2016 & Ongoing - Why are there so many Terrible themes?!
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2016 11:47 pm
I've been trying to recommend some themes to people but after working with so many sites and trying to install them, I've come to realize how effing Terrible so many themes are.
I've been quite open about past themes that I considered terribly codes like Shoppica et al, but at least Shoppica didn't replace core files or require you to have an empty database. There are themes out there by big sellers like TemplateMeta, themeglobal, and others that replace dozens of core files and layout files so that if you ever wanted to remove their theme, you'd need to reinstall opencart! THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!
So I'm hereby creating a blacklist/whitelist of either theme authors and/or individual themes that make this garbage.
I'm putting them into 4 categories:
1. Avoid at all Costs. These are the ones that replace core files. If you are a theme maker replacing ANY core files, you have already failed at life. These also seem to be the ones that require you to have a clean database and you must run their sql file to install all their demo descriptions and store settings to make their demo on your site, rather than make your site look like the demo.
2. Not recommended. These are the ones that at the very least use their own files, but blindly include files that don't need to be copied, like the payment folder. If you are a theme maker and have a payment folder, you have again failed at life! At least this can be easily fixed by deleting the payment folder from the theme. But who knows what other files they just copied over from the default theme that weren't necessary.. The more files they copied from the default, the more painful it is to upgrade.
3. Use with caution. These are your Shoppicas, Journals, PavMega, etc.. Themes that add an additional abstraction layer that can be a pain to work with.. often complicated by using ocmod vs vqmod since ocmod is more difficult to debug. These are popular themes and can be very nice, but also add so much of their own stuff that you can get lost in their world. Use with caution.
4. Generally safe. These are the themes that follow the proper steps to theming. They create their own files, even if they have their own version of modules. They never overwrite any files. They use a proper modification system like vqmod or ocmod to integrate themselves where necessary (tho usually this should not be needed). And they only include the files that they've actually customized.
I'd like to get feedback from others as well, including the theme authors who I will likely aggravate... But it's getting difficult to tell people to stick with OpenCart when many of the the available attractive themes are coded like garbage.
I've been quite open about past themes that I considered terribly codes like Shoppica et al, but at least Shoppica didn't replace core files or require you to have an empty database. There are themes out there by big sellers like TemplateMeta, themeglobal, and others that replace dozens of core files and layout files so that if you ever wanted to remove their theme, you'd need to reinstall opencart! THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!
So I'm hereby creating a blacklist/whitelist of either theme authors and/or individual themes that make this garbage.
I'm putting them into 4 categories:
1. Avoid at all Costs. These are the ones that replace core files. If you are a theme maker replacing ANY core files, you have already failed at life. These also seem to be the ones that require you to have a clean database and you must run their sql file to install all their demo descriptions and store settings to make their demo on your site, rather than make your site look like the demo.
2. Not recommended. These are the ones that at the very least use their own files, but blindly include files that don't need to be copied, like the payment folder. If you are a theme maker and have a payment folder, you have again failed at life! At least this can be easily fixed by deleting the payment folder from the theme. But who knows what other files they just copied over from the default theme that weren't necessary.. The more files they copied from the default, the more painful it is to upgrade.
3. Use with caution. These are your Shoppicas, Journals, PavMega, etc.. Themes that add an additional abstraction layer that can be a pain to work with.. often complicated by using ocmod vs vqmod since ocmod is more difficult to debug. These are popular themes and can be very nice, but also add so much of their own stuff that you can get lost in their world. Use with caution.
4. Generally safe. These are the themes that follow the proper steps to theming. They create their own files, even if they have their own version of modules. They never overwrite any files. They use a proper modification system like vqmod or ocmod to integrate themselves where necessary (tho usually this should not be needed). And they only include the files that they've actually customized.
I'd like to get feedback from others as well, including the theme authors who I will likely aggravate... But it's getting difficult to tell people to stick with OpenCart when many of the the available attractive themes are coded like garbage.