Not using a child theme will create the chance for theme mistakes to break the site. That is why they are there. So if you create a new theme thats great, but BP-default has pretty much every case loaded into it, so if your child theme messes up its there to cover you. Thats the only issue I see. Also, there are situations where BP adds classes and style to elements in the DOM such as “accepted” to buttons, this is something to consider when creating a theme.
I havent run into this problem as of yet. How ever I will keep a look out. Currently – Like I said All I did was take the entire default theme, place its contents into a folder named after my new theme, changed ALOT of things – still trying to get rid of things like ‘buddypress’ and bp_ with out it breaking – and uploaded it to my site, the default theme is still there – it has not been moved, changed, deleted – just copied. the new theme is what I am currently using (which sits in my core wordpress theme directory). So I dont think anything will break in terms of buddyPress or WordPress
based on this information is there still a chance of breakage? even with a buddypress upgrade?
Creating a duplicate theme isn’t a problem. Like any other non-child theme, if any new features are added to BP or WP in the theme, you’ll need to add manually to your theme if you want to have them.
Now something that may be againts (well not really cause it will be GPL) the rules is how would I go about striping out all the bp_ and ‘buddypress’ in this “clone” and replacing them with say bw and BLACKANDWHITE.
And thanks for the advice and tips
It sounds like you want to strip the default theme of all traces of the original developers “branding” and thus really remove all credit for the original piece of work. In relation to funtionality does it matter if function prefixes and other coding is marked bp_ ?
It seems a great deal of work (find & replace) for very little effect or reason? Is it really necessary or are you trying to create a whole new theme to perhapse “sell on”?
There is no selling or ripping of credits.The CSS header and all the comments still state “Originally done by, modified and changed by”
What you stated makes me look like I am taking the work for my own, when in fact I am sticking with GPL and still giving credit where required.
it does, in my mind – I would rather have it associated with the theme name I gave it so that people who are looking at the backed see my “branding” as you put it, instead of the default. In no way am I trying to say – I created this.
Also from my experimenting bp_ has to stay it calls core functions from the plugin. where as buddypress went and became social
You can do whatever you want with your theme. However, since you’re not using a child theme of bp-default, your theme subsequently will not receive any updates for bugs or features when a new version of BuddyPress is released. You’d then have to manually check over new BuddyPress releases and merge them into your custom theme. A lot of BP functionality is tied to the theme (AJAX, JS), so hopefully you’re aware of that.
Re: labels – I’m guessing you mean the BuddyPress localization strings. The BP localization strings are convenient if a user is already using the BuddyPress language file, but you’re happy to run with your own theme language file as well.
It sounds like you’re doing a lot of modding to the original bp-default theme, so since you seem happy with this approach you should be fine.
Ok. As long as that works I am making this – through A LOT of experimentation a hybrid of sorts between a framework and a simple theme. My goal is to make this a flexible and customizable theme, with the understanding that I will have to do a lot of work when new releases of BP come out.
The goal wasn’t to make a child theme it was to take what was there, change it up, add new back end features, take out pieces I don’t want and make a new theme.
adamkb.balan
@adamkbbalan
13 years, 6 months ago
I decided that instead of creating a child Theme or instead of creating a whole theme from scratch I would take the BP default theme, copy the entire theme, place it in the themes folder and rename it. I have made massive amounts of changes to the way it looks, navigation aspects, how functions work, custom css files for users to edit (along with custom functions). Obviously there is alot of “buddyPress” labels and code through out because it is/was the default theme.
I am working hard to make it extensible and interchangeable and easy for the user to use in terms of how they edit and change the theme. But I wanted to know from theme developers out there – their points of view and oppinions on my choices.