Automate Just Got More Amazing – Introducing ‘Safe Upgrade’

G’day all and strewth we’re super happy you liked Automate so much maaaaate. And, as you did, we’ve doubled down our efforts to add in some pretty sweet improvements, starting with what we’re calling “Safe Upgrades.”

Wanna take a look? Thought so :)

Here’s what the new change means for Automate’s new updating process:

1. Automate creates a backup of your site
2. Safe Upgrade takes a screen grab of your homepage
3. If that’s successful, Automate upgrades the plugins and themes you’ve selected as trusted (along with WordPress core)
4. Safe Upgrade checks your site is up and error-free (using our Uptime service)
5. Safe Upgrade takes a new screen grab of your homepage and compares it with the original one
6. We send you an email with the happy news :) (plus it’s all stored in an activity log) including the uptime and error check AND the new screen grab with any % differences highlighted

So, we’re basically automatically testing how the upgrade went and immediately emailing you to let you know all about it… Check it out:

However, if there are significant changes, not only will we tell you the %, but we’ll also highlight them in jarring pink, so you don’t miss them (unless your website is entirely pink ;)

Now, as you can tell above, the % difference is down to a massive slider, and we do make a note that sliders and other dynamic content may well make a difference. And hey, you can see it in the email so no drama there!

And it’s super, super easy to set up. In fact, we think it’s so important that we’ve already done it for you :)

Of course, you can configure the email that you want the email sent to and also the frequency. I like “immediately,” so I can see if there are any issues, but you can also get daily, weekly or monthly digests.

And, of course, there’s a complete log where you can now not only review updates and backups but also the screen grabs that Safe Upgrade has made!

Let us know how you like Safe Upgrades and any other new Automate features you’d like in the comments, we can’t wait to get your feedback :)

And, if you’re not already a WPMU DEV member, why not try a membership to see how we can change your WordPress ways forever!