Several of what BP themes? BuddyPress works with any well written theme following the WP template principles, as you don’t mention what themes you have tried, try activating one of the WP standard themes bundled with WP then you’ll be able to see BP in action, also please do check the BP codex documentation as you’ll find helpful guides to getting started there.
P.S. Why are you looking for a bp-custom.php file what prompted you to do that? This doesn’t exist by default and is created as needed and the file is specifically to run code that affects BP core operation across any theme which may be installed; it isn’t required to simply run a theme or BP.
Thanks for the response.
I tried to run themes;
Name Description
Fishbook (BuddyPress BuddyPack) The parent theme is missing. Please install the “bp-default” parent theme.
Frisco for BuddyPress The parent theme is missing. Please install the “bp-default” parent theme.
Frisco for BuddyPress The parent theme is missing. Please install the “bp-default” parent theme.
My BuddyPress The parent theme is missing. Please install the “bp-default” parent theme.
Simple WP Community Theme The parent theme is missing. Please install the “bp-default” parent theme.
Status The parent theme is missing. Please install the “bp-default” parent theme.
I tried to locate a bp.custom file so i could put a code into it that i found on another blog which basically redirects the child theme to the parent theme..
I would like to install the above themes, any suggestions on how i can?
Try copying the bp-default theme from the Buddypress plugin bp-themes folder to your wp-content/themes folder
@gfam105 Ok so most of these themes are built on bp-default, this theme is to be retired, a process begun with BP 1.9, this doesn’t mean it can’t be used and is still bundled in the core plugin for the moment, existing sites using it either directly or as a child of will still be able to work but new installs will not see the theme appear in the WP theme page as a selection, this is by way of encouraging people to use the new Theme Compatibility process which allows any theme to be used.
If you need bp-default as a parent try adding:
add_filter( ‘bp_do_register_theme_directory’, ‘__return_true’ );
to your functions.php or bp-custom.php files to force the theme to register in the WP theme page.
yes!, haha its done, thanks alot for your help, your a life saver.
1up
@hnla
Ok so most of these themes are built on bp-default, this theme is to be retired, a process begun with BP 1.9, this doesn’t mean it can’t be used and is still bundled in the core plugin for the moment, existing sites using it either directly or as a child of will still be able to work but new installs will not see the theme appear in the WP theme page as a selection, this is by way of encouraging people to use the new Theme Compatibility process which allows any theme to be used.
does this mean i can build a theme on bp-default without creating a child theme now hugo without it being overwritten when i update after 1.9.1?
the reason i ask this is because there is a plugin that i cant seem to get working on a bp-default child theme yet it works flawlessly from the bp-default parent.
It’s going to be a matter of understanding how themes & templates work in, in that respect the BP codex is your friend, I encourage you to read as many of the pages in there relating to BP themeing.
>does this mean i can build a theme on bp-default without creating a child theme… …without it being overwritten when i update after 1.9.1
No, and you never could, if you wanted anything other than the stock display produced by bp-default you had to create a child theme to carry your styles or template overrides.
I noticed your other thread, firstly you asked the same question on the plugins support forum, but haven’t really left sufficient time for the author to respond, asking the same question here will probably not get any quicker a response or solution as this is a third party plugin issue.
Having said that you mentioning you have copied /bp-default/ to your theme doesn’t sound right, to overload bp-default templates in a child theme you copy the folders and templates that exist under the bp-default folder; think of the folder name ‘bp-default’ as being translated to or being the equivalent of your theme folders name.
One last point, best advice is really to try and work your theme using theme compatibility, the general encouragement is to try and use theme compatibility rather than the older process, that eventually won’t get any significant updates or support and will only exist in a backwards compatible manner to ensure themes previously built on it continue to work.
@hnla ok hugo ty for your info and help, i think im understanding your meaning now, this is the first time that ive worked with the bp-default theme you see, even though i do realize you are no longer supporting it in the future i want to use it for my next project as i like the layout to start from, ive just been over and read about theme compatibility buddypress offers, the last time i was using buddypress was with the template pack you see.
so let me get this straight after i create a bp-default child theme say if i want to make changes to the members activity.php would i be correct in thinking i would make a folder called members and add a blank activity.php into that folder in my child theme? or would i copy the activity.php located in plugins/buddypress/bp-themes/bp-default/members folder and add that to my child theme for editing?
No not a blank file, you copy over the existing file, the crucial aspect is that you retain the same folder paths to that file so members/single/index.php if found in your child theme is the one used, or in the case of that plugin you might need to us it’s templates in place of the BP ones.
If you are set on using bp-default then you probably ought to copy over all template files, and all assets css, js, etc to your theme along with the functions file parts necessary to locate BP ajax, scripts, styles and add the line add_theme_support( ‘buddypress’ ) in your themes functions.php file and run as a full theme.
@hnla ok ty again hugo for responding, still figuring this out, so your saying if i copy all of the above files and add this code to my functions.php i can then run my child theme as a full theme and edit it to my hearts content without worrying about future updates of buddypress effecting my theme??
also just to clarify that i will be copying the correct folders over i need to ask if i am copying the correct folders with all the files needed via ftp, so if i ftp and go to wp-content/plugins/buddypress/bp-templates/ i then come to a folder called bp-legacy is this the folder i should copy and add to my chid theme or should i copy the folders or files within this folder as it contains all the files above you mentioned, then i would add a functions.php to my child theme and add the code you gave? am i correct?
im sorry if this is a pain for you to explain to me, its just i am intent on learning all this stuff and unless i get this bit right first i wont be able to progress, i am one of those people who finds it easier to sit and learn things visually in the sense that if i see it done once it all becomes clear to me, everything i learn the majority of the time is through video tuts.
i do read alot too but sometimes get stuck picturing exactly what is being explained, if you remember a while back when i had a problem removing my header from buddypress pages only i knew what it was i should of been doing and had the right idea of where i should of been doing it but couldn’t visualise it until modemlooper helped me see it clearly, then it just clicked and i went and did it because of his help, my stronger points you see are css and design and as long as i can get this bit right to start working on my theme and researching what functions etc i want to change in my theme i cant change anything 🙂
@hnla hi again hugo i think it might be better if i tell you exactly why i want to use the bp-default theme, you know when someone creates a new post when using the bp-default theme and next to that post it shows the users avatar and a link with there name? well when you click there name it takes you straight to that users activity/profile , well i really need that as part of my theme and i dont know how to recreate it in another theme otherwise i would implement it in my own theme, i have attached an image below so you can see what i mean, this gives you an idea of what i need my buddypress to work like, this is the most important thing i need from using bp-default. it may explain to you why im so keen to use bp-default
@hnla i know this thread is going off topic now and the original question was resolved so you can mark this as resolved if you want, i have figured it all out now ty anyhows hugo, 2 days of reading has paid off i suppose even though i felt i was getting nowhere at times so once again thx for your earlier help 🙂
