Hi there, first I want to say thanks for creating this, seems like a great forum plugin once you get it working.

To start, I have read the entire thread on the forum on theme compatibility; http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/bbpress-20-theme-compatibility and a few other treads and topics relating, unfortunately I am still having some problems.

I am including screen-shot links to be as clear as possible in hope for great support.

What I have done so far;

A.) I decided to go with the child theme option since I am using a custom theme that I am not the author of and prefer not to clutter that folder.

I copied all the files (except functions.php) that were inside “bbp-twentyten” (/bbpress/bbp-themes/bbp-twentyten) and put them in my “gridlocked-child” folder that I placed inside /wp-content/themes/ (next to my custom “gridlocked” theme folder)

I added the “theme name” and “template” name to the empty “style.css” in folder “gridlocked-child”. screenshot: http://grab.by/cJ7R

I put the ” add_theme_support( ‘gridlocked-child’ ); ” code in my “gridlocked” (not child) functions.php file. screenshot: http://grab.by/cJ7S

At this point, after just test creating a few forums and topics, it looks like the plugin is “functioning” like it should. I can tell that it’s using some of the styles from my main theme style.css (colors, fonts etc), the MAIN PROBLEMS that I have now is the fact that it’s not taking to my page template widths in my main theme (gridlocked), it wont use a full-page-width template (or let me pick) and the default that it is probably using, is also supposed to be full width, plus something is wrong with the padding and it snugs too tight to the page edges.

Here are some screenshots to show you what I mean;

Forum home page: http://grab.by/cJ7I

Forum named MINGLE page and test topics: http://grab.by/cJ7J

I would like the forum to look like this; http://grab.by/cJ7H

and fill up the entire width of a full page, with nice padding. I achieved that preview by adding shortcode [bbp-forum-index] in the html section of a “page” picking the “full-width-template” option in my theme.

Ok, here comes the questions:

1. Did I set everything up correctly in the directories and files?

2. What files do I need to modify to tell the bbPress forum to use a full page width template? Can I copy code from my main theme “template-full-width.php” into one or more template files inside my new child theme?

2. Do I need to add code/functions into my main theme “template-full-width.php”? and if so, what kind of code? and on a scale, how easy should these edits be? (I have asked, but I am not getting any support with this from my theme support forum, otherwise great forum but they wont help with plugins, understandable)

3. How does shortcodes work? Are those simply just for placing certain parts of your forum on different pages as previews/links but not for use throughout the FULL forum?

Do you have ANY ideas on how I can solve this issue, I feel pretty lost and I am not a developer or programmer, just a stubborn, enthusiastic designer that loosing her hair about this.

I HIGHLY APPRECIATE ANY HELP WITH THIS!

Thank you!

[@flipflop Participant 13 years, 3 months ago]

Well props to you on a very well thought out post. I am in exactly the same situation as you and am too just a persistant & enthusiastic designer.

As far as I can tell the shortcodes allow you to embed specific areas of your forum onto specific pages, so for example if you had a support forum – you could add that to the forum submenu on your website and send people directly there.

Of course once they start navigating via the forum links they aren’t going to be sent to your embedded pages so I’m not sure I would like this solution myself as it seems inconsistent.

I’m a newbie too so will be keeping an eye on this thread, good luck

[@adams21 Member 13 years, 3 months ago]

At this point, after just test creating a few forums and topics, it looks like the plugin is “functioning” like it should. I can tell that it’s using some of the styles from my main theme style.css (colors, fonts etc), the MAIN PROBLEMS that I have now is the fact that it’s not taking to my page template widths in my main theme (gridlocked), it wont use a full-page-width template (or let me pick) and the default that it is probably using, is also supposed to be full width, plus something is wrong with the padding and it snugs too tight to the page edges.

Here are some screenshots to show you what I mean;

[@adams21 Member 13 years, 3 months ago]

At this point, after just test creating a few forums and topics, it looks like the plugin is “functioning” like it should. I can tell that it’s using some of the styles from my main theme style.css (colors, fonts etc), the MAIN PROBLEMS that I have now is the fact that it’s not taking to my page template widths in my main theme (gridlocked), it wont use a full-page-width template (or let me pick) and the default that it is probably using, is also supposed to be full width, plus something is wrong with the padding and it snugs too tight to the page edges

[@tgiokdi Member 13 years, 2 months ago]

are you attempting to use two different themes for your site? one for the wordpress install and one for the bbpress? in my own installations, I didn’t copy or move any templates around at all, and just installed bbpress and it worked with the template that I was using for my main site…

[@tryingtoregister Member 13 years, 2 months ago]

bbPress templates can’t be selected from the admin as they can, for instance, for a WP page. bbPress looks for the following template files in your *main* WP theme directory in the following order:

1. bbpress.php

2. forum.php

3. page.php

4. single.php

5. index.php

Most themes are going to have page.php by default so it’s likely that bbPress is pulling that as the forums page template. Copying and renaming that to bbpress.php or forum.php will allow you to customize a forum-only page template. NOTE: this is the containing page template (just like for WP pages) and is *not* where you will edit the forum files themselves.

[@alicehelen Member 13 years, 1 month ago]

I can tell that it’s using some of the styles from my main theme style.css (colors, fonts etc), the MAIN PROBLEMS that I have now is the fact that it’s not taking to my page template widths in my main theme