Manage WordPress Automatic Background Updates from within iControlWP

A few weeks ago, WordPress 3.7 was released, bringing with it Automatic Background Updates.

Several people asked us if we thought this made a service like iControlWP useless.  Far from it, we said.

The challenge of keeping your WordPress network current and up-to-date still faces all of us.

This week we’ll see the release of a unique combination of WordPress management services (that’s us!), and the WordPress Automatic Background Updates feature.

First, a little word about Automatic WordPress Background Updates

Automatic updates doesn’t remove the responsibility we all have to make sure our WordPress sites don’t crumble when a plugin update is released.

We still have to do the necessary testing and keep regular daily backups (WorpDrive anyone?) to keep our sites tip-top.

But, there are some plugins more robustly built than others and we can safely rely on them to update without a hitch.

This is where automatic background updates is perfect.

So what’s coming to iControlWP?

iControlWP will let you select each individual plugin on all your WordPress sites to be picked up by the automatic WordPress Background Updates system.

By default, WordPress Background Updates only updates minor upgrades for the WordPress core, and updates to translations.

However, they kindly left in the option to configure your automatic updates right down to the level of individual plugins and themes.

We have now built an integration that interfaces directly with the native WordPress Background Updates and lets you selectively choose which plugins and themes will be automatically updated.

Pretty neat?  We think so.

Not only that, we’re the only WordPress management system in existence that offers this unique feature (amongst several others).  But you can be sure they’ll get around to copying us eventually… they usually do.

What are the requirements for this feature?

Any one who has been following along for the last couple of months would have noticed our new WordPress security plugin – the WordPress Simple Firewall.

This security plugin is around 4 months old and is filled with features not found anywhere else.  One of these, is the ability to manage WordPress automatic updates.

Instead of duplicating code, we’re going to make this plugin a requirement for this feature.  But don’t worry – if you already use a security plugin there wont be any interference. We have specifically built our plugin to be completely modular and you can turn on and off parts of the plugin without affecting the rest.

So, when you come to use the automatic update features inside iControlWP, you’ll have the option to let us automatically install the WordPress Simple Firewall plugin for you.

Then, iControlWP will basically talk to the plugin and tell it what you want.  And it’s that easy. 🙂

What will it look like?

It’ll look great! Last week we silently released an update that lets you manage all your WordPress plugins for each individual site.  This is different when you compare it to what there was before, and the other WordPress management system.

Normally they only let you manage plugins that have updates, we let you manage them all!

Check out the screenshot below to see just how it’s going to look…

Questions and suggestions?

We’re always working away here to make iControlWP the best WordPress management system available today.

You’re telling us we’re doing a good job, and that’s great, but we want to know where and how we can improve our service.

If you have ideas for improvements or suggestions, please always feel free to leave us a comment or drop us a line on our support desk.