Okay, a while ago, I upgraded my personal blog from WordPress 2.2.3 to WordPress 2.3. One of my biggest concerns was how would I switch from using the Ultimate Tag Warrior plug-in to WP 2.3′s tagging system. Good thing it didn’t involve too much of a fuss and I’d like to share how I did it.

1. Perform your backups – database, files, etc..
2. Install and upgrade WordPress (or overwrite the old version)
3. Make the necessary changes to your template to accommodate the tags In my case I had to replace the UTW functions with the WP’s tag functions.
   • First, I got rid of the <?php if (is_tag()) { echo ' : '; UTW_ShowCurrentTagSet('tagsettextonly'); } ?> in the header.php file. I previously put it there so that tags pages would show the tag in the page title.
   • Next, I replaced <?php UTW_ShowTagsForCurrentPost("commalist") ?> (shows my tags) with WP’s <?php the_tags('before','separator ','after'); ?> found in my index.php and single.php. Remember to replace before, separator and after with elements that you’d want to show up when showing the tags.
   • Finally, I replaced the tag cloud function <?php UTW_ShowWeightedTagSetAlphabetical("sizedtagcloud","",0) ?> in my tags.php template page with <?php wp_tag_cloud('smallest=8&largest=36&'); ?>
4. After editing the theme, it was time for me to import my tags from UTW to WordPress and it’s quite easy. The import manager is found in the Manage -> Import option of the wp-admin interface. You’d see there an option for Ultimate Tag Warrior. Clicking on it will bring you to the five-step import process of UTW tags to WP. It simply guides you to the quick and easy steps. Step 1′s backing up your database and the rest is just a matter of clicking the next button until you go through them all.

My blog’s running with no problems whatsoever.