Hello to all,
some of you have access to Envato themes and designs, especially WordPress themes and others.
Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your time.
1/ Using a buy SEO group
Envato themes are expensive. Too expensive for what they are. So you might as well make the most of your budget. Go through a buy SEO group and do your shopping.
2/ Local installation of the theme
The ready-to-use sites on Envato are ... ready to use. So if you change a single thing, it all falls apart. So, install locally or on a dev.www of your hosting.
3/ Analyse the whole theme
I used a theme for Drupal, found on Envato. Actually, the guys are not tired: there is very little CSS, but a lot of modules and parameters to manage in the site. So, install the fullsite versions and list everything: pages, code, extensions, etc.
4/ Clone
On the version I liked, there was a version incompatibility (I needed something for Drupal 7, the theme was for Drupal 9). I contacted the creators, to ask them to make me a compatible version, paid mission of course. Refusal (they didn't even want to send me a quote). So I literally cloned the site and rewrote the scripts.
If you are new to web development, use Envato only for examples or ideas. Don't waste your money buying ready-made themes.
I don't know what it's worth on the WordPress side, since I'm deeply allergic to it, but on the Drupal and HTML templates side, the slightest change of commas leads to disaster. I've been insulted more by PHP in one week than in the last ten years.
I take this opportunity to recommend two very nice extensions:some of you have access to Envato themes and designs, especially WordPress themes and others.
Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your time.
1/ Using a buy SEO group
Envato themes are expensive. Too expensive for what they are. So you might as well make the most of your budget. Go through a buy SEO group and do your shopping.
2/ Local installation of the theme
The ready-to-use sites on Envato are ... ready to use. So if you change a single thing, it all falls apart. So, install locally or on a dev.www of your hosting.
3/ Analyse the whole theme
I used a theme for Drupal, found on Envato. Actually, the guys are not tired: there is very little CSS, but a lot of modules and parameters to manage in the site. So, install the fullsite versions and list everything: pages, code, extensions, etc.
4/ Clone
On the version I liked, there was a version incompatibility (I needed something for Drupal 7, the theme was for Drupal 9). I contacted the creators, to ask them to make me a compatible version, paid mission of course. Refusal (they didn't even want to send me a quote). So I literally cloned the site and rewrote the scripts.
If you are new to web development, use Envato only for examples or ideas. Don't waste your money buying ready-made themes.
I don't know what it's worth on the WordPress side, since I'm deeply allergic to it, but on the Drupal and HTML templates side, the slightest change of commas leads to disaster. I've been insulted more by PHP in one week than in the last ten years.
CSS Viewed and CSS Used: these are two browser extensions (Chrome and Firefox) that analyze and copy the CSS of sites. They have helped me a lot and are quite easy to use.
What I did:
- I installed the original version on one of my servers;
- I parsed the PHP files to reproduce the zones (those who use Drupal know what I'm talking about);
- I converted the TWIG files to PHP (simple);
- I cloned the views (Drupal terminology, basically they are pages with categories), assigned the CSS classes ;
- I installed the CSS ;
- I cleaned up the files of calls to external resources (CDNs) that I installed locally;
- I fixed some details.
I'm staying on Drupal 7 for another year - the D7 support end date has been pushed back to November 2023 - after that I'm switching to BackDrop CMS.
That's it for the feedback, I hope you find it useful.