Topic: Changed “bphome” name and everything disappears!

Changed “bphome” name and everything disappears!

@kitwit

Participant

15 years, 7 months ago

Yikes!

Since I’ve made so many changes to my CSS for my site, I was advised to change my “bphome” name to preserve it in case of future BP upgrades. So I changed my “bphome” name to something else (bphome-mpc), and now the name does not show up in either the admin theme activation area or in the themes area of the appearance section. What happened? Did I do something stupid? Now my site is totally blank! Help!

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

@danielfelice

Participant

15 years, 7 months ago

Did you change the folder name of the theme or the name within the CSS? or both?

@kitwit

Participant

15 years, 7 months ago

Only the folder name. Can you tell me the proper way to rename a theme, from the get-go? Or is that referenced here on the site somewhere, in easy-to-understand step-by-step instructions?

TIA!

@maythil

Participant

15 years, 7 months ago

Just change it back to “bphome” and try.

It’s not advisable to change names of folders and files.

I am surprised that, if you were “advised” to do so,

why didn’t you consult the forum before doing it?

If it is a prerequisite for future upgrades,

BP would have been the first to bring it to your attention, right?

@kitwit

Participant

15 years, 7 months ago

Oh, and then I changed the name back to “bphome” and it did not fix itself! So the folder was renamed to its original name, but still nothing is happening.

@kitwit

Participant

15 years, 7 months ago

Maythil–

I was advised by someone ON the forum to do it! I was making changes and asking questions, and was told by a moderator to be sure and “create a new theme” by “changing the theme name,” so that’s what I did!

And I did change the name back to the original, and as I noted in the last post, nothing happened. Still blank!

This isn’t an absolute disaster, though, since what I changed was on a test version of the site I’m developing, but if someone could outline the proper procedure for making a theme name change (I have only made minor modifications of the CSS files in my BuddyPress home theme), that would be great. Or point me to where I can find that information. Thanks!
@djpaul

Keymaster

15 years, 7 months ago
open up style.css, you need to modify the header (i.e. this section)
```
/*

Theme Name: BuddyPress Default Home Theme

Theme URI: http://buddypress.com/

Description: A widget framework theme for the home of a BuddyPress enabled installation. This theme is not required to use BuddyPress.

Version: 1.0

Author: Andy Peatling

Author URI: http://apeatling.wordpress.com

*/
```
@djpaul

Keymaster

15 years, 7 months ago

Burt’s just pointed out on IRC that the name (both in CSS and the name of the directory) should not have a dash (-) in it. That was a recent change in WPMU 2 .7.1 I believe

@kitwit

Participant

15 years, 7 months ago

But when I changed it back, it didn’t fix. Is that because something was recorded in the database that can’t be reversed by a simple name change?

@jeffsayre

Participant

15 years, 7 months ago

Kit-

I’m sorry you’re having troubles with your theme folders. To be clear, I want to make sure that you realize that you were not, as you state:

advised to change my “bphome” name to preserve it in case of future BP upgrades.

I assume you’re talking about the discussion we had in this thread you asked:

I assume renaming the theme is simply changing the name of its folder?

I responded:

That is correct. Make a copy of the bpmember theme, rename your copy, make whatever changes you want to it, and you have–in effect–a custom theme! Just make sure you keep your new theme in the /wp-content/bp-themes/ directory.

Also, in this thread where I advised you to:

Follow the same procedure as before. Make a backup of the standard bphome theme, rename it to something new…

This means, rename your backup to something new, not change the name of the original theme folder.

Furthermore, as per a private conversation you initiated with me on May 6 via the members messaging system, I state that:

Make sure that you make a copy of both bphome theme and bpmember theme. Your customizations should be done in copies, not the original. That way, if you have issues with your custom themes (and we all do when working on customization), you can switch back to the standard BP themes to see how things should work.

And, as we were talking about CSS issues in that private message and you stated that you had WordPress theming experience, I assumed you knew that the primary style file in BuddyPress, style.css, would need to reflect your new theme’s name.

If you were confused by my advice, I do apologize. But, if you had done what I advised, you would have made a copy of the original theme and altered the copy. As I stated in my private message response to you, do not alter the original theme files.