I downloaded the free version from the link on the author's website and placed it in one of my localhost installs which has the theme unit test data. There was a notice that there was an upgrade available so I clicked to update the theme.

It failed and after that the site seemed to be stuck in permanent maintenance mode. I tried deleting the maintenance file from root, but was then left with a blank page on both the front end and login. I then deleted the Startbox theme hoping that WP would load the default 2011 theme. Still a blank page. I really thought the install was trashed. In the end I put the original Startbox theme back in the theme folder and put the maintenance file back. I then removed the maintenance file again and tried to load the site. Lo and behold, the site was back! I tried other themes in the folder and everything seems okay. This leaves me a little nervous about Startbox.

I've been working with WordPress for a couple of years and have done a fair amount of child theme work and built some simple themes from scratch. I've never had anything like this happen.

I am picking up some tips from the course though. It's well done and giving me a few ideas for development. I didn't know you could save from the Web Developer toolbar. I have used Firebug to make temporary changes but I'm used to using my IDE for permanent changes.

Hi Mike,

You're problem sounds a lot like the White Screen of Death problem. A little different, but the same solution essentially. Resetting the them or plugin usually solves these kinds of problems.

Which is exactly what you did when you went through the process you did. Either database corruption or some type of file corruption during upload can cause those kinds of problems, and a "redo" usually sets things straight.

I haven't heard from anyone else that Startbox in particular has caused any problems or been unreliable. Let the us know if you seem to consistently have a problems with it. This sounds more like something that happens from time to time with WordPress. It just hasn't happened to you until now.

I didn't see any specific questions in your post. If you have a specific question, submit another post and we'll see what we can do to help.

Cheers,
Ed

PS. Here's a link to a short tutorial on dealing with the white screen of death.
www.ostraining.com/blog/wordpress/wordpr...ite-screen-of-death/

Hi Ed,

Thanks for getting back to me. The main question was really in the title. Is the trainer using the paid version of Startbox or the free version on GitHub that the theme author links to? I think the update notice might have been linking to an update for the paid version and that might be why it failed. If so, I think this should be mentioned on his site or handled differently (this of course is not your responsibility). It wouldn't have been a big deal if I ended up losing a localhost install that I use for practice but I would not have been happy if this was a live site.

I've seen lots of whitescreens (with error messages) because I do most of my development studies and work with the WordPress debugger set to true but I've never seen anything that looked like I was not going to be able to recover the site before. Definitely proof that backups are important though.

The only other problem I've seen with Startbox is that it won't render my rather extensive menu with dropdowns properly no matter what I do with the settings. The 2010 and 2011 themes as well as two simple themes that I've built from scratch render it properly. I haven't been able to figure out what the problem is. It looks like an incredible piece of work so I don't mean to knock it. I'm just pointing out what I'm experiencing with it.

In any case I think the OSTraining classes are quite good and I'm happy to have signed up for them.

P.S. I may look at the classes for Joomla and Drupal but I've worked with all three and decided to focus exclusively on WordPress. It best fits my needs for the type of websites that I would build, either for myself or clients.

Hi Mike,

WordPress is a good choice. I think you're doing the right thing by focusing. Every one of these is a big topic and you'll not master them all simultaneously. There's just a difference in approach on each one and it's all very confusing. I say this to everybody I think will listen, "The best one you can use is the one you know how to use." :)

I was unaware of problems with Startbox, but I'll bring it to the attention of Steve and the instructor and see if we need to do some revisions or at least post some notice.

Thanks for the feedback. Hope to hear more from you.

Cheers,
Ed

Hi Mike,

We provide the correct version for you in the exercise tab of the class:
www.ostraining.com/courses/class/latest/themes/

If you do get it from the author's site, you'd likely have to go to wp-content/themes/startbox-child/style.css change the following line:
to whatever your theme folder is named. For example, if it's "brichards-StartBox-dc17abe" then the code would be:
Mike wrote:We use the free-version from GitHub, but we slightly modified the wp-content/themes/startbox-child/style.css (see above) to get it working nicely for our students.

Hope this helps! Let us know if it works for you or not.

Kind regards,
Nick

Hi Nick,

Thank you for pointing me to the exercise files. I somehow overlooked the obvious when I accessed the class.

Regarding the GitHub version: I changed the parent folder name to startbox and made the template path in the child theme, startbox, instead of leaving the parent with the name brichards-StartBox-dc17abe.

Thank you for providing the child theme stylesheet. The author seems to no longer provide one. The one you provide is a huge help in getting started with a child theme for Startbox.

I'll give these files a try and see if I notice any difference with the menu issues.

Best,

Michael

You're welcome, Mike! We're glad we could be of help! :)

Kind regards,
Nick