Question about S2Member & WordPress themes

#1

Hi - I’m considering changing my WordPress theme, but I’m wondering if a different theme could break things? - right now I’m using an old theme I created in Artisteer software a long time ago and and considering using a free WordPress them via wordpress.org - do you support guys see people running into s2member/wordpress theme compatibility issues? Maybe I’m just being paranoid because things are working fine with s2member, I don’t want that to stop just because of a new theme… thanks for your input! David

#2

David, most of us here aren’t “support guys” at all – just users like you. But some of us have been participating in s2Member forums for quite a while.

My experiences in the forums tell me that the themes that will give you trouble are (a) the big name, “kitchen sink” themes on Themeforest (because they insist on bundling functions with the theme that should be handled only by plugins, and these often cause conflicts) and (b) themes that use some sort of front-end, drag-and-drop page builder (because these tend to hold the content in their own database tables, where it’s unavailable for s2Member to query).

A well-coded free theme on wordpress.org should work fine.

#3

Hi Tim - thanks very much for your helpful reply! :slight_smile:

#4

You’re very welcome, David.

If you’re comfortable sharing what theme you decide to go with (whenever that might be), I’d be interested to hear. I don’t find the search function for themes on wordpress.org very helpful, and it’s always nice to be able to make good recommendations to friends and colleagues.

#5

I’m glad to do so, and if you have any theme recommendation(s) that you know don’t break s2member (free theme or otherwise) please feel free to share!

#6

The themes I’ve had success with are Tiny Forge (now Tiny Framework) and anything by Sami Keijonen.

#7

iThemes Builder and its child themes work fine with s2Member. As Tim said, avoid anything with a page builder and themes with functions that should be in a plugin.

#8

Much thanks for your reply, Pat!

#9

I’m new to using S2Member and website development but found this post useful to help ditch themes that are problematic with the plugin.

I’m using the “ColorMag” and it removes all menus for users that aren’t logged in… This isn’t what I want for a club website where the majority of visitors will not be members or want to register.

I will look at some of the themes recommended to see if they will work for me.

If there are any more theme recommendations then please let me know.

Cheers.

1 Like
#10

I’ve actually found the problem and it was between the keyboard and the chair…
I hadn’t realised that by typing “all” into the level 0 page restriction, it would stop all unregistered access.

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#11

Thanks for the update!

Yeah, level 0 will require the person to be logged in.