July 4th, 2011 update: WordPress 3.2 has now been released! Always be sure to backup your WordPress site/blog as well as your database before upgrading, just in case something goes wrong (rare, but it can happen)!

Original post:

WordPress 3.2 is being released soon, and if you have a self-hosted WordPress website or blog, then you should be aware that it’s super important to keep your WordPress installation up-to-date, both for security reasons as well as to keep everything functioning properly, and also to have access to the new options. If you don’t have time to keep up with these updated, UC Web Creations does offer Maintenance Plans that you can subscribe to. There are several plans available, and they are very affordable – the lowest plan costs only $25/month, and it will give you peace of mind to know that your site is being kept up-to-date every month so that you can just worry about your content.

There are some important updates being made to WordPress 3.2 – the most important being that you will need to ensure your hosting server is up-to-date with the following minimum version of PHP and MySQL:

WordPress 3.2 Requirements

• PHP 5.2.4
• MySQL 5.0.15

If you’re not sure how to check this, here’s a quick online tool provided by iThemes that you can use to at least verify your server’s PHP version:

http://php5ready.ithemes.com/

You can also install the following plugin to do a health check on your server – it will tell you both the PHP and MySQL versions:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/health-check/

Web developers and designers will also be ECSTATIC to know that Internet Explorer 6 will no longer be supported! Yay!!! Some of the design and developing nightmares will finally be at an end!! Even Microsoft is counting down the days when IE6 is no longer used! WordPress 3.2 will also start the process of ending support for IE7, so its accompanying nightmares are soon to be no more!

One of the updates I’m personally looking forward to is the fact that WordPress 3.2 will be faster than ever before! Among other improvements, you’ll have faster page loads and faster upgrades! There are many more updates being made to this release of WordPress, but I wanted to highlight that there is a technical requirement now for your hosting server, hence why I wrote this post. Again, you must ensure you are using PHP version 5.2.4 and MySQL version 5.0.15 for WordPress 3.2 to work correctly. If you don’t have these versions on your web hosting server, you will risk losing your site! Always always always ensure you backup your site or blog before applying any upgrades! I have had to revert back to an older version many times and try upgrading again, and if I hadn’t backed up my site or my clients’ sites, I would’ve been facing an unpleasant (not to mention frustration) situation.

WordPress 3.2 – more info

For more information on version 3.2 and its new features and enhancements, check out the official WordPress.org site info here:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_3.2

Related posts:

1. WordPress 2.8.5: Hardening Release (Security Update)
2. WordPress Security Tips: Avoid The Hackers Series (Part 1)
3. Differences Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
4. Are you ready to make money online?
5. PluginBuddy’s BackupBuddy Saved My WordPress Site!