Using Elgg 1.5 Theme on Elgg 1.6.1

When Elgg 1.6.1 came out with many great improvements and bug fixes, many upgraded from the 1.5 version, I was one of them.
Everything looked good until I logged in and popup message showed up letting me know that I was now logged in but it was not disappearing from the screen. Even clicking on “click to dismiss” link did not work. Another problem was that elgg topbar tools dropdown menu did not drop down. It took me a while to realize that I was using elgg theme for Elgg ver. 1.5 which uses older javascript files. I wanted to use the same theme but upgraded version of the theme was not available so I uploaded js files from Elgg 1.5 vendors/js folder and replaced ones on my new 1.6.1 elgg installation. It worked but that was only a temporary fix.

To get the permanent fix you have to update code in your theme folder/views/default/page_elements/ header.php file so it will call the new javascript files that are included in elgg version 1.6.1 Look for this code:

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”<?php echo $vars[‘url’]; ?>vendors/jquery/jquery-1.2.6.pack.js”></script> <script type=”text/javascript” src=”<?php echo $vars[‘url’]; ?>vendors/jquery/jquery-ui-personalized-1.5.3.packed.js”></script>

And replace with this:

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”<?php echo $vars[‘url’]; ?>vendors/jquery/jquery-1.3.2.min.js”></script> <script type=”text/javascript” src=”<?php echo $vars[‘url’]; ?>vendors/jquery/jquery-ui-1.7.2.custom.min.js”></script> <script type=”text/javascript” src=”<?php echo $vars[‘url’]; ?>vendors/jquery/jquery.form.js”></script>

And that should do the trick. So instead of changing to a different theme with a little copy and paste you can make your older theme work with new Elgg 1.6.1 If you have any problems, comment below.