson.ca users, and visitors to your sites, may experience a brief outage during this time.

This upgrade includes some feature changes, security fixes and performance updates.
Details can be found here.

Please report any problems you may experience post-upgrade via the form linked on our Contact Us page.

What’s New in “Evans”?

  • A few new media widgets, including widgets for easily adding images, video cliips, and audio.
  • A an improved text widget, adding Rich Text functionality for easy styling of text.


Upgrade on Friday, January 13, 2017 – blog.ryerson.ca to upgrade to WordPress 4.7, ‘Vaughan’

blog.ryerson.ca will be upgraded to WordPress 4.7 on Friday, January 13, 2017 between 6:00am and 8:00am.

blog.ryerson.ca users, and visitors to your sites, may experience a brief outage during this time.

This upgrade includes some feature changes, security fixes and performance updates.
Details can be found here.

Please report any problems you may experience post-upgrade via the form linked on our Contact Us page.

What’s New in “Vaughan”?

  • A new theme – Twenty Seventeen.
  • A simplified process for creating menus using Customizer.
  • Ability to add Custom CSS.

Upgrade on Tuesday, August 30, 2016 – blog.ryerson.ca to upgrade to WordPress 4.6, ‘Pepper’

blog.ryerson.ca will be upgraded to WordPress 4.6 on Tuesday, August 30, 2016 between 6:00am and 8:00am.

blog.ryerson.ca users, and visitors to your sites, may experience a brief outage during this time.

This upgrade includes some feature changes, security fixes and performance updates.
Details can be found here.

Please report any problems you may experience post-upgrade via the form linked on our Contact Us page.

What’s New in “Pepper”?

  • A new inline link checker.
  • Drafts saved to your browser (for easy content recovery if you lose your internet connection while authoring a post).
  • Faster loading of admin interface, through use of fonts already installed on your device.

Upgrade on Friday, May 28, 2016 to WordPress 4.5.2, ‘Coleman’

blog.ryerson.ca will be upgraded to WordPress 4.5.2 on Friday, May 27, 2016 between 6:00am and 8:00am.

blog.ryerson.ca users and visitors to your sites may experience a brief outage during this time.

This upgrade includes some feature changes, security fixes and performance updates.
Details can be found here.

Please report any problems you may experience post-upgrade via the form linked on our Contact Us page.

Friday, March 11, 2016 – blog.ryerson.ca to upgrade to WordPress 4.4.2, ‘Clifford’

blog.ryerson.ca will be upgraded to WordPress 4.4.2 on Friday, March 11, 2016 between 6:00am and 8:00am.

blog.ryerson.ca users and visitors to your sites may experience a brief outage during this time.

This upgrade includes some feature changes, security fixes and performance updates.
Details can be found here.

Please report any problems you may experience post-upgrade via the form linked on our Contact Us page.

What’s New in “Clifford”?

  • A new default theme, Twenty Sixteen (preview it here!)
  • Responsive Images.
  • New ability to embed WordPress posts into other WordPress posts.


Friday, October 2, 2015 – blog.ryerson.ca to upgrade to WordPress 4.3.1, ‘Billie’

blog.ryerson.ca will be upgraded to WordPress 4.3.1 on Friday, October 02, 2015 between 6:00am and 8:00am.

blog.ryerson.ca users and visitors to your sites may experience a brief outage during this time.

This upgrade includes some feature changes, security fixes and performance updates.
Details can be found here.

Please report any problems you may experience post-upgrade via the form linked on our Contact Us page.

What’s New in “Billie”?

  • Menu editor in the Customizer.
  • Shortcuts to formatting text in your posts.
  • Site icons, that appear in browser tabs, bookmarks, and on the home screen of mobile devices.
  • Various coding and security fixes.


Friday, February 6, 2015 – blog.ryerson.ca to upgrade to WordPress 4.1, ‘Dinah’

blog.ryerson.ca will be upgraded to WordPress 4.1 on Friday, February, 2015 between 6:00am and 8:00am.

blog.ryerson.ca users and visitors to your sites may experience a brief outage during this time.

This upgrade includes some feature changes, security fixes and performance updates.
Details can be found here.

Please report any problems you may experience post-upgrade via the form linked on our Contact Us page.

What’s New in “Dinah”?

  • A new default theme, Twenty Fifteen (preview it here!)
  • A ‘distraction-free writing’ mode in the post/page editor.
  • Log out everywhere – make sure you are logged out of your WordPress site in all locations.
  • Vine embeds, by simply pasting a URL onto its own line in a post (similar to current Youtube and Vimeo capability in WordPress).