Theme

bbpress(plugin) Theme Compatibility

There are many threads on bbpress forum where people are almost frustrated with the problem of making their theme work with the new bbpress plugin version.

Particularly, they have this problem with making a theme, child-theme and applying it to the forum.

Ex: Your blog has sidebar and you don’t want to have sidebar in your forum.

I had the same problem, and solved it after trying it for a long time. Now I feel like, why the hell did I spend so much time on this simple thing 🙂

Without much delay: In this example I’ll illustrate by keeping the official “bbPress (Twenty Ten)” theme in mind, which is present in /wp-content/plugins/bbpress/bbp-themes/bbp-twentyten folder by default when you install the bbpress plugin.

1. Move twentyten theme from /wp-content/plugins/bbpress/bbp-themes/ to /wp-content/themes/.
Note: You can rename the folder with any name you like.

2. Now get into twentyten theme and edit style.css file. Add Template: yourWordpressThemeFolderName (yes add the folder name of your present wordpress theme) to your style.css files comment section, as shown below.

If your WordPress theme name is MyTheme. You have to add Template: MyTheme to style.css file of twentyten bbpress theme.

/**
* Theme Name: bbPress (Twenty Ten)
* Theme URI: http://bbpress.org
* Description: Adds bbPress forums to the Twenty Ten theme
* Author: WordPress and bbPress teams
* Version: 1.2
* Tags: bbpress, black, blue, white, two-columns, fixed-width, custom-header, custom-background, threaded-comments, sticky-post, translation-ready, microformats, rtl-language-support, editor-style
* Template: MyTheme
*
**
*
* This file intentionally left blank. Styles are enqueued in functions.php
*
* 1 – ./css/bbpress.css
*
**/

3. Now you have made the twentyten theme a child theme of your present WordPress theme.
4. Now log into your WordPress dashboard. Goto Appearance, and activate the child-theme.

To remove the sidebar:
Goto the child theme, inside that bbpress folder and comment these line of code /* < ?php get_sidebar(); ?> */ in page-front-forums.php and page-front-topics.php files.

If this method does not work, then create a file called sidebar.php and drop it inside your main theme folder. sidebar.php must be blank.

Now Reload your forum :p

WordPress 3.0 is Out – Do Not Expect WordPress 3.1 Shortly!

WordPress 3.0 has been released and you can find it in your dashboard.

Some of the interesting new things in WordPress 3.0:

1. The most interesting thing for theme developers is, it has a new default theme called Twenty Ten.

2. Theme developers have new APIs that allow them to easily implement custom backgrounds, headers, shortlinks, menus (no more file editing).

3. Facility to merge MU and WordPress.

And some other bug fixes.

Watch this video:

https://videopress.com/v/wp-content/plugins/video/flvplayer.swf?ver=1.21

Want to wait till WordPress 3.1 is released? Think again or read below:
This time WordPress team will be concentrating on things around WordPress.org, like showcase, Codex, forums, profiles, update and compatibility APIs, theme directory, plugin directory, mailing lists, core plugins, wordcamp.org etc. So WordPress 3.1 may not be coming any time soon.

We have upgraded to WordPress 3.0 and I already love the lighter interface.

Update:
There is a Maintenance mode, which gets activated while you are doing any upgrades. See screenshot below.
wordpress3-maintence-mode

And if the automatic update fails, it shows a message at the top of your dashboard..
autoupdate-fail-wordpress3

10 Tips for Finding the WordPress Theme That’s Right For You

This is a guest post by James Adams. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Everybody knows that WordPress is extremely versatile. There are themes available for nearly every mood or whim and new ones are being added every day. When you’re ready to start blogging for yourself, how do you find a theme that will suit your needs? Here are some tips and questions to help you find the right WordPress theme for you.

1. Be aware of your purpose – To choose the best theme for your blog, you need to know what you are going to be using it for. Are you wanting to monetize it? Do you want to throw pay per click out the window and just write for fun?

2. Take a look at others, part 1 – Find the blogs that appeal to you and write the themes down. This first sweep looks specifically at form, rather than function. Write down the five styles that most appeal to you, then go to the next step.

3. Take a look at others, part 2 – There are two parts to any blog: form and function. Search around a little more to see if there are blogs that have the functionality that you want. Will the theme support the widgets that you want? Does it have the coding that you love already in place? Write down around five styles.

4. Do you need to learn a programming language? – Some WordPress styles are more technically intensive than others. Do you have the expertise to install the widgets, or would you prefer a ‘drag and drop’ sort of approach? Are you willing to learn new techniques? This is an important factor when selecting a WordPress theme.

5. Do you need to pay for it? – You might have found the theme of your dreams, but does it cost money? If you are plotting out a straight blog, do you need to have a custom theme available? Themes come in a variety of price ranges and you must be prepared to pay if you like one of the premium set ups.

6. Can you grow with your theme? – Are you satisfied with the WordPress theme enough that you’re itching to put all of your material into it? Can you grow with this theme? More importantly, are you willing to put a whole lot of work into the theme that you’ve chosen? If not, you may wish to choose something else.

7. Is there after sales support? – Does the company supplying the theme offer support in case something goes wrong? If they don’t, are you willing to search hither and yon for someone who can answer your questions? Adequate technical support is essential.

8. Does it upgrade regularly? – Are you going to be left in the dust at each new WordPress upgrade? Can your theme grow with you, or are you going to be left behind? Learn about this before you commit to the theme, because it will save some issues later on.

9. Read some reviews – Once you have answered your questions in terms of the theme that you wish to use, investigate to see if there are any reviews posted. If you can’t find any reviews, ask the people that have your potential theme on their site and see how they feel about it.

10. Give it a test run – All the preparation in the world is not a replacement for giving your theme a shot and seeing how it works. Kick the tires, put some comments in, play with the widgets. If you have to pay for your theme, see if the company will let you have a free trial.

Nothing can beat good content, but a great WordPress theme will make it easier on your readers and potentially attract new ones. It’s like finding the right partner, you’ll know it when you’ve found the right WordPress theme.
Image Source: flickr

This is a guest article from James Adams at Cartridge Save where he reviews merchandise like HP 350 ink to help customers make a more informed buying decision.

Your blogger blog template search ends here!

Antonio Lupetti an Engineer, Pro Blogger, Mac user, Musician, Web Addicted from ROME – ITALY has released a wonderful blogger template. Actually he is a master of that template, as he himself use the template on his blog. That means, he has tested it, used it so long that he has almost cleared all the bugs in it.

I had always loved his blog template and hesitated to ask for the source code(to modify, without violating the copy rights). But to my surprise and Antonio Lupetti’s goodness, he has finally released his template source code to the public.

woork-blogspot-template-released-to-public

He has actually released the HTML version rather than XML source code, because HTML is more common than XML and we can easily modify the HTML codes using many software.
Just copy and paste the HTML codes and it will work. Many people think that, they must use only XML in blogger templates, but that’s not true, you can also use valid HTML codes.

The template looks so professional. The template supports easy integration of third-party advertisements (both AdSense or any other ad network and custom 125×125 banners), the best part for people trying to make more money is — you can integrate ads within post(look at the individual post page),Twitter, Job board, Flickr pictures, delicious bookmarks, and you may also embed RSS feeds via the FeedBurner service. And more importantly, I love the comment section of the template. It looks great. But the fact that, blogger platform doesn’t allow for user friendly commenting, we need to migrate to some other page to comment. Hope its done for spam controlling purpose!

And I think this theme works with old Blogspot users also, who haven’t migrated from the Classic HTML template yet, because this is a HTML source code, and theoretically it must work. I haven’t tried it practically, and I am waiting for someone to clear this doubt.

I was very excited to write a post about customizing the template, but Antonio Lupetti himself has done the job and he has explained the customization part of the template from Top to Bottom. Its great article and a must read if you are a blogspot user.
He explains- Adding Blog Logo, Adding tab on the navigation bar, Search field, Customizing Home Page, Your name below each post title, Adding sections on the sidebar, About me section, Recent Post*, Categories on the sidebar, etc. If you have any problem with the template, you can always contact Antonio Lupetti or do a Google Search(if its a general blogger problem).
Happy Blogging 🙂