At kc web design Kent we use WordPress and Expression Engine to build most of our websites. They’re both fantastic content management systems but very different. After doing a lot of WordPress website design recently it’s been nice to get back into Expression Engine.
One of the things that WordPress does extremely well is updating. Whether it’s a plugin or the core itself, updating is fully automated and can be done with the click of a button in most cases. Unfortunately this is where Expression Engine is lacking some what. There’s no automated update process built in to Expression Engine so each time you want to upgrade the core system you have to backup database and files, copy over the new files then replace any custom files and themes. All the time you do this the site is offline and it does take some time to do it properly. For most web design professionals, including us here at kc web design kent, upgrading and updating core systems isn’t the most exciting of jobs and one that should be done easily and quickly – like WordPress does.
Updater for Expression Engine web design pro’s
To make things a lot easier when updating Expression Engine theres a plugin that can automate the process for you and gives you a very WordPress-like auto upgrade. For web designers and other web design professionals that don’t want to spend a lot of time doing manual upgrades to Expression Engine then the Updater plugin from Dev Demon is a brilliant time saver. It automates the whole process of backing up, installing the new files, taking the site offline for a few minutes and then adding back in your themes. It needs Expression Engine 2.2 or higher (which was a little disappointing as kc web design Kent needed it to work on some old pre 2.2 sites) and only costs $15! Hopefully, Expression Engine will talk the Dev Demon and get this functionality built into the core of Expression Engine as it’s definitely lacking in this area.