BuddyPress

I’m a novice , and can only change or edit code if and only if someone guides me :
Kindhearted people please help

I have upgraded to BP 1.2.6 , but using theme compatible to 1.2.5.2

I have made change to the theme according to http://buddypress.org/community/groups/how-to-and-troubleshooting/forum/topic/2-buttons-add-a-friend-by-member-bp-1-2-6/ this link …. (needless to say I was having 2 “Add friend” button problem)

Now Apperently it seems to work ok , but I’m worried : My query is

what are the necessary theme file edits must be done to make it work correctly and safely ?

Thanks in advance …

‘What’ you should change sort of depends on if you are using a child theme of the BuddyPress default theme or not. There is quite a list of updates for the theme changes the members is one, ajax.php /js and functions.php is another along with some member/group/forum loop stuff. I would strongly suggest if you can getting the latest update from your theme source particularly as you say you are a novice which I take means not comfy in code?

This link will show all differences in the theme files. It might be of help? Red is removed, green is added.

http://trac.buddypress.org/changeset?old_path=/tags/1.2.5.2/bp-themes/bp-default&new_path=/tags/1.2.6/bp-themes/bp-default/

To clarify, the above link shows changes in the bundled “BP-Default” theme, and it was intended for any theme designers who have created a BP-Default child theme to help pin-point the changes. It won’t apply to any other theme. Sorry for any confusion.

EDIT: third time’s the charm

Yes I am really a novice …
Thank to @karmatosed and @DJPaul for you suggestion …
I use the theme named Blogs-Mu … and my subscription to the theme source(WPMU DEV) has expired … , and I’m a bit short of cash
So , I’m out of luck now ..
But the link you provided is very help full …
Thanks again, both of you

Let me ask a question : I have checked the trac link provided by @DJPaul and found most similarity with old codes for bp default theme and Blogs-mu theme . Will making changes, according to the trac, suffice the need ? or is there anything extra that should be done ?

Please help ? This is a question of life

If you do all those changes you should be on track but it’s hard to say really until do it on the theme if that makes sense? Just with the CSS changes remember CSS is cascading and some themes use !important to over-ride this. It’s best to just in testing add your new CSS to the last CSS file called to make sure it has a fighting chance (key term in CSS is cascading). Also consider the theme may have it’s own styling different from the default theme even if uses the basic structure of it.

@karmatosed
Thanks for your reply Tammie.
by seeing the trac it seem to me that css edit for Blogs-mu theme is not necessary , I dont know but I guess so , please help , as css are fully theme specific …

Other that the css , .php file should be edited/changed for full support , and furthur upcoming plugin supports . Am I right ?

But let me ask one thing : presently without changing anything else(other than mentioned in the first post) , I have checked with my site and it working completely ….
What happens if I do not make those changes then ?

Thanks tammie for you time

I would say all things should be required by Blogs-Mu to be honest. However, it’s going to be a case of you’re only going to know as do. You definitely will have template changes otherwise have the magical double button issues on friends and blogs

Not sure what you mean about php file … it’s a case of finding the file and replacing the content with the updates should be pretty much a copy and paste job with Blogs-Mu.

Are you sure your site works correctly? I’m fairly sure you’re going to find some issues about the site and to be honest I’d always recommend updating. Ultimately it’s up to you but my recommendation is a calm methodical copy and pasting session

@karmatosed
Thanks again Tammie for your valuable time , and helping me out …
and yes I was facing some problems , and I did an update to the blogs-mu theme and trying it out on a demo install … Thanks for your valuable suggestions
Now it seems to work ok except ….
now I am jumbled up with a single issue , and yet it became a nightmare …

After updating to buddypress 1.2.6 from 1.2.5.2 , my site does not show admin bar for guest user(as admin is disabled for loggedout users) , instead inplace it shows a white space …

Logged in users can view the admin bar correctly , but non-loggedin users or guest users cannot see the admin bar , instead of the admin bar there is a white space in place … !!!

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/4278/whitespaceu.jpg

check this image, see in image, just below the address bar there is a white space , its the 25 px padding for the admin bar …
This started happening just after upgrading to bp 1.2.6 , (with and without updating blogs-mu theme)

if the admin bar visibility is turned on for loggedout users , the admin bar is displayed correctly , otherwise a white space of 25px…

It was not happening with bp 1.2.5.2 , then it was fine.

Can you kindly help me out with this issue , Please tell me what needs to be done, I would be very greatful …

Thanks Tammie ….

@djpaul @karmatosed

I’m putting together my first soon-to-be-released theme package for BP (yay, I’m popping my cherry again! ) and have a n00b question.

Once I’ve updated all required files in my theme to 1.2.6 (using the aforementioned “calm methodical copy and pasting session”), will users who are still running 1.2.5 be able to use the theme? In other words, will the new 1.2.6 tags, functions, etc be recognized by 1.2.5?

@pcwriter

No, any new template tags will not be recognised by your 1.2.5.2 installations.

I’m dismayed by the 1.2.5.2 -> 1.2.6 decision making – with users unable to use 1.2.5.2 themes on 1.2.6. You’d expect some new features in a minor subversion upgrade, some additional template tags you could take or leave, but not for the behaviour of key regularly used functions to be changed overnight (e.g. the multiple friend button issue).

It’s been an issue for us with how on earth we can handle existing bespoke client implementations, but you raise another problem for generic theme developers – you’d have to have two versions of your theme.

@AnindyaRay: Hmmm you got a link for your site? My thoughts are maybe a javascript error (try in firebug to see that) or something like error in files (did you copy over the adminbar.css and also both javascript files (ajax.php / js)? I certainly don’t get any issues with the default or my themes that don’t use custom admin bars – perhaps the custom admin bar code. Worst case maybe you could remove that feature (hate to suggest that but if it’s causing issues).

@pcwriter: General rule is last supported version is latest with BuddyPress / WordPress or at least that’s the way I work with themes myself. Can’t really speak for others. I myself choose that route as there are generally security and other reasons for upgrades.

@Roger: I get the frustration but to be truthful I’m a theme designer and I don’t have these issues as said before I go with latest version support and I think you will find most do. This is of course a point of debate and maybe not the place for this said debate as a personal choice / company choice depending on your working situation. This happens with every release it gets better and more gets added… WordPress has same problem if you think of what happened around 3.0 for instance.

I do think it’s perhaps a point of note to those of us in themes to get more involved and this is one point I myself have in the past few months realised. We can complain about things and claim them wrong but until we get involved can we be surprised over something getting changed. It’s a project we all can get involved in and perhaps this all should be a call to action rather than a soap box moment which I know myself I’m feeling. BuddyPress themes will I think truly benefit from those of us that work with them getting involved where we can. Please take this in the good nature it’s meant as I’ve also had this realisation.

@rogercoathup

Hmmm… OK, so here’s what I’ll do: as I’ve created this, my first, theme based on 1.2.5, I’ll make it available for die-hard 1.2.5 users on my site. But I’ll update the theme to 1.2.6 before shipping it off to the theme repo with a heads-up that a 1.2.5 version is available for download at http://…

However, I think the advice given by @karmatosed is sound, so I’ll ensure future themes are in sync with latest version of BP.

Thanks guys!

@karmatosed
Thanks for your reply …
Yes all files and folder structure is intact , I have copied adminbar.css and both ajax.php/js files
But no I am not using custom admin bar, haven’t change anything related to adminbar colour , text etc. from the theme option
actually I don’t understand what exactly is causing the issue..

@AnindyaRay

Have you seen this thread? It looks like there may be a solution to your problem near the end:

http://buddypress.org/community/groups/how-to-and-troubleshooting/forum/topic/buddypress-1-2-6-adds-extra-padding-top/

nope this actually doesn’t solve the problem.