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New Theme Structure Help


  • modemlooper
    Moderator

    @modemlooper

    Ok wrapping my head around it. So if I want to modify the html of a page where do I do this? The default folder only has a CSS file in it. I tried copying all the files from the framework folder into the default folder but it makes buddypress go white. I read the link Andy put up about child themes and it seemed like you could just move the files over and customize.

    any help would be great. Thanks

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

  • modemlooper
    Moderator

    @modemlooper

    further thinking… should I copy framework theme folder and then use the copied folder as the parent?


    modemlooper
    Moderator

    @modemlooper

    So getting the hang of the new structure but it’s major musical chairs with the files to get it to work with a WP theme. Once people start creating Buddypress enabled WP themes it’s gonna be cake to customize.

    It sounds like you need to learn a bit about how WordPress child themes are implemented. I had a quick google and found http://op111.net/53.

    I’ve also removed the status from this thread as it isn’t a support issue.


    modemlooper
    Moderator

    @modemlooper

    child themes just exploit CSS cascading. I have figured out what files to move to create custom page templates. I just dumped the whole frame work into the child folder and that didn’t work.

    Though I must say no one will be able to just use any WP theme with this new structure unless they do some editing of files. That’s really gonna stop a mass use of Buddypress. But hey it’s ok for me as it will allow me to make mad cash creating Buddypress themes :)

    Unless you look into your web server logs when these White pages are generated, how are we meant to help you resolve the error when you don’t tell us? A White page error in itself could mean a lot of things.


    John James Jacoby
    Keymaster

    @johnjamesjacoby

    @modemlooper, quite the contrary actually. If you make any theme a child of the bp-sn-parent theme, it will inherit the files that it doesn’t already have, and you can CSS your way out of any style issues there may be.


    muraii
    Participant

    @muraii

    I’d like to delve into this more deeply, but for now, even using the child themes there is an additional complication. It’s reasonable to expect someone to be integrating BP with an extant site using an advanced WP theme, and simply setting this theme to be a child of the bp-sn-framework doesn’t suffice. I’m working in one such setup, where a theme uses several include() statements in a functions.php file, and setting this as a child of the BP framework b0rks the whole deal. Now, I know what to do here, at least in the simplest case: just amend the functions.php calls. That won’t necessarily persist as the theme is updated, so maybe, instead, this can be done via a plugin.

    The point here is that there are easily found examples where existing WordPress installations aren’t set up to so trivially extend to include BP. This one has a straightforward solution, but some will not. And as WP theme developers continue to do ever-more-amazing things with WordPress, and as you and other developers continue to make WordPress and BuddyPress more powerful, this sort of nonlinear theme infrastructure will likely become the norm. I don’t think these are quite edge cases, either; the theme I’m testing with is a free Woo theme, so not quite off the beaten path.

    I don’t want to add to the confusion. Rather, I wonder if I could help flesh out some use cases, which might later get wrapped into the documentation (if it’s helpful). For instance, there is the site that purports only to offer social networking, without long-form blogging intentions. In that case, Using bp-default with customizations is pretty straightforward–well, as straightforward as the styling for the site needs to be.

    However, for folks who have an existing WP site to which the BP functionality will be at most equal in priority, their branding and existing structure may be complicated enough that simply setting their existing theme to be a child of the BP framework doesn’t work by itself (styling issues aside–there will always need to be style adjustments; this is about structure and objects). Again, as my example demonstrates, this complexity is closer to the norm than some might expect, especially among the crowd using WPMu and extending it with BP. In this case, there’s more to document.

    I don’t intend to suggest, as some have, that BP developers need to rethink or revise BP’s scope and structure. That’ll probably happen anyway, as things start merging more, but it’s not necessary. I only mean that the adaptation of BP to an extant site is a nontrivial use case, and while there is forthcoming documentation as to how best to manage this, maybe the forum users and devs can spec out some general use cases and work on how best to develop their solutions.

    The situation can be summed up like this:

    The BuddyPress 1.0 theme structure made it easy for existing WordPress sites to use BuddyPress out of the box (but only with the default theme which was never ideal). However, it made life very difficult for anyone designing a site from scratch with BuddyPress, and for 3rd party theme designers.

    BuddyPress 1.1 makes it harder (but still very possible) for existing WordPress sites and themes to use BuddyPress, but makes it very easy for sites starting fresh and for 3rd party theme designers.

    The number of people starting sites fresh using BuddyPress significantly outweighs the number of people trying to use BuddyPress within an existing WordPress setup. It is only logical to make the lives of the majority easier.

    There will be more documentation on using BuddyPress with existing WordPress installations and themes once 1.1 is released. Let’s get it out there first.

    On a side note – I’d really love to see existing WordPress theme designers coming out with BuddyPress theme extensions for their WordPress themes. This for me is the ideal scenario, let the top theme designers provide support for BuddyPress, rather than the end users trying to force a square peg in a round hole.


    John James Jacoby
    Keymaster

    @johnjamesjacoby

    Another side note from Andy’s last paragraph, these BuddyPress extensions could come in just about any form; additional theme files to be added as a “plus pack” (remember those?!) or a plugin to override and replace existing files as a child theme, or included in the next version of the theme itself.

    Also, if you’re paying attention the directory of the included parent theme is “bp-sn-parent.” It stands for “BuddyPress Social Network Parent” which insinuates that theme authors are encouraged to create their own parent themes for something other than social networking, and opens the door for other parent theme sets to be included in the core if they’re rad enough.

    Say someone makes a sweet micro-blogging theme ala Twitter, that gives us “bp-mb-parent” to let you switch between totally different setups. Or say someone switches the emphasis away from blogs and users and shifts it to the discussion or support forums; that gives us “bp-df-parent” and “bp-sf-parent”

    Andy’s right too. The majority of people so far interested in BuddyPress have been people that are also first being introduced to WPMU and starting a social network. Very few support questions come through asking how to port this existing theme to fit BuddyPress. The ones that do are typically answered by the theme author or the person is so devoted to making it work, that they convert the theme themselves.

    I’m really not sure how much harder it is for existing themes to use BuddyPress; it’s just different, but in a better way in my opinion.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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