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Is it better to use a Buddypress specific theme?


  • Kris35
    Participant

    @kris35

    10 years ago

    I have Buddypress installed on the Dynamik WP theme, but I wanted to ask about Buddypress themes. With the theme I am using now, I’m having to do a lot of customization – if I used a Buddypress theme, would the layout be more automatic? I just downloaded a free theme (Frisco) to see how it would look but I get a message telling me I need to download the parent bp-default framework (?), but I can’t find it anywhere. I want to try a free theme out before I think about buying a premium BP theme.

    If I used a specific BP theme, would the customization be less work? For example, the default BP profiles are very basic. Would a BP theme automatically update the look (already built in) or would it still look like the default profile?

    Thanks,

    Kris

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

  • danbp
    Participant

    @danbp

    10 years ago

    hi @kris35,
    in brief: no ! 😉

    In details, read sub title here:
    https://codex.buddypress.org/themes/building-a-buddypress-child-theme/

    You can use whatever you want as theme since BP 1.7 Actual version is 2.1 !
    And if not satified by the layout, you can modify it manually.

    Suggest you visit some existing BP site to get an idea.
    Search on this forum:
    https://buddypress.org/support/forum/your-buddypress/
    or
    http://www.bpinspire.com/


    Kris35
    Participant

    @kris35

    10 years ago

    Ok thanks danbp. I was thinking the customisation would be built into a BP theme but thats not the case so will stick with what I’ve got I reckon. I’ve looked at loads of BP sites, includng the links above already but I was curious to know if these were BP themed sites, but most are regular WP themes with coding yes?


    danbp
    Participant

    @danbp

    10 years ago

    yes


    Kris35
    Participant

    @kris35

    10 years ago

    Lol. Ta!!


    Ben Hansen
    Participant

    @ubernaut

    10 years ago

    i would only add that a theme which is designed specifically for buddypress can be better depending on your situation especially if the theme dev took special time to do a better job on those buddypress specific pages.


    Kris35
    Participant

    @kris35

    10 years ago

    Hi Ben, yes I thought BP specific themes worked to make the layout easier, although I understand the layout can be done fairly easily with a regular WP theme.


    Ben Hansen
    Participant

    @ubernaut

    10 years ago

    it depends for some theme developers it just means they have tested it out and not found any major issues for others they have taken the time to do custom layouts with buddypress specific features in mind. but yes to reiterate most any theme should at least be basically compatible since buddypress takes care of its own layout automatically.


    Kris35
    Participant

    @kris35

    10 years ago

    I found it much easier to build BP with a specific BP theme. All the groups and forums and profiles etc are layed out much much better than the default BP plugin. 🙂


    cybervang
    Participant

    @cybervang

    9 years, 11 months ago

    I suggest finding a THEME that fits your goals and have as much features as possible.

    I chose my THEME because it had exactly what I needed and more in case I wanted to add on top of the features I didn’t currently use.

    You don’t want such a simple theme that you end up building from scratch which takes months to debug. This was my mistake when I first started up.

    Another thing is to TEST a theme intensively before going with it. What I mean by this is LOAD UP all your plugins and see if it’s compatible. Test it hardcore for flaws and bugs. If the theme breaks and doesn’t deliver toss it.

    Some themes are great at first and end up a bloat.

    That’s my bit of advice.

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