Comments on: How Many Versions of WordPress Should Plugins Support?

By: John

John — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:09:11 +0000

I think a timeframe rather than # of versions would maybe be a better metric. So, 12 months would maybe be reasonable.

By: Gwen

Gwen — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:15:28 +0000

This is why we are upgrading. I would hate to be hacked. This is our business and if I need to upgrade so be it.

By: Wesley

Wesley — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:46:41 +0000

As others have said, simply the latest and latest-1 version should be supported. Some users might not yet want to update because some plugins don't yet work etc..

Users who don't update and are still on 2.5 or less probably don't have a very active blog and will soon be hacked anyway.

By: johnkolbert

johnkolbert — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:34:08 +0000

Bhavesh, good to hear from you! Yes, WordPress is notorious for quickly releasing new versions. It can make it tough for plugin developers (or theme developers like your self) to keep up with all the changes. It seems reasonable to support the previous version until the second incremental version is released. For example, support 2.6 until 2.7.1 is released.

By: R.Bhavesh

R.Bhavesh — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:24:24 +0000

Its unfortunate that wordpress keeps releasing new versions every few months. I believe the plugin should support the previous version unless the new version is not stable (2months after the new version is released probably).

e.g. the new 2.7 version had(or still have?) some permalink issues that would force people to switch back to older versions.

By: Miroslav Glavic

Miroslav Glavic — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:17:48 +0000

I was looking for a plugin and saw it was valid/tested up to 2.3.1 or something like that.
Do people seriously have WordPress installations that are THAT old?
People whine and complain when their WordPress sites get hacked. If you keep your WordPress installations up-to-date, your plugins and themes up-to-date then that will reduce the risk to a lot less than outdated WordPress installations/plugins/themes.

There is no excuse to have WordPress 2.3.1, or anything that old. If your plugin hasn’t been updated in let’s say a year….uninstall it, find one that is similar…as there are so many plugins that do the same, the author won’t support it then get another one that does the same thing. Themes, there are thousands.

As for how many previous versions…..I would say up to 12 months after the new version comes.

Keep support for the last version before the current (so when 2.8 comes, then still support 2.7 series, but drop 2.6 series and lower).

2.3.x WordPress installations are just webmastered by extremely lazy webmasters.

plugins and themes that are not updated in over a year then you are just being lazy.

By: Allan Collins

Allan Collins — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:27:37 +0000

@johnkolbert – I feel that if we continue to support older versions of WP, we are sending the message to website owners that it is okay to have an outdated CMS.

Although, it would be nice to know what the market share is for WP versions.

By: johnkolbert

johnkolbert — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:20:47 +0000

Hey Allan. Thanks for your comment. So your thought it the current version plus the previous version? That sounds reasonable.

By: Allan Collins

Allan Collins — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:10:36 +0000

I would say to only support 2.6 and higher.