BP 1.7 – Upgrading “Template Packed” Themes
Archived file. Good up to BP 1.8.
From BuddyPress 1.2 through 1.6.5, most WordPress themes went through the BP Compatibility process via the BuddyPress Template Pack plugin to align the HTML structure of the BP template files with that of the respective WP theme.
BuddyPress 1.7 is now compatible with nearly all WordPress themes available in the market. To make your BP component pages future-proof, it’s time to take advantage of the theme compatibility BP 1.7 brings to the table. Activated BP components will automagically be inserted into your theme’s default page structure.
Upgrading to BP 1.7 – Changing from BP Template Pack to default BP 1.7 Theme Compatibility
- Back up or download a copy of your WP theme folder in server which contains the template-packed files or folders.
- Deactivate the BP Template Pack plugin in Plugins > Installed.
- Delete the six (6) BP folders transferred to your theme’s folder in server when you went through the BP Compatibility Process: /activity, /blogs, /forums, /groups, /members, and /registration. If you have a header-buddypress.php, sidebar-buddypress.php and/or a footer-buddypress.php files, delete those files as well via s/FTP or control panel.
- Upgrade to BuddyPress 1.7.
- Check out your site’s BP pages – activity, members, etc. – which should contain the respective BP components activated in Settings > BuddyPress.
Frequently Asked Questions
BP 1.7 Theme Compatibility is not working on my theme.
That could be due to a variety of reasons including the WordPress theme’s customized templating, erroneous coding, missing page titles in pages and so forth, all of which are beyond our control. Please create a topic at the BuddyPress Forums and report the problem.
To facilitate troubleshooting, open up your theme’s page.php file, copy all code, paste into pastebin.com and post the generated URL in your support topic. While troubleshooting is going on, re-upload the theme folder you backed up in #1 above which contains the template-packed files/folders to wp-content/themes/ and activate BP Template Pack plugin.
I want to remove the sidebar and have full-width layout for all BuddyPress pages.
1. Open the full-width template in your theme with a text editor and copy all source code.
2. Create a file named buddypress.php and paste the copied source code into the file and save.
3. Upload buddypress.php to your theme’s folder in server i.e., wp-content/themes/yourtheme/
reference: A Brief overview of BuddyPress Theme Compatibility in 1.7
Note: Customize the layouts of BuddyPress pages within the WordPress Default Themes
Why do my sitewide and group forums still have a sidebar even when I uploaded a full-width layout with buddypress.php file?
That’s because since BP version 1.7, sitewide and group forums are rendered by the bbPress plugin. You’d need to copy the full-width template source code into a new file named bbpress.php
