Find out if there is a available core update?

Question

I want to set up a function that notifies me when a core update is available. But i can't find any functions that check for updates.

I have looked at list_core_updates() and it may be possible to check if it returns anything, but i don't know if that is smart.

Answer 1

There is get_core_updates().

Note that you might need to manually include admin file that declares it, if running in front end and such.

Example use:

require_once ABSPATH . '/wp-admin/includes/update.php';
print_r( get_core_updates() );

Example return:

Array
(
    [0] => stdClass Object
        (
            [response] => latest
            [download] => http://wordpress.org/wordpress-3.4.2.zip
            [locale] => en_US
            [packages] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [full] => http://wordpress.org/wordpress-3.4.2.zip
                    [no_content] => http://wordpress.org/wordpress-3.4.2-no-content.zip
                    [new_bundled] => http://wordpress.org/wordpress-3.4.2-new-bundled.zip
                    [partial] => 
                )

            [current] => 3.4.2
            [php_version] => 5.2.4
            [mysql_version] => 5.0
            [new_bundled] => 3.2
            [partial_version] => 
            [dismissed] => 
        )

)

Answer 2

An alternative way is to query the API directly via http://api.wordpress.org/core/version-check/1.6/

You can see it buried in there as "current";s:5:"3.4.2"