I apologise for asking this question again:
I have some bbpress files in my child theme. I checked
the differences on bbpress trac. I can see that most
of my modified files are unaffected as no changes have been made in them.
However I have a modified bbpress.php file (which @robkk helped me with) –
this files just creates a customised main bbpress page.
I can see that a couple of changes were made in the bbpress.php
file in the plugin parent folder.
All I need to know is if I can safely update to 2.5.9 without worrying
about the bbpress.php I have in my child theme.
Thank you.

[@robkk Moderator 8 years, 6 months ago]

The actual bbpress.php file in the bbPress plugin is read by WordPress to generate the plugin information, includes all of the dependencies used by the plugin.

The one you are using is just a custom template for your theme to work better with the bbPress plugin. You can change the name to any of the below so not to cause further confusion later on.

plugin-bbpress.php
forums.php
forum.php

The only actual times you may need to update the bbpress.php template file I created for you, is if

• bbPress screws up somewhere in theme compatiblity
• your theme author updates their theme and changes class names around for their grid system (If I remember right you use a Responsive child theme)
• WordPress does something like dramatically change how their templating system works

All these are very unlikely to happen, and definitely without some kind of backwards compatibility even if they do change it.

So you should be fine regarding the template file in your child theme named bbpress.php.

[@mica123 Participant 8 years, 6 months ago]

Many thanks @robkk for your clear and detailed explanation as always. For now I won’t change the name of the file.
Just a question which has been mentioned elsewhere but as far as I can tell not satisfactorily explained or resolved. The official instruction for modifying bbpress files is to create a bbpress folder in the child theme and put the files there. However that doesn’t work at all. I had to take the bbpress files out of that folder in my child theme and put them directly in the root of the child theme for them to work. Just thought I’d mention it here.

[@robkk Moderator 8 years, 6 months ago]

The files from the bbpress folder can work in a theme folder called bbpress, and also could be at the root of the theme, its just recommended to keep things neat.

It should be any bbP Default theme package template files in the “bbpress” folder that should also be in a “bbpress” folder, 1 css file should go in a css folder or 2 if you read right to left, and you can customize the javascript files in the js folder by putting it in a js folder in your child theme.

The files in the extras folder (they are examples for other themes, but should work for some WordPress default theme, I think Twentytwelve?) and these should be in the root of your theme, with the bbpress.php file.

[@mica123 Participant 8 years, 6 months ago]

@robkk thanks, that’s great. Will keep everything in mind.