Upgrading Old WP Themes to 3.0

I’m just curious to hear from authors of older Wordpress themes (2.9 and before) on whether or not you guys/gals are going back and upgrading all of your older products to be compatible with the new 3.0 features. I know I am doing this on my themes, but it’s turning out to be quite a time consumer – anyone else experiencing the same? Anyone ignoring updates altogether?

For buyers: is a 3.0 update a make it or break it deal when you purchase themes nowadays?

Thanks in advance for any insights you guys might have

I only had to go back and do one and it was only really the WP 3 .0 navigation that needed to be added or changed.

Have a couple of other projects I’d like to get finished first, then I’ll worry about it.

I went through and updated all my themes to utilize the new 3.0 menu system. I know buyers have been asking about this a lot.

The hard part was making the previous menu system work if they chose not to use the new menu system.

I also updated my themes to support the new Wordpress 3.0 menu system. As for the new features like custom post types, etc, I’m only implementing them in future themes.

@themolitor: The hard part was making the previous menu system work if they chose not to use the new menu system.

Yep – same here – this happens to be a killer article on the topic of making the menu compatible for both 3.0 and pre-3.0 installations: http://www.nkuttler.de/2010/06/08/wp_nav_menu-wordpress-3-0/

It didn’t solve the entire mess for me since I have a custom menu system built into all of my older themes (kinda like the WT Menu system) that made things more complex than in his article, but I just finished my first conversion and it works nicely in old and new WP

@themolitor: The hard part was making the previous menu system work if they chose not to use the new menu system.

Yep – same here – this happens to be a killer article on the topic of making the menu compatible for both 3.0 and pre-3.0 installations: http://www.nkuttler.de/2010/06/08/wp_nav_menu-wordpress-3-0/

It didn’t solve the entire mess for me since I have a custom menu system built into all of my older themes (kinda like the WT Menu system) that made things more complex than in his article, but I just finished my first conversion and it works nicely in old and new WP

Exactly the approach I used for maintaining compatibility with the previous menu system. Works like a charm

Just wanted to view my quick opinion as a consumer:

Custom menu is a must have! Otherwise we have to use plugins such as “Page Links To” to create custom/external links.

Just wanted to view my quick opinion as a consumer: Custom menu is a must have! Otherwise we have to use plugins such as “Page Links To” to create custom/external links.

Thanks for the note naweed! This is the primary feature that I’ve been focusing on myself, and I’m going to guess that that’s the single most important feature that other authors are working on too. A lot of the other new features are “take them or leave them” and more likely to be taken advantage of by entirely new themes – but the new menu system is crucial.

Just wanted to view my quick opinion as a consumer: Custom menu is a must have! Otherwise we have to use plugins such as “Page Links To” to create custom/external links.

Thanks for the note naweed! This is the primary feature that I’ve been focusing on myself, and I’m going to guess that that’s the single most important feature that other authors are working on too. A lot of the other new features are “take them or leave them” and more likely to be taken advantage of by entirely new themes – but the new menu system is crucial.

I totally agree, custom menu is a must have at present. Custom post types aren’t that highly sought after because they’re included with new themes anyway.

Best to keep it simple and easy.