I have been working with the WordPress.com themes on and I can definitely say that if you are not sure what themes to use on your WordPress-MU/BuddyPress system, try using the same themes they use on WordPress.com. It is easy to get hold of them, they are available via Subversion. You will need a subversion client to check the files out of the repository. Here is what I suggest you do:
- If you are running Windows then download and install the subversion client called TortoiseSVN otherwise pick one of the following:
- Subclipse (Eclipse)
- Subversive (Eclipse)
- SCPlugin (Mac OS X)
- RapidSVN (cross-platform)
- AnkhSVN (Visual Studio)
- VisualSVN (Visual Studio)
- …more clients…
- To read some about using subversion try these documents:
- Mailing Lists (non-subscribers can post)
- FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
- Subversion Book (complete online)
- On you Windows PC you will add a new folder, then you right-click the folder and look for the TortoiseSVN option that says “SVN Checkout”
- The TortoiseSVN Checkout windows pops open and you need add the URL of the repository = http://svn.automattic.com/wpcom-themes – Click OK, then click YES
- It should take a while to download the themes, but its worth it!
- Upload all the themes to /wp-content/themes like you normally would.
My suggestion is that the WP.COM themes be added to TestBP.org, it might encourage some of the testers to using the blogs more. I read a post on the forum the following about making a theme BuddyPress aware:
Yes, any theme you use with BuddyPress will need a plugin-sidebar.php and plugin-template.php file. It’s used to add dynamic functionality and new pages to the theme without having to drop in new template files. The settings menu and pages are examples of this.
Is that all that is needed or is there more? Any out in the community got any experience with that type of thing?
Nice post – I’m going to do this on here now.
Actually the “plugin-sidebar.php” and “plugin-template.php” are only if you want to use WordPress themes as a theme for member pages. If you just want to use themes for blogs then you don’t need to change anything.
Thanks for this.
Oh, very interesting! I will try that out…. I can see I will need to do some research work!
Obviously you’d need to create new styles in the theme so that everything is not mangled mess. I can’t guarantee that this will work correctly right now though
It’s intended to soon though.
Excellent post mate.
I am using tons of themes for the members… I would say that of the new themes on WP about 90% work with the top bar and the rest dont. I tested them on mine first not allowing anyone else to see them and now have the working ones uploaded.
You cant use the ones with the ad ready sections coz obviously the members arent allowed to edit files to put their ads on, but there are enough themes out there that it doesnt matter
http://theartnetwork.co.uk check out some of the blogs
@Andy – Super big thanks goes to any for adding some of the WP.COM themes totestbp.org. I have added a theme as you can see and will continue to blog my ideas because it looks so much better than Kubrick!
@Joseph – Thanks for the encouragement, I will be posting further ideas on potential bp-components later today, keep a look out for them.
@Elizabeth – Thanks for the input, I will do some testing of my own to see if I can locate styling issues. You social network website looks great and so do the themes. I really like the theme used here – http://theartnetwork.co.uk/wpmu/justme/
If you come across a theme that doesn’t work with the admin bar – just add:
wp_footer() at the bottom of the footer and it will work. Some theme designers forget to include that, and it is essential for plugins.
I am impressed, you have added a few more themes… Well done! You work hard!
Oh thank you for that Andy… Now I can use some that I truly loved also, they just didnt show the bar…
Ashley
That theme on my own personal blog is Pixeled 1.2 from Wordpress..
I am now using Turtle to get the rest… oops tortoise
@Elizabeth – Glad that you downloading the WP.COM themes with turtle
I have a problem on most of the themes.. I keep getting
Fatal error: Call to undefined function post_class() in /home/*****/public_html/wpmu/wp-content/themes/benevolence/index.php on line 11
What havent I done
It isnt on all of them, just some of them
Seems as though themes for wordpress.com include custom functions – so I have to add empty functions in a file to stop these errors.
If you add a file in mu-plugins dir with this in it:
function post_class() {
}
function display_top_posts() {
}
function is_sticky() {
}
It should stop the errors.
That worked on most of them… there are still a couple that dont want to know but they must be crud if they are still throwing up errors
THANK YOU x