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How To Sleep Better After an Upgrade - Blog Unit Testing

Posted: 05 Feb 2009 06:25 AM PST

Upgrading your blog platform? This guest post from Sid Savara, who writes about personal development and personal productivity is for you.

If you’re a Thesis user (like me) you may have had some issues recently when upgrading to version 1.4. The issues affected a minority of Thesis users, and required reverting to an old version of Thesis for the sites to function while Chris Pearson troubleshot the issue - on his customer’s servers, free of charge. Chris was very responsive and issued a patch the same day (1.4.1), followed by another patch over the weekend (1.4.2). My hat’s off to Chris for providing what can only be called unparalleled customer support in a difficult situation.

This experience brings me to the larger issue - how do you ensure everything on your blog still works after an upgrade? This isn’t the first time I’ve had an issue upgrading - and I’m certainly not the first Wordpress user to experience hiccups during the upgrade process either. We all occasionally have issues when we upgrade plugins, install a new plugin or upgrade Wordpress itself.

Perhaps the most sinister are those issues where everything looks like it’s working fine. Sometimes after an upgrade I won’t even notice an issue until days later, and I’ll have to go back through my plugins one at a time to see what originally caused the problem.

Until recently, I checked for problems after an upgrade with the old blogger favorite “randomly click around and see if anything looks broken” strategy. The weakness of this strategy is the propensity to miss errors. I decided I needed a way to be more certain that everything went smoothly, and borrowed a couple concepts from my background in software engineering to help: Unit Tests and Regression Testing.

Unit Tests and Regression Testing

Units tests are simple, single function tests done to ensure every part of the software does what it is supposed to. If the test fails, you know exactly where the problem is and can fix it. Likewise, for my blog, each unit test checks for a specific piece of blog functionality.

In software development, a test might work at the time I first run it - but down the road I may change something that causes the test to fail. Repeating the tests whenever any change is made is called regression testing. In my years of software development, I’ve learned that a new change can cause software to react in ways we may not expect. Upgrading a plugin may cause another plugin to fail, or perhaps cause errors in your RSS subscriptions (which happened to me). For this reason, whenever I upgrade or install anything new to my blog, it is important I retest everything, every time - even if the change appears unrelated.

Blog Unit Tests

With that background, here is a handy checklist to review every time you install new plugins or themes, or upgrade any part of your blog. Some tests are especially relevant when installing a new theme, while some should be reviewed carefully in cases of plugin installs and upgrades. Since you won’t know exactly what is affected by each change, it’s important to go through the entire list every time. This list gives you specific checks you can run through in 15-30 minutes and know that your installation is successful. I use Wordpress - but this list should apply regardless of your blog or CMS platform.

Note: When running these tests, be sure to force a refresh and clear your browser cache before beginning so you are seeing the current version of your site. If this sounds like Greek to you, here’s a brief explanation of forcing refreshes.

Index page
1. Title of the page. Is it what you want it to be? Are site name and tag line in the order you desire?
2. Site name. Is it present? Is it clickable (if you want it to be)?
3. Description/tag line. Is it present? Is it clickable (if you want it to be)?
4. Header image. Does clicking on it return you to the home page? Do you want it to?
5. Favicon. Is your favicon still present? This is a sinister one, as browsers sometimes cache these even if you are forcing a refresh.
6. Excerpts, Thumbnails and Full Posts. Is the index showing excerpts or full posts the way you want it to? If applicable, are thumbnails and featured posts where they should be?
7. Post Titles/Permalinks. Does clicking on a post title take you to the blog post?
8. Comment links. Are the correct comment counts displayed? Does clicking the link take you to the appropriate comment form?
9. Categories/Tags. Are category and tag links displayed? Do you want them to be?
10. Meta description. View your page source. Look for <meta name=”description” content=”[…]” />. Is the value in the […] what you expect it to be? See SEO Tips for Blogs for a detailed discussion of why this is important. You may, optionally, want to repeat this test on single post pages.
Index sidebar (s), navigation links and footer
1. Widget enabled theme. Are all the widgets present?
2. Widget order. Are the widgets in the order they should be?
3. Links in widgets the sidebar. Does clicking a link take you where you expect it to? Appropriate pages, external sites, etc? Do the links open in a new window, or the current window?
4. Site wide navigation (if applicable). Are all the links present? Are they in the order desired? Click a couple. Do the links work? Do the links open in a new window, or the current window?
Archive pages - tags, categories, sitemap, and date based
1. Index page tests. Repeat all the same tests as the index page. Spot check one category, one tag and one month archive as applicable. If you have a sitemap, check that as well.
Single Post pages
1. Title bar. Is the post title and site name in the order desired? Does it show everything you want? Post Title, Category, Site Name, Tag Line?
2. Post Title. Is the post title present? Is it clickable (or not) depending on what you want?
3. Comment links. Do you want a link to the comment form displayed near the post title? Are the correct comment counts displayed? Does clicking that link take you to the appropriate comment form?
4. Next/Previous post links. Are they displayed? Before, after, or both? Are they nofollowed or dofollow based on your preference?
5. Page layout. Are sidebars, navigation links and footer present? Repeat the checks described under #2 above, Index sidebar (s), navigation links and footer .
6. Categories and tags. Are categories displayed (or hidden) as desired? How about tags? Are they clickable? Are they nofollow or follow based on your preference?
7. Breadcrumbs. If you have breadcrumbs, are they present and appropriate for the navigation you desire?
8. Comment and Trackbacks: run through the list below.
Comment and Trackbacks
1. Comment form. Is your comment form present?
2. Comments. Are comments displayed? Are the comment counts accurate? Do the gravatars work, if desired?
3. Trackbacks. Is the trackback link present? Do you want it to be? Are your trackbacks listed?
4. Test comment. Submit a test comment. Does your comment submit? Is it held in a moderation queue?
5. Comment subscriptions. Subscribe to comments option
  1. Comment feed. Subscribe to a comment feed - do you see all the comments? When you submit/approve a new comment, does it update?
  2. Subscribe by email. If applicable, try subscribing by email and then submitting another comment - are you notified via email?
Regular pages
1. Comments on pages. Do you have comments enabled? Do you want them to be? Trackbacks?
2. Sidebars. Are sidebars present? Do you want them to be?
3. Page hierarchy. Is the hierarchy displayed the way you want it to be? How about your permalink?
4. Repeat all the tests for the single post pages.
Images and image links
1. Images. Navigate to a page or blog post with images hosted on your blog. Do your images load? Check the alt text and title text on the images - are they what you want them to be?
2. Larger image. Does clicking the image bring up the large version (if applicable)? Is the link nofollow or follow based on your preference?
RSS feed
1. New post. Publish a test post - does it appear in your feed? (You are subscribed to your own feed, right?)
2. RSS Link. Double check the RSS link - is it pointing to your feed?
Errors and Redirects
1. 404 page. Type in an address that does not exist. Review the 404 page. Is it the way you want it to be?
2. Redirects. Have you redirected posts or pages in the past? Spot check a few. A couple internal posts, a couple internal pages, and a couple external links.
Contact form (if applicable)
1. Send a test email. Send yourself a test email to ensure your contact form still works. Do you receive the email? Are all the fields present?
2. Confirmation. Do you see an appropriate confirmation shown to the user on the site after submission? If applicable, is a confirmation email sent to the submitter?

This is only a partial list - but it’s a great starting point. If you have specific plugins installed such as CommentLuv, or various search plugins, be sure to check all of them individually as well. If you have a plugin that generates your sitemap, and you upgrade it - that’s a good time to go and double check that your sitemap page still loads appropriately.

What do you think? What tips do you have for ensuring upgrades go smoothly?

This is a guest post from Sid Savara, who writes about personal development and personal productivity at SidSavara.com. If you’re struggling to get through everything in your RSS reader and inbox, you should definitely click through to learn How to Effectively Read 12,853 Articles, Forum Topics & Blog Posts a Week.

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13 Quick tips to Make Your Blog STAND OUT from the Crowd

Posted: 04 Feb 2009 06:29 AM PST

With a new blog being started every second it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. Following are some tips on how to differentiate your blog from the millions of others out there.

Image by c.a. muller

1. Pick a unique topic - it is easier said than done to choose a topic that is unique from everyone else today in a blogosphere as crowded as we’re currently in - however opportunities do arise to start blogs on topics that are new trends, products or ideas. Being first doesn’t guarantee success - but it can help.

2. Develop a Unique Voice - while it may not always be possible to choose a unique topic it can sometimes be easier to cover that topic in a way that others do not. Whether it be by using humor, blogging as a character (think Fake Steve Jobs blog), blogging in the 3rd Person (Manolo the Shoe Blogger) or some other way - finding a unique voice or style can set you apart from the rest.

3. Design - having a unique blog design doesn’t mean you need to pay big dollars for a custom design - start with a default one (or a premium design like Thesis) and tweak it with a unique logo, colors and layout. Visual first impressions count and can be the deciding factor as to whether people subscribe to your blog or not.

4. Useful Content - perhaps the best way to stand out from the crowd and make an impression upon people is to produce content that impacts them in some way. Write something that matters, that helps people, that solves a problem, that enhances people’s lives and you drastically increase the chances of them coming back and bringing a friend with them.

5. Be Prolific - something that can make a real impression on people is when they keep ‘bumping into you’. Predict where your potential readers will be going online and position yourself there as a prolific contributor. It might be social media sites, it might be the comments section of another blog or it could be a forum on your topic - wherever it is - make sure you have an active presence there. If people keep seeing you in the places that they hang out they’ll eventually take note and want to know more about you.

6. Love Your Readers to Death - this is key in the early days of a blog when readers seem scarce. The reality is that the 10 readers that you DO have already are a powerful resource - focuse upon them rather than the thousands of readers that you DON’T have. Love them - thank them for their comments - involve them in your blogging - promote them and the sites that they have and in doing so you’ll be building loyalty, trust and relationship that one day will pay off. Each reader you have has their own network and can open up new audiences to you.

7. Be Original - there’s nothing more dry than coming to a blog that has much the same content as every other blog that you’ve already read that day. Don’t just rehash news and talk about things in the same way that others are - dare to be different, play devils advocate, look for new angles in stories, translate the news for your readers and help them to work out how it impacts them etc

8. Express an Opinion - people who express opinions seem to get more attention than those who simply report news. Tell people what YOU think and you’re bound to get discussion between those who agree with you and those who do not.

9. Get Visual - whether it be by using eye catching pictures, diagrams and charts or even using video - when you add a visual element to your posts you will grab the attention of those who are more visually oriented. Images draw the eye, illustrate points and add new dimension to what is largely a text based medium.

10. Use Titles with Bling - post titles that draw people to read your post are essential and can be the difference between someone visiting your blog from a search engine, social media site or another blog and visiting someone else’s blog that has a more intriguing title.

11. Longevity Counts - many blog readers are looking to journey with someone and can be a little suspicious of new blogs and wonder how long they’ll last. Blog consistently for the long term and you build credibility, trust and profile in your industry.

12. Build Momentum - one mistake that many blogs make is that there is a sense that the blog is not really going anywhere. Posts appear on the blog that rarely relate to one another. I find that when I’m in the middle of a series or writing content that builds upon something that I’ve written before that readers really respond well. Its also this momentum that builds a sense of anticipation on a blog - which in turn builds subscriber numbers.

13. Drive People to Your Archives - one of the weaknesses of blogs as a medium is that in they often hide their best content. The content that gets most attention is the latest post - whether it is good or not. Blogs that not only highly what is NEW but find ways to highlight what is BEST in their archives draw readers to the content that is most likely to convince them to stay around for more.

Alone the 13 points above will have some impact upon helping your blog to stand out from the crowd - however the key is to work on more than one because together they make a significant difference.