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April 20, 2022: Compatible with BuddyBoss 🎉
As of April 20, 2022, our Design Upgrade Pro for LearnDash plugin is now compatible with the BuddyBoss theme.

Feel free to read on if you’d like to know how Design Upgrade Pro for LearnDash versions 2.18 and below worked with BuddyBoss. But if you’re using BuddyBoss and would like to use our plugin, we highly recommend you update to version 2.19 or later for the best experience.

TLDR: Some people use Design Upgrade Pro for LearnDash with BuddyBoss successfully. It can be done, but it depends on a) if you’re using BuddyBoss platform, BuddyBoss theme, or both, and b) which LearnDash elements you use, and c) which Design Upgrade options you’re using.

In most cases, it’s the theme that isn’t compatible. If you’re just using the platform plugin, most (if not all) of Design Upgrade Pro for LearnDash’s features will work as expected.

See also: Learn how BuddyBoss integrates with LearnDash →

✅ BuddyBoss Platform Only

Our own internal testing, along with several anecdotal reports, indicates Design Upgrade Pro for LearnDash works as expected if you are only running the BuddyBoss Platform plugin, and not the theme.

This makes sense because the BuddyBoss Platform plugin adds features & functionality, while the BuddyBoss Theme customizes HTML templates & applies CSS. Our plugin focuses almost exclusively on the HTML/CSS side of things.

However, keep in mind, if you only use the BuddyBoss Platform plugin, you’ll need to write a lot of custom CSS for your BuddyBoss features to look nice. This is why most people also buy the theme to go along with it.

Errors

Regardless of whether you’re using just the platform plugin or have added the theme, you won’t see any visible errors on the frontend or backend of your site. Nothing is going to completely break. Our plugin will continue to load CSS in the background, and you’ll still see all the Design Upgrade Pro options in the Customizer.

If you have a staging site, I encourage you to install both and see how things look.

CSS Compatibility w/ BuddyBoss Theme

What we mean by “not compatible” is that for the CSS we are using…

  • some of it will work as expected, and change the LearnDash element’s design.
  • some of it will not work, and just fail silently (nothing will change).
  • and some of it will make some LearnDash elements look weird, from a design perspective. This is due to a clash between our CSS & BuddyBoss’ CSS.

HTML & Class Names

For all dynamic elements that LearnDash outputs onto the page, the BuddyBoss theme customizes the LearnDash HTML, including the class names. The elements are the things that our plugin lets you customize. And our plugin relies on the default LearnDash HTML & class names.

Since BuddyBoss changes them, our plugin is applying styles to elements with a different name, thus why they are not working.

BuddyBoss only changes some of them, not all of them. This is why some of our plugin settings work and some don’t.

Using Both

I have had a few people try to use both, and some have said that they didn’t notice any issues with the LearnDash elements they were using, so it is possible to use both together. If you can, I recommend you test it out and see how things look. If nothing looks off to you, and the settings you’re using appear to be working… you can absolutely continue using it.

If you’ve tried to use both, I’d love it if you could leave a comment and let the world know about your experience. Whether it worked for you or not, all information will help inform future users. Thank you 🙏.

Learn more about BuddyBoss pricing or buy BuddyBoss now.