When I try to open my project that was created with the previous version of the Volcano theme that I just updated (via ‘Waterfall’) from v.2.3.0 to v.3.0, I get this message (screenshot):
So, I click on Apply Theme & Open button – even though the message is a complete nonsense, because RW can not possibly open a theme that is missing (!)
The project opens in ‘Edit’ mode. The Styles tab in Page Inspector does not show any settings, only a blank space. I click on ‘Preview’, I get an error message telling me that my old theme is missing and asking me to select the theme and export again (screenshot).
So, I open the Themes window and select the new version of my theme. Clicking and/or double-clicking on that theme DOES NOT assign the theme to my project. And I can not manually select the new version of my theme in Styles, because that tab is empty. To make sure that my theme is installed, I open the Addons window and indeed the theme is present in that window.
I am using RW 6.3.8 with Stacks 3.0.5 and Volcano 3.0 theme from ThemesFlood.
Does anybody have an idea how to deal with this predicament?
I believe this is because @willwood doesn’t version themes as we recommend. If the underlying name / identifier is change by Will, it’ll report itself to RapidWeaver as a different theme, and be reported as missing.
If I understand this discussion correctly, I believe this is because Waterfall moves the theme-to-be-updated into a separate folder within the RapidWeaver addons folder (like an archive folder). I seem to recall it is called something like ‘waterfall/backups’ or similar. I think this is something Jonathan was going to look at addressing in a future update and provide the option not to archive older themes.
So for the time being after you update a theme, you’ll simply want to open your RapidWeaver addons folder and move the older theme back into the main themes directory (if you still want to use it). I like to think of Waterfall mostly serving the role as an update checker, rather than a theme updater.
You can safely keep multiple versions of the same theme installed in RapidWeaver. Seriously, I have hundreds of themes installed, many of which are simply different versions of the same theme - e.g. 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4. RapidWeaver handles all these updated themes as separate themes (they all have unique names, bundle identifiers and version numbers). Then you have a ample opportunity to manually migrate any modifications you’ve made - custom CSS, images, video, backgrounds, JS etc. Or hand-pick which projects are applied to which particular theme versions. I’ve used the same system for about 10 years and it ensures we’ll not doing anything too destructive (it removes my liability of updates causing irreparable damage to projects).
Hi, @willwood,
I went and opened the Backups folder within the Waterfall folder. As you can see in the enclosed screenshot, there is no file Volcano 2.3.rwtheme in that directory, so I can not re-install it back into my Themes folder. I will send you a separate email about this Volcano update.
I agree, that updating themes manually is safer and simpler than using updating mechanism within Waterfall (by the same token, I always update RW by downloading and installing a new version manually and deleting an old one).
OK, the predicament is solved. For those who would like to know, how:
I re-installed Volcano 2.3 theme (now, I have both versions 2.3 and 3.0 on my computer), I transferred the saved styles from older version to the new one and everything seems to work as expected.
As promised, here is an updated knowledgebase article from my website that discusses theme updates in detail and covers the process of unarchiving older themes from the Waterfall backup folder: https://themeflood.com/knowledgebase/updating-themes
