As much as I love WordPress as a blogging platform, the plugin, theme and upgrade mechanisms have always seemed a little kludgy to me.
There’s too much diving into the filesystem, unzipping downloads, FTPing files and directories to specific locations, and in the case of upgrades, futzing around disabling and re-enabling plugins, backing up the database and files, taking care not to overwrite a few critical files, etc.
With 7 WordPress sites to look after, it used to take me all evening to upgrade them whenever a new version came out.
Enter the [WordPress Automatic Upgrade](http://techie-buzz.com/wordpress-plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade-plugin-update.html) plugin.
This thing is sweet. Once the plugin is installed, it’s just a click to upgrade your site. The plugin will backup your database and all your files, download the latest WordPress distribution, disable your plugins, install the updated files, and re-enable your plugins. It then gives you the link to click on to upgrade your database, and you’re done!
The whole process takes just a couple of minutes per site.
All WordPress needs now is a way to upload plugins and themes via the admin interface.