[wp-edu] removing plugins

Mon Apr 15 15:26:25 UTC 2013

Nicholas Skriloff wrote: 
"Juliana, 
Thanks for the information. 
In below, what query do you run to check if the plugin is in the WP database? 

> Our more manual process for blogs.brynmawr.edu goes something like: 
> 1) identify plugin to remove 
> 2) check in WP database which blogs have the plugin activated " 

I'm fortunate to be able to collaborate with our web sysadmin (Andrew Lacey) on WordPress cleanup projects. He said the following: 

"There isn't one single query that will do it. You need to run this query for each blog: 

select option_value from wp_#_options where option_name = "active_plugins" 

where # is the blog ID. I do this with a loop in a perl script (pull all the blog IDs first with a separate query, then loop through them). The resulting output contains all the plugins that are used by all blogs. You can then grep this for a particular plugin to see if anyone is using it." 

So obviously, a plugin that provides stats would be an easier option for those who don't have somebody in house who's comfortable with queries and scripts... If you have further questions, I'm happy to relay them to Andrew or put you in contact with him. 

Best, 
Juliana 

--- 
Juliana Perry 
Web Services Project Manager 
Bryn Mawr College 
610-526-7554 

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Subject: wp-edu Digest, Vol 42, Issue 3 

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Today's Topics: 

1. Re: Discussion board plugin (Covello, Steve) 
2. Re: Removing Plugins (Juliana Perry) 

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Message: 1 
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:17:42 +0000 
From: "Covello, Steve" <Steve.Covello at granite.edu> 
Subject: Re: [wp-edu] Discussion board plugin 
To: "wp-edu at lists.automattic.com" <wp-edu at lists.automattic.com> 
Message-ID: <CD8C755A.13471%steve.covello at granite.edu> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" 

Keep in mind that you may need to pay a monthly membership fee to WPMU to have access to their plugins ($19/mo.) ? even if you only want one of them. You can stop membership anytime, but you may miss out on updates and support if you do. I have had a somewhat adversarial position to their pricing model and have chosen to buy competitor's products that were sufficient, even though I would have preferred not to. 

On the other hand, you may prefer to pay the monthly fee to gain the advantage of all of the support resources if you need them, as well as having access to all the other plugins they provide that comes with membership. It depends on your needs. 

It's not a bad thing ? but just be informed before you consider the problem solved with a WPMU plugin. 

Thx ? Steve 

-- 
Steve Covello 
Rich Media Specialist/Online Instructor 
Granite State College 
603-513-1346 
Skype: steve.granitestate 
Scheduling: http://meetme.so/stevecovello 

From: Ronnie Burt <burtrw at gmail.com<mailto:burtrw at gmail.com>> 
Reply-To: "wp-edu at lists.automattic.com<mailto:wp-edu at lists.automattic.com>" <wp-edu at lists.automattic.com<mailto:wp-edu at lists.automattic.com>> 
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2013 2:08 PM 
To: "wp-edu at lists.automattic.com<mailto:wp-edu at lists.automattic.com>" <wp-edu at lists.automattic.com<mailto:wp-edu at lists.automattic.com>> 
Subject: Re: [wp-edu] Discussion board plugin 

Hey there, 

This plugin is really simple to use and works perfectly on large multisite networks. No configuration or headaches :) 

http://premium.wpmudev.org/project/forums/ 

It is well overdue for some new features and updates - though it may meet your needs. There should be quite a few new features and improvements in the next month or so. These new features are a direct result of feedback from the hundreds of universities and schools we work with. 

Thanks! 

Ronnie Burt 
Director of Operations 
Edublogs | Incsub | WPMU DEV 

Timezone: Austin, TX (UTC/GMT -6 hours) 
Twitter: @ronnieburt 

On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 1:04 PM, Joseph Ugoretz <joseph.ugoretz at mhc.cuny.edu<mailto:joseph.ugoretz at mhc.cuny.edu>> wrote: 
We have had fantastic success with Simple:Press. It is extremely feature-rich, so initial configuration can be challenging, but for the end-user or even for the site admin once it is set up it is completely friendly and effective. 

It is absolutely the best discussion board platform I have ever seen, far better than even dedicated forum software packages like phpBB, vBulletin or XenForo. 

Highly recommended. The plugin is free although support requires a paid membership (well worth it, the developers are responsive and helpful) 

http://simple-press.com/ 

Joe 

Joseph Ugoretz, PhD 
Associate Dean 
Teaching, Learning and Technology 
Macaulay Honors College 
City University of New York 
macaulay.cuny.edu<http://macaulay.cuny.edu> 

On Apr 11, 2013, at 1:56 PM, "Grogan, David" <David.Grogan at tufts.edu<mailto:David.Grogan at tufts.edu>> wrote: 

Hello, 

Can anyone make a recommendation on a discussion board plugin to use in a WP site? This is a multi-site instance and I'd like individual site admins to be able to place the discussion board on any page within their site. 

Thanks, 

David 

-------------------------------------------------------------- 
David Grogan 
Senior Solutions Specialist 
Educational & Scholarly Technology Services (ESTS) Tufts Technology Service (TTS) Tufts University 
108 Bromfield Rd 
Somerville, MA 02144 

Phone: 617.627.2859<tel:617.627.2859> 
Fax: 617.627.3082<tel:617.627.3082> 
http://it.tufts.edu/ests 

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Message: 2 
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:39:27 -0400 (EDT) 
From: Juliana Perry <jperry02 at brynmawr.edu> 
Subject: Re: [wp-edu] Removing Plugins 
To: wp-edu at lists.automattic.com 
Message-ID: 
<480360855.547324.1365709167936.JavaMail.root at ganesh.brynmawr.edu> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" 

Our more manual process for blogs.brynmawr.edu goes something like: 
1) identify plugin to remove 
2) check in WP database which blogs have the plugin activated 
3) determine if plugin was actually used on those blogs (we have had some users who will just activate all available plugins to see what they do), and if so, how it affects the blogs/if it can be extricated 
4) If it seems reasonable to remove, remove plugin on test server 
5) See if the blog(s) are broken 
6) if not, remove in production 

For plugin or theme removals that affect large numbers of blogs, we do the same thing we do for upgrades to spot check for problems-- review blogs on a list of high priority (college news, blogs used for classes, etc) blogs, and those that are typical examples of use of all remaining themes and plugins. If none of those are broken, we're probably okay. This method has gotten us through a lot of cleanup and a couple of upgrades successfully. 

I thought I'd share this in case others aren't set up for automated testing. 

FYI: Catherine Farman and I talked more about cleaning up and maintaining a large multisite install, and consolidating/revising homegrown themes and plugins, at edUi and WordCamp last year-- the slides are here if anyone is interested: http://2012.philly.wordcamp.org/2012/10/27/slides-presentations/ (and I believe the WordCamp talk is on wordpress.tv ). 

Best, 
Juliana Perry 

--- 
Juliana Perry 
Web Services Project Manager 
Bryn Mawr College 
610-526-7554 

----- Original Message ----- 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Message: 1 
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:26:29 +0000 
From: "Skriloff, Nicholas" <SkriloffN at darden.virginia.edu> 
Subject: [wp-edu] Removing Plugins 
To: "wp-edu at lists.automattic.com" <wp-edu at lists.automattic.com> 
Message-ID: 
<CA12CBE4F4AC324FBE1668F44FF17FD61FC3A1 at EXCH1.darden.virginia.edu> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" 

Here at Darden Business School we have our faculty blogs: http://blogs.darden.virginia.edu/ . Overtime some plugins that were once used are no longer used. We have a staging environment that is copy of our production environment. In our staging environment we want to run a process like 

1) Identify plugin to remove 

2) Run a test (like a selenium test) against all blogs 

3) Remove said pluging 

4) Run test again 

5) If nothing broke, the add it to the list of plugins that can be removed from production. 

How have any of you all done this? 

Sincerely, 
Nick Skriloff , ME , MCP, SCJP 
Information Technology Specialist 
Darden Information Services 
Voice 434 243 5025 Fax 434 243 2279 
skriloffn at darden.virginia.edu 
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