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Using a Wordpress theme that is not one of the 100 available through Edublogs

rose (Member)
Started 2 months ago  #         

Hi,

My blog is rose.edublogs.org. I am a teacher at an American International School, and all my students have blogs. I have paid for Supporter status (in case that is relevant).

I am very interested in several Wordpress themes that are not part of the standard 100 offered in Edublogs: AHIMSA, ATAHUALPA, INOVE, and ORIENTAL.

I have 2 questions:
a) can these be offered as part of the Edublogs themes?
b) after downloading these themes (as I have), is their some way I can use them in my edublog even if they are not part of the regular choice offered?

Thanks,
Aviva

Answers from fellow members and edublogs support

Sue Waters (Edublogs Community Facilitator)
Posted 2 months ago  #         

Hi Aviva

The issue with themes is similar to plugins which is why my response is almost exactly the same.

All new themes need to be considered carefully. While there are lots of themes you can use on a single install of WordPress this isn't the case with WordPress MU (which is what Edublogs uses).

Some themes just won't work and others can be so incompatible that it can cause bugs or worst case scenario make the site unstable (crash).

Before any theme can be added it needs to be extensively tested on our test site, then added to Edublogs then tested more. Testing is extremely lenghty because you need to go through and try all features to ensure they preform as you expect.

No -- you can't download themes and install them onto your Edublogs blog. This is only possible if you self host your blog.

rose (Member)
Posted 2 months ago  #         

Thanks for the quick response and the helpful info. Any chance that the themes I am interested in may appear sometime soon? AHIMSA, ATAHUALPA, INOVE, and ORIENTAL.

All the best,
Aviva

drmike (Volunteer Support Guru)
Posted 2 months ago  #         

A link to the designers' home page and where he or she offers the themes would be a plus. Especially since I know of at least 5 wordpress themes named Oriental. :)

timothyscott (Member)
Posted 4 weeks ago  #         

Dr Mike

This might be useful.

http://www.neoease.com/themes/ at least for inove anyway, which is (to put my two pennies worth in) quite a nice theme!

Cheers, Tim

drmike (Volunteer Support Guru)
Posted 4 weeks ago  #         

Thanks for that Tim but, just for reference, I have no official stance here. I politely point out the first word after my user name. I'm sure James will take it into consideration though.

Sue Waters (Edublogs Community Facilitator)
Posted 4 weeks ago  #         

I know that James has been looking into a whole batch of new themes but I'm not sure which ones or when they will be available.

Mrs Mahadevan (Member)
Posted 2 weeks ago  #         

I administer a project involving an ever expanding number of schools. Presently we self host our Wordpress blogs (not MU) but because of the increased number of schools getting involved, I'm looking to move our blogs to edublogs Campus. However, I am concerned by the lack of themes which will support our purpose and have the functionality which we are used to, eg threaded comments (although I believe this is activated via a plugin rather than the built in settings of Wordpress); drop down menus to show child pages of menus (many edublogs themes won't even show the existence of a child page when selecting the parent page from a horizontal menu bar); lack of themes which would have more appeal to primary aged children.

If I had a request for any particular theme it would be for Atahualpa as it is so customizable but since many of its options are stored in the database, I guess this may cause problems.

drmike (Volunteer Support Guru)
Posted 2 weeks ago  #         

Excuse me if I sound technical. Also insert my standard "I'm not an attorney" and "I'm not a member of INCSUB staff" clauses.

Part of the problems with themes is many of them require work to run on this platform. WordPress Multiuser, the software that runs this site, is actually different than the regular WordPress that you download and host yourself. A lot of theme developers either code directly for WordPress specific functions and abilities or they bypass the built in coding within Wordpress and preform database requests directly that Wordpress Multiuser doesn't allow. (The database structure is different and that throws folks off.)

threaded comments is actually a built in function of Wordpress now. The problem is that the themes have to be upgraded and retested to support the new features. (There's actually a couple of them that were added in as well as some required CSS work as well.)

I believe with the Campus program you have file level access and can upload your own themes if you want. (Don't quote me on that though. James and Sue are going to have to respond on that one.) DO realize though that you'll be responsible with the testing and upgrading of that theme.

You may also want to look at James' other project at http://wp.mu/ There I know you have file level access.

Having said that, I'll admit that I have a single family WPMu install myself and while there are many themes geared towards children, many of them are coming from theme developers who include their own paid links and hidden code. My favorite theme is actually one based on the Hobbit (the book, not the movies) but that theme is so loaded with garbage and the theme designer is so "I'll sue the $%^& off anyone who messes with my code" I don;t dare touch it. Even though my own attorneys tell me I'm in the right. (Themes are usually licensed in what's known as GPL which means I can modify them as I see fit as long as I leave the credit where they are. Not everybody sees it that way.)

Hope this helps,
-drmike

Mrs Mahadevan (Member)
Posted 2 weeks ago  #         

Many thanks for your comprehensive reply. I have a feeling that the option to have your own themes may be one of the more expensive Campus options (well beyond our means). It would be nice to have at least one themethat allowed a greater degree of customization. I note that at http://wp.mu/ they provide the Nelo theme for that purpose.

Sue Waters (Edublogs Community Facilitator)
Posted 2 weeks ago  #         

Thanks for the excellent explanation Dr Mike.

In terms of Campus we don't give our clients FTP access. The process is they email us the zip file of the theme and we upload to their site for them.

As you've highlighted not all themes are compatible so we have to test and check all themes prior to uploading which is why this is a feature of Campus Gold and Ultimate plans - http://edublogs.org/campus/licences/

However WPMU-Nelo, WPMU-Triden and WPMU-Dixi are included as standard themes in all Edublogs Campus licenses; all these themes have extensive customization options.

Mrs Mahadevan (Member)
Posted 2 weeks ago  #         

Thank you for you replies, I guess the only way to find out whether Campus will meet our needs is to give a trlal run:)

drmike (Volunteer Support Guru)
Posted 2 weeks ago  #         

James has promised us a CSS editor sometime in the future although he hasn't provided a timeline. Not sure if that adds anything to the discussion.

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