Version 2.5 of the WordPress blog platform was released a few hours ago.

I’m about to upgrade this blog to that latest version via the 1-click install functionality provided by my hosting service, DreamHost.They are exceedingly quick off the mark in making this upgrade available, so avoiding the manual upgrade process.

If the upgrade is successful with no issues (eg, with any plugins), I’ll upgrade my main blog within the next few days.

Everything should go swimmingly…

[Later] It all did go swimmingly. About 15 minutes after I activated the 1-click upgrade at DreamHost, I received an auto-email saying the upgrade was done.

A link in that email took me to a screen saying the database required updating. Clicked on the ‘update’ link; a couple of seconds later, I was at the site, all looking exactly as it did before the upgrade.

When I logged in, though, I got an error. Rather, I got a blank screen with a single line of text, a link to Technorati inbounds.

My immediate thought was a plugin error, specifically the Berri Technorati Reactions on Dashboard plugin. A quick dive in to the site via FTP and I deleted the plugin.

(I hadn’t disabled any plugins before doing the install, against the recommendations in the upgrade guide in the WordPress Codex.)

That fixed it - the login in now works correctly and no errors appear as this screenshot of the new dashboard shows:

Soft pastel colours are the first thing you notice about the appearance of the new dashboard.

And it’s behind the scenes that the changes from versions prior to 2.5 are really apparent, starting with that new dashboard. Lots more to discover, though.

So, a successful upgrade to WordPress 2.5.