Let's talk about choosing a theme, and CLONEAMENTAL
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I will be designing a new website, and request guidance about choosing a Concrete5 theme.
Like many other people, I unconsciously fall in love with the previous website I spent so much time designing, and don't want to change anything about it. Everyone I know likes it, and we all want to keep it just like that - forever. However, every few years, my web host nudges me or eventually makes me get a brand new Concrete5 website because my web host is no longer supporting that older version of Concrete5. Then I purchase a new theme with the newest Concrete5 version, and spend long days and weeks carefully designing an exciting, brand new website. My understanding of things is that I can keep that new website only as long as my web host will support that particular version of Concrete5. I don't "update" the website since my purchased theme works only at the purchase-level version of Concrete5. The purchased theme would stop working properly if I updated the website to a higher version of Concrete5.
When browsing themes, I noticed CLONEAMENTAL, a theme which claims to survive through updating experiences and continue to work even as the website is updated to higher and higher levels of newer Concrete5 versions. Well, that sounds marvelous.
Is my understanding of CLONEAMENTAL correct? Is CLONEAMENTAL a Concrete5 theme that lasts "forever"? Does it really work like that? If I used the CLONEAMENTAL theme, would frequent Concrete5 updates become a carefree delight that does not disrupt my website?
In years past, when choosing a theme, I was very interested in comparing the specific features of various Concrete5 themes. Today, my choice of a theme is mainly based upon the idea of how many years that theme is going to last. I want to choose a theme that will easily endure for at least 5 years.
Does anyone have advice for me, to help me choose a new theme?
I am eager to hear other people's experiences with theme choices and updating to higher levels of Concrete5.
Like many other people, I unconsciously fall in love with the previous website I spent so much time designing, and don't want to change anything about it. Everyone I know likes it, and we all want to keep it just like that - forever. However, every few years, my web host nudges me or eventually makes me get a brand new Concrete5 website because my web host is no longer supporting that older version of Concrete5. Then I purchase a new theme with the newest Concrete5 version, and spend long days and weeks carefully designing an exciting, brand new website. My understanding of things is that I can keep that new website only as long as my web host will support that particular version of Concrete5. I don't "update" the website since my purchased theme works only at the purchase-level version of Concrete5. The purchased theme would stop working properly if I updated the website to a higher version of Concrete5.
When browsing themes, I noticed CLONEAMENTAL, a theme which claims to survive through updating experiences and continue to work even as the website is updated to higher and higher levels of newer Concrete5 versions. Well, that sounds marvelous.
Is my understanding of CLONEAMENTAL correct? Is CLONEAMENTAL a Concrete5 theme that lasts "forever"? Does it really work like that? If I used the CLONEAMENTAL theme, would frequent Concrete5 updates become a carefree delight that does not disrupt my website?
In years past, when choosing a theme, I was very interested in comparing the specific features of various Concrete5 themes. Today, my choice of a theme is mainly based upon the idea of how many years that theme is going to last. I want to choose a theme that will easily endure for at least 5 years.
Does anyone have advice for me, to help me choose a new theme?
I am eager to hear other people's experiences with theme choices and updating to higher levels of Concrete5.
Hi. Thanks for this information. I am glad to hear from you.
If I chose the ELEMENTAL theme, then I could simply attach CLONEAMENTAL to it, and then never need to contact the theme developer asking for free help about updating my website. That would probably make the website, using the ELEMENTAL theme, last at least 5 years.
Theme developers prefer that I purchase a new theme to match the newest Concrete5 version, instead of trying to revive an old theme associated outdated Concrete5 versions.
If I chose the ELEMENTAL theme, then I could simply attach CLONEAMENTAL to it, and then never need to contact the theme developer asking for free help about updating my website. That would probably make the website, using the ELEMENTAL theme, last at least 5 years.
Theme developers prefer that I purchase a new theme to match the newest Concrete5 version, instead of trying to revive an old theme associated outdated Concrete5 versions.
The Elemental theme is the theme that came with C5.7 when it was released.
The Cloneamental theme is a packaged version of the Elemental theme.
The idea behind the Cloneamental theme is that you have a contained copy of the default Elemental theme that you can edit/customize/learn from, without the worry of breaking anything in the pre-installed Elemental theme.
The Cloneamental theme is a packaged version of the Elemental theme.
The idea behind the Cloneamental theme is that you have a contained copy of the default Elemental theme that you can edit/customize/learn from, without the worry of breaking anything in the pre-installed Elemental theme.
What I understood from colneamental is that if the default theme gets updated your theme remains untouched because you are using a clone version that won't be automatically updated, so it won't break your website. However if Concrete5 gets updated and requires some code to be changed or added to the theme in order to make it compatible then your cloneamental theme will have to be updated or it may not function properly with the new version of the platform.
The default Elemental theme is updated when the c5 core is updated.
Cloneamental updates are delivered through the marketplace and are hence optional.
Cloneamental updates are delivered through the marketplace and are hence optional.
As for "lasting 5 years"... Well, I think you should have something that fits your needs right now. And if there is an update for the CMS, the theme probably gets updated too. And if it hasn't, contact the developer. With version 5.7, themes from 5.6.x wouldn't work. But most themes of 5.7 will work with 5.7 and higher. If not, just ask for support. And if you want to update the CMS, take a look first if the theme you bought will work with that version (in 90% of the situation you'd only have to look if there's a "big" version release, like 8.1 to 8.2 or 8.2 to 9.0 or something like that. Everything with a change after the first dot, so 8.1.1 for example, will probably have no effect at all. These releases are mostly bug fixes and don't do anything big.
If you really want to have it perfect, you'd have someone design your website and someone else (or the same person) implement that into concrete5. That way you have exactly THAT what YOU (or the client) want(s), not just something plucked from the internet that is being used hundreds/thousands of times already..
Just my 2 cents!