Ryan’s Theme Switcher

I suppose that my simple old 1.2.2 converted themes are just lucky for me (thank goodness). I’m also using Borderline Chaos and having no problem with it. I really don’t think that the WP world is divided into Kubrick vs. xx. There are plenty of themes using the switcher with no problem, and I know they are not all Kubrick or even modified Kubrick. Just a quirk or left-out piece of code, I guess.

Root, I did check on the category situation a bit. I can’t make my setup act the way yours does. But then I hadn’t really noticed it previously, so perhaps what I tweaked fixed that too?

Perhaps you could tweak mine. I have disabled it till I get this figured. Thanks for your continuing interest in this mysteriousness ??

Well, I tend to pick away at things – like why the “links” header in a sidebar won’t display the same way as the “categories” header does…. which eventually meant I had to edit an <h2> tagset out of links.php….

I know there are people who worry that you break things if you tweak; I’m the queen of redundant backups, though, so if I bork something I just load a backup and go on my merry way!

If I think of anything that might help, I’ll holler….

One more thing to be chased down: if the theme(s) you are using have “single.php” included in the pageset (some of mine do, some don’t), you have to change the same info on that page as well. That leads me to believe that there may be other pages with the same “bloginfo” and “name” calls, which cause the “default” theme to be loaded when “homing” from an “inside” page (like comments pages, or category lists….)

Still in “detective mode” here….

Well you are definitely on to something. To add to the mystery why does the Classic have a lot less files than the default? Wheres all the stuff ?

I wondered that myself…. and I don’t have a clue! Another thing to look into….

In the 5 themes I’m using right now, it varies which files need to be edited as to the <a>"><?php bloginfo('name'); ?> line: all of them needed either index.php or header.php edited, two of them have needed single.php edited, one of those two also needed page.php edited. The other files in all of them, no matter what or how many, didn’t make that call to the bloginfo stuff….

Do I detect a latent need for er protocols, conventions and er standards emerging ? Its tedious stuff but we all need it.

Um. It ain’t latent…. I’ve been thinking so ever since I’ve been whacking at various code/scripting langs ever since I got a computer in 1984. I don’t program, I don’t write anything but MUSH softcode, but I have an eye for patterns and a nose for problems…. One thing I’m pretty good at is tweaking scripts – as long as they aren’t REALLY involved – and I’m pretty good as well at finding mis-paired and missing brackets, braces and other delimiters.

One of these days I really DO need to learn to program…. then maybe I can do something to HELP with those “standards”.

Are you good at finding missing socks ? ??

Sweetie, the dryer ate them.

[Edit: unless you use a clothesline or the hedge out doors, in which case the dog stole them; or if you use the bathtub ledge, the cat’s nesting in them….]

Well I have a question now. I’m not understanding why people are having issues with placing the code on each theme. Doesn’t code have to be placed into each theme for things such as weather, recent comments, and most other “viewable” plugins? It’s not just the theme-switcher that must be added. Correct me if I’m wrong, but do any plugins just “show up” on your page without manually placing the code where you want it to show? Otherwise, there would be a slew of “How do I get this to show up on top of the sidebar but below the links?” and the like.

Well yes and no. Core functionality needs to be consistent or it wont work at all.

See? That’s why I’m best off sticking to my old “index.php and style.css” ONLY themes ?? I swear I must be the luckiest girl alive. The few newer themes I’ve added have worked with no problem. I should play the lottery tonight.

The ones I’m using need manual placing, yes – the theme-switcher as well. The problem isn’t necessarily (at this later point) with Ryan’s plugin as much as it is with the way the “bloginfo” call is made in most themes (and the pages in which it is found varies widely theme to theme).

Because the subset of 1.5 themes seem to originate mostly from either the Kubrick or the Classic theme, you get two separate subsets of themes: one with more pages like Kubrick; and one with fewer like Classic. So the pages which call bloginfo for the “home” url tend to vary.

The only problem with this particular setup is that the theme-switcher seems to be “interfered with” by the bloginfo url call – so you get sent back to whatever your original default theme was when you use the header “homing url” to go from a comments page etc. back to the main page.

It’s not a big deal, no. But then again, the point to the theme functionality, it seems to me, is to allow ease of use as far as skin/look for people. The way it’s working right now, the functionality is slightly “borked” (to quote Root), and I’m just enough of a tweaker to go looking for why….