I am running the most recent version of WP (at the time of this posting, I believe it’s 3.5.1?), and a multi-site installation. I have two questions, and I apologize if they’ve been asked before. I’ve been looking but haven’t found an answer:

1) Can I install a BBPress theme separate from my primary wordpress theme? I have a heavily-modified version of conduit, but the theming of our forums doesn’t look great: http://www.twinfinite.net/forums/topic/first-topic/.

2) We have been trying to install the theme, but are having issues. I can’t figure out how to do it. It seems like the process is different based on the version, and none of them seem to work. I’ve created a “my-templates” folder in the BBPress root directory. I can’t find a dashboard for BBpress, and I can’t find anything on the settings page. I believe that at one point I saw a “BBpress themes” option (or something like that), and it linked me to http://www.twinfinite.net/wp-admin/themes.php?page=bbpress-theme-admin.php, which, despite me having both superadmin and keymaster roles, simply displayed:

“You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page.”

When I returned to wp-admin, the BBpress themes option had vanished, and I haven’t seen it since.

Frankly, I am stumped. I just want forums that look like normal forums would, rather than a wordpress post with a sidebar, etc.

Thank you for all your help!

-Keith

[@boki_ Participant 11 years, 8 months ago]

All you need for 2nd question I think is Full-width template without sidebars for bbpress forums, forum and topic page?

[@kafe Participant 11 years, 8 months ago]

Yeah, but the main issue is that I can’t figure out to change the theme in the first place, and can I install two separate themes, one for the main site and one just for bbpress / buddypress?

[@lasticko Participant 11 years, 8 months ago]

I’m with you on this — I posted the previous topic in this forum on basically the same topic (need to keep main WP theme, but just looking to make the bbpress forums cleaner looking).

All I got was a generic “here’s the bbpress page on modifying your theme” and without being a master PHP/CSS/HTML guru, that theming page is a bit intimidating and confusing.

What would be GREAT is if someone said “Here, do this ”
1) Create a directory off your Theme’s dir called “my-templates”
2) Drop these files in there for an example clean looking bbpress theme
3) You can modify THIS and THAT file in this example to suit your needs.

Maybe I’m oversimplifying, but bbpress, with all of its advancements, HAS to have some drop-in example themes… ?

Lets hope both of us get a simple example we can try out.

[@kafe Participant 11 years, 8 months ago]

And not only that, but I’ve even dropped in ready-made themes, and supposedly there’s supposed to be an option to change it from the dashboard. At this point, we may just have to have our web guy change the files from scratch, because we don’t know how to change it to a pre-existing theme.

[@lasticko Participant 11 years, 8 months ago]

I went to #freenode’s IRC channel for #wordpress and I tried to find help there.

They directed me to :
https://codex.bbpress.org/step-by-step-guide-to-creating-a-custom-bbpress-theme/

But on Step 6 where it says to copy everything in wp-content > plugins > bbpress > bbp-themes > bbp-twentyten into your child theme folder I’m stuck.

There is no wp-content\plugins\bbpress\bbp-themes directory in the latest bbpress.
Outdated instructions… 🙁

I wish someone would step in and clear things up.

This page seems a little more udpated with the correct file structure. I guess I’m going to delve into this a bit more:
https://codex.bbpress.org/theme-compatibility/

[@neurodancer Participant 11 years, 6 months ago]

I am having the same issues.

They say bbpress has simple and easy as its advantages, but I don’t see that. Nearly every other forum program is easier.

However bbpress has a lot of nice plugins and features so I’d like to use it.

So far I’ve made zero progress after some days making it look nice in my dark Suffussion theme.

[@jjese Participant 10 years, 1 month ago]

I know the last response to this was more than a year ago, but has anyone figured this out?

[@bcrider Participant 10 years, 1 month ago]

Bumping this thread to ask the question again.

Is it possible to have a multi-themed site?

One theme for the main site and one theme for bbpress forums.

Although I’m new to bbpress I’m thinking that it’s probably possible yes…but may be complex and tricky. As a result, we may be better off customizing one theme vs trying to use two?

[@webui1 Participant 10 years, 1 month ago]

testing

[@webui1 Participant 10 years, 1 month ago]

testing again

[@robkk Moderator 10 years ago]

@webui1

dont make test replies in the bbPress forums

create a local-hosted site and do all the testing there.