I like the GeneratePress theme.. a lot.
Unfortunately CP does officially not support it anymore, although it still may work.
Because I officially cannot install / use the theme anymore, I will not use it on a CP install. For client websites I turn to WP.
I’m thinking about forking the most recent version of GP, and hopefully get it listed in the CP Themes Directory. Similar to what has been done with the TwentySeventeen theme in the past.
But before starting with this project I’m curious about the opinion of others..
GP now supports FSE/blocks. Does not work on CP. To fork it you will need to assess which OLD VERSION of it works on CP and go from there. On the forum there is at least one fork of it already however.
I was thinking about this some more, an alternative approach is adding polyfill like functions to core (or to a (MU) plugin), so the most used WP-themes could still be installed and used without erros/warnings. This way you don’t have to create custom versions.
Let’s face it: there aren’t feature rich themes like (for example) GeneratePress for CP yet.
…you can’t polyfill everything. That is counterproductive. If you really need GP use WP.
just select the right CMS for the project… There is no problem in a person using WP and CP for different sites. And CP ecosystem is growing, it will take time but it will grow.
I think rather than core or a official MU plugin, it would be better to deal with the themes case by case (by using a companion plugin for the theme). Even that is no guarantee that future theme updates won’t break it in CP. A ‘generic’ polyfill plugin has been discussed a few times before to the same conclusion each time - it is another thing that will consume dev time when the idea is to eventually attract devs who will either make their product work with WP and CP out of the box, or even better, make a product for CP.
Understood, thank you both.
Creating a CP product as feature rich as GeneratePress is not something that can been done easily. So that’s why I was thinking out loud about possible alternatives.
I understand, think about how GP came to be however. It started as a simple starter theme, users asked features and those got included in the releases little by little. This happened to ALL the good stuff, if you think about it. Like for example woo, it was a fork of Jigoshop (a basic shop plugin) and evolved slowly from there thanks to the community of people wanting to include new features in it.
Or Elementor, or even Beaver Builder. All the big players were born small and then they grew up.
You can’t expect a theme like GP to go from zero to hero in a day, what you can expect is a dev taking the steps to start a basic starter theme and then put in the features the community needs.
EDITED TO ADD: what I mean is that eventually in time CP will have better plugins and themes than WP - big players that develop specifically for CP. Meanwhile we have to make do with WP sometimes….
Jigoshop! I liked it, unfortunately their v2 did not last long. Mainly because of WC became the nr 1, I assume.
Just installed GP v3.5.1 (last version that requires WP <= 6.2), but unfortunately the Color/Typography section doesn’t work (properly). Without this the theme is far less appealing.
Guess it’s best to stop trying making WP themes work in CP.
You can make them work. You just need to refactor them.
For that it’s better to start with a basic theme. Once refactored you add what you need to it.
Elica Bootstrap and Elica Underscores are two simple themes one can extend without the need to reinvent GP.
And BTW what is you like about it? I am curious because I never used it. I prefer themes like Astra or Hestia, since I feel more in tune with the way they work.
It started with wanting a theme that I could use for all my client websites. GP is feature rich, but IMO still quite easy to use. And I like that it’s a product from Canada
But nowadays they have fully embraced the block editor, so it may not be the best choice for CP anymore.
