Some Themes are in bad Condition

[RainerBielefeld]

I am currently doing systematic Tests of the Themes, because I want to find out which of them are best suitable for my needs. And I had to learn:

• Most of them cause problems, have Bugs
• Some do not work at all
• Some in the Listing are no longer available for download
• Often contact data is outdated, at least for me it's impossible to contact the Dev. / Owner of the Theme

You find my results [WiP] here in My Theme Tests
My conclusions:
We should contact Devs. / Owners and suggest to host the development at public repositories like github, Codeberg, gitlab or similar. So

• Dev.s can get support in the further development and improvement (Translations, ...) of the themes
• Users can post RfE and Bugs easily
• Public tests are more effective
• Themes where Owner lost interest (and which might be no longer available from public repositories) can be revived.
• Development becomes more transparent
• probably some more advantage

What do you think?

CU

Rainer

[fraenkiman]

Hello Rainer,

most of the theme developers are no longer active today. Therefore, it is up to the community to maintain the themes and adapt them to current standards.

I recommend continuing this discussion in this Topic area:
viewforum.php?f=5

@all, would it help you if the themes in the FlatPress-Extra Repo were also available on GitHub for pull requests?

@Arvid, what are your thoughts on this?

Best regards,
Frank

[Arvid]

Hi,

at first: Thank you very much for testing in this detailled manner, Rainer!

I actually like the idea of "forking" legacy third-party themes (and plugins!) into the flatpress-extras repository. (If their license allows to.)
To state clearly that these are not our own works initially, i propose a subdirectory thirdparty with a readme inside that eplains that we took over discontinued plugins and themes in order to keep them working with current FlatPress versions. It should also invite the original authors to reach out to us if they want to take over their work again.

Proposed folder structure of the extra repo:

• fp-plugins
• fp-resources
• fp-tools
• thirdparty
  • plugins
  • themes
  • README.md

What do you think?

All the best,
Arvid

[RainerBielefeld]

What do you think?

Hi Arvid,

that structure meets very well with my Intentions. It avoids the disadvantage with "accessories" spread over lots of repository platforms, but also prevents from misunderstanding that these third party software bundles might be part of the FlatPress core.

So, if there don't come up unexpected concerns, we should start such a structure in January 2026. First for Themes and so on where no interested owner can't be found any more. Hoping, that interested users and Devs will continue to keep the software "alive".

I am not familiar with github proceeding, my "job" always was

• find bugs
• make them reproducible
• sometimes: make a (sugestion for a) fix

All the rest done by the Devs.

But with a little help ...

CU

Rainer

[macadoum]

Hello Rainer, I took the first theme of your list where the theme "Does not work at all" : Bearggero.

I asked Github Copilot to update the theme to make it work with FlatPress 1.5 :

The theme Bearggero in fp-interface/themes is outdated and was intended to work with Flatpress 1.0
This theme is not working at all and broke flatpress (error 500) when choosed in the admin panel theme tab.
Make a plan for an user agent session to improve the bearggero theme following these instructions:
1. Improve Bearggero to work with master branch of Flatpress (1.5 rc).
2. Take inspiration from other well-maintained flatpress theme in fp-interface/themes to make Bearggero work again.
3. Make bearggero compatible with Smarty 5.5+
4. Resolve the 500 error when choosing the bearggero theme.
5.You can slightly improve the theme visually with modern practice.
6.The theme must be responsive and usable on mobile.

Then ask the Agent session to proceed.

Now the theme is working again ! See : https://macadoum.free.nf/

You can try it here : https://uploadnow.io/f/jhdDWvp

But I'm unable to make the menu and the sticky about page appears as seen in the preview image here :

I've tried to play with the static page and the widgets as explained here : https://github.com/dartarrow/bearggero/ ... /README.md

I'm not used to play with menus on flatpress, so maybe you'll be able to make it work.

Let me know

Be careful, use it on a test installation of Flatpress

[RainerBielefeld]

Probably tomorrow I will find the time for a new test.

I between I had to learn that I have a horrible mess with user püermissions in all my Flatpress installations, may be some of my "Does not work at all" results were caused by that problem. When the user permissions will be ok I will redo my tests.

[fraenkiman]

Hello everyone,

I have created a new directory called thirdparty in the extra repo with two subdirectories for themes and plugins.

Errors with themes and plugins where the license type (e.g., MIT, GPL v2.0, etc.) is clarified and which are not part of FlatPress can be entered here in this issue tracker.

For errors in projects where the license type is unclear, please try to contact the original author in advance to obtain their support and/or approval if no license is specified in the project.

Best regards,
Frank

[RainerBielefeld]

It would be helpful if some Devs would occasionally stop by there.

[RainerBielefeld]

Now the theme is working again ! See : https://macadoum.free.nf/

Hi macadoum,

I can confirm that the modified version now started with FP, but it's completely unusable, many functions are missing.

CU

Rainer