Yesterday www.diythemes.com released their Thesis 1.8.3 Update. Although I was going to wait a few days to perform the install I broke down and updated. And I’m happy to say I guess I’m one of the lucky few who haven’t had any issues with the update (*crosses fingers*!) But it was fairly painless (for me anyways) so I’m posting my update process which will hopefully help a few people out when they decide to update.
If you don’t know what Thesis is? It is quite possibly the best premium theme / framework you will ever purchase for your WordPress blog. You get the flexibility and control you want with your blog as well as built in SEO which means it is Search Engine Friendly. I absolutely love Thesis – and this latest update made it even more awesome! To check it out I suggest clicking on the banner below to learn more about it.
But – before we go into all that – you should get the “why” you should update first!
So What Has Changed?
Um alot? OK seriously the updates are listed below:
- The ability to automatically combine all *.css style sheets into one. This means your site should be a little snappier when it loads. This option is turned OFF by default. To enable it you will need to go to Site Options -> Stylesheet Options and UNCHECK the box.
- The Header and FavIcon image uploader now uses the new WordPress framework that allows you to “drag and drop” to upload images.
- Thesis now supports WP Network or Multi-Site Support. Basically if you had Thesis on a WP Network (multiple sites) in the past… it didn’t work very well. Now it will correctly detect and create a “custom” folder for each site making them completely independent of one another! Thesis is the only custom framework/theme that can currently claim to do this.
- Complete GravityForms CSS Support. It means if you have this Premium Plugin installed on your site it will detect it correctly and apply the necessary CSS stylings to match the rest of your site. Which is definitely a cool thing (Now if they would do it for a few other freebie ones used by the rest of us broke people!)
- And a few other tweaks and bugs were addressed:
- Thesis admin scripts are now suppressed on all non-Thesis admin pages.
- An upgraded widget code for tighter integration with WordPress, and while they were at it, the diythemes dev team (erm… person?) added new display options to the Thesis search widget.
- Thanks to feedback from developers, they were able to resolve everything that triggered warnings when using WP_DEBUG.
Why Is it Only 1.8.3 and Where Is 2.0?
After reading about all the tweaks and updates they did – this technically should be version 1.9. But developers are weird about stuff like this so I don’t question them on version names.
And they have a huge post about 2.0, the process, what it is going to deliver (gold I say gold!) and an estimated release date.
So How Did I Upgrade?
This is the method that worked for me and my site. Mind you I have a VERY simple site – so your results might vary.
First you need to purchase and download the latest releast from www.diythemes.com 
If your are performing a new install - don’t follow my directions – go to their site and follow the instructions for a new install!
If you are performing an update? Keep Reading.
BACKUP YOUR WEBSITE AND DATABASE BEFORE UPDATING! Sorry for yelling – but if you need to rollback I would highly suggesting knowing how to backup and restore your stuff before installing the update. It will change the database enough to make it impossible to rollback.
And if you haven’t read my other article on creating a Sandbox / Test Bed to try this first before rolling out into production – I highly highly highly suggest doing that before installing this update.
Quick and Dirty
This is for those ‘experts’ out there who just want the information instead of a ste-by-step. If you’re not comfortable with these steps I get a little more wordy below it so skip by this.
- Download thesis_183.zip
- Unzip to your Desktop
- Rename the custom_thesis folder to just custom inside of thesis_183
- Get a backup of your custom folder from thesis_182
- Copy your Cache, custom.css, and custom_functions.php into the thesis_183/custom folder
- Upload thesis_183 to your wp_content/themes directory
- Go to your WordPress Admin -> Appearance -> Themes Menu and Activate thesis_183
- Go into the Thesis setting in your WordPress Dashboard
- (If Needed) Click on the Big Ass Update Button (it’s something like that – it really is big) to update.
- Go into each of the Thesis Menu’s and Click on the Big Ass Save Button
- Visit your site to verify it is working.
- Done
The Step-by-Step
So you have your thesis_183.zip? Great!
- Unzip to your Desktop
- Go to your WebHost and FTP/Copy your Custom Folder from /wp_content/themes/thesis_182/ to your Desktop as well (not into the thesis_183 folder!)
- So now you have both folders – now what?
- Open both folders so you have them side by side on your desktop.
- Inside the thesis_183 folder – rename the current folder called ‘custom-sample’ to just ‘custom’.
- Open that renamed custom folder from within the thesis_183 folder.
- Great – now you should be staring at TWO Custom Folders – Don’t lose track here or you will need to start over!
- Now from the Custom Folder you copied from your old Thesis install – Copy the Cache folder, custom.css, and custom_functions.php.
- Paste the cache folder, custom.css, and custom_functions.php into the custom folder under the Thesis_183/custom directory and overwrite the existing files. DO NOT copy over the existing layout.css file.
- Ok, Almost Done!
- Now FTP up to your host to the wp_content/themes/ directory (do not ftp the files into your thesis_182 folder.
- Using your FTP Program (like Filezilla) go into the custom folder under /wp_content/themes/thesis_183 folder and change the permission to the layout.css to 655. (For most FTP Programs you would right click on the file and click on File Permissions or Set Permissions)
- After you have uploaded the thesis_183 folder and set the permissions to your host you will need to go to your WordPress Admin page.
- I would suggest deactivating any type of Cache Plugin you have installed.
- Go to your Appearance -> Themes
- Select the thesis_183 Theme and Activate it!
- Go into the Thesis Menu inside of WordPress – and click the BIG UPDATE NOW button.
- At this point it is going to look like a train wreck hit your site – don’t stress!
- Go through each Thesis menu and hit the Big As Save Button (sorry I like saying it). It should have auto populated all of your previous settings and if you had updated your custom.css and custom_functions.php it will read those as well.
- Afterwards then visit your site. It ‘should’ look exactly like it did before.
At this point you should be able to turn back on any cache plugins (i.e. WP Super Cache) and life should be good. BUT – if it isn’t unfortunately you only have a few options left to you:
- Comment Below and I’ll see what I can do to help
- Go back to the www.diythemes.com website and post an issue in their forums
- Rollback using the aforementioned backup of the database you performed before attempting this.
Note: You cannot backup and install your Thesis backup settings as they have changed significantly enough that even if you do you Thesis will just take you back to the Big Update Button.
Oh, and if you don’t have the Thesis them yet? You need to click on the banner below to find out how to purchase it today!
Leave a comment below if you have any questions, concerns, complaints etc.. about the update process.
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