Jesse Dyck from Evolving Web presented a comprehensive case study of upgrading a massive WordPress multisite network that had been frozen since 2017. The project involved nearly 700 subsites, 200 plugins, and 43 themes with a half-gigabyte compressed database and 143 gigabytes of files. The network was running WordPress 4.
9 and faced a mandatory upgrade to PHP 8. Dyck outlined a systematic six-phase approach: setup and auditing, cleanup, testing plans, upgrade execution, deployment, and post-upgrade maintenance. The audit phase was emphasized as the most critical, involving extensive inventorying of all sites, plugins, and themes to assess their status, compatibility, and maintenance requirements.
The team created comprehensive spreadsheets documenting every component and triaged items for removal, upgrade, replacement, consolidation, or patching. After cleanup, they reduced the network to approximately 350 sites, significantly fewer plugins and themes, and cut database and file sizes in half. Key tools included WP-CLI for data extraction and automation, PHPCS for code compatibility checking, and Playwright for visual regression testing with before-and-after screenshots.
The team also utilized AI tools like ChatGPT to generate WP-CLI commands and automated much of the auditing process. Launch coordination involved careful planning of communication channels, user acceptance testing, maintenance mode implementation, and detailed checklists. Common issues encountered included style changes due to plugin updates, PHP compatibility problems with legacy code, and the need to maintain classic editor functionality for users transitioning from pre-block editor WordPress.
The project successfully modernized a complex, legacy multisite installation while maintaining functionality across hundreds of sites.
All right. So, yeah, this is me. Um, I'm Jesse. I'm the I lead our WordPress team and I am a solutions architect at Evolving Web doing all things WordPress. Um, I've been a WordPress user since actually looked up the other day. I found an old version of a previous website from 2007. Um, so that was my my first WordPress experience, I believe. Um, >> might as well. >> Oh, there you go. Um but uh today I want to talk about a recent project that we did um we were working on. We inherited a WordPres...
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