Panda Theme

[vzex]

Got an email from Jonny good support for the theme he gets back to you within a day:

I am working on create a new version of Panda theme for TB, it will get released soon, please wait for a while if you are not in a rush of fixing the visual problem of loyalty rewards module. If find any more compatibility problems, please let me know.

Best regards. Jonny

[rubben1985]

Yes, he seems committed to support TB :) Good news as for me, he has the best templates and even most important, the best technical support I ever seen.

[vzex]

Yes, @rubben1985 it's very good! Found a lot of good info just on his envato replies. Think I went with version #4. Can't seem to get the index page the way I like looking like the rest of the pages. I want to get straight to the shopping! Hooks and all I guess. Theme offers so many options I have most turned off. Another learning curve!

[spidawebs]

I've been looking at this theme, as well as a few others, but what worries me is when I do speed tests and run the HTML5 validator on them, the results are nowhere near as good as the default community theme. These themes might look good, but you could be losing sales if they are slower and not as good for SEO. I'm leaning towards using the community theme and adapting that to suit my needs.

Thoughts?

[vzex]

Yes I felt the same and may eventually go back to the default them if it becomes more customizable because it will be built right for TB

I just felt I needed more customization for now from the default but I was concerned panda would be bloated with so many options but with all the cache settings turned off it seems to load just fine.

I use LTE for my internet which many people will be using to browse. I'm not getting worked up over speed tests.

Of course I don't have 30,000 items either but it's nice having all these different options to personalize.

Will work on the SEO and speed things later on. I just want to get it live.

[rubben1985]

My reason to use panda is just customization. I do not mind loosing a little bit of performance if shop is easy customizable

[alwayspaws]

@vzex @rubben1985 @spidawebs Jonny Li is excellent with tech support! Absolutely superb. He also has, as @vzex said, a lot of questions already answered in his envato forums. I sort the forum posts there by latest and from authors and buyers first (paraphrasing that part for now).

Dekker has discussed speed tests (and told me to stay the hell away from them. LOL!) because I was getting so tangled up, I froze and didn't work on my site for a week.

Suggested reading! @lesley wrote an in-depth blog post with comparisons and full explanations: PageSpeed is dead - https://thirtybees.com/blog/pagespeed-is-dead/

[30knees]

Does anybody know how the theme update for tb is going?

[vzex]

Last I heard on Aug 25, 2017 the first beta might be ready Sept 1 haven't heard anything since then.

I've finished merging all changes what TB team did to front office, if everything goes will, the first beta version will ready on next Friday. Best regards. Jonny

[30knees]

I wrote Jonny and asked about the tb version status together with some other questions. He didn't reply to the status, only to the other questions. Maybe someone else can ask, too.

[vzex]

Received reply from Jonny this morning but he did not reply to Panda TB update status inquiry :( I'm guessing PS 1.7 has kept him busy.

[alwayspaws]

@30knees @vzex (Don't be sad). Maybe it's best to let him work like we're letting Michael work, because both of them are swamped and working as hard as they can. We'll all "go out" and have a party when Panda and Transformer themes are updated. It's an ongoing process anyway. :)

[30knees]

I don't mind the delays. It's the communication. I think a simple: "Sorry, things got busier than expected and I don't know when I'll finish updating the theme" would be good. We'd stop bugging him and we'd know to perhaps work on things ourselves or look around elsewhere.

[alwayspaws]

My short answer is: he knows we’re waiting and, IMO, he doesn’t have to reply with a simple ok because we know he’s working on it.

[alwayspaws]

The long reply is:

@30knees I get it, I really do,

In my opinion, Jonny is very reliable and conscientious about his work.

He has announcements on his Transformer and Panda theme pages and I wholeheartedly feel the updates are worth the wait.

Thirty bees was going to be my third and final attempt. I arrived at this decision after suffering with Magento and then PS1.6.11 holding my progress back 2-1/2 years. Very disappointing.

All that stress, frustration, disappointment and nothing to show for it was exasperating. Thirty bees members’ help and encouragement saved my new site. I can wait for updates because I have a theme that I love and am learning so much and am really motivated...the complete opposite of what was going on for 2 1/2 years.

Here are the announcements by Jonny, which you’ve probably seen, so this is for the benefit of whomever isn’t aware of this:

Transformer theme:

“The theme will soon be fully compatible with Thirty bees, the new version is based on Transformer v3.2.9.” Shown here:

https://themeforest.net/item/transformer-responsive-prestashop-theme/5095795

and Panda: “The theme will soon be fully compatible with Thirty bees, the new version is based on Panda v1.3.1.”

https://themeforest.net/item/panda-responsive-prestashop-theme/9750650?s_rank=1

Please don’t look elsewhere because he will come through for us.

[hubbobubbo]

I had one concerned on this topic.

Having infinite scroll on category pages is a feature I would really like to have but have been struggling to find a good solution for in the past.

I noticed that while the 1.7 compatible version of the Transformer theme includes infinite scroll, it seems as the 1.6 and TB compatible 3.x version does not.

I am concerned that the 1.6 compatible version of these themes since branched out from an older release will be less feature rich than the 4.x series targeting Prestashop 1.7.

wdyt?

[lesley]

This module offers infinite scroll and is compatible with thirty bees, https://www.presta-shop-modules.com/prestashop-17-modules/36-infinite-scroll-module-for-prestashop.html

[marci123]

Actually I don't think that a version for thirtybees will come anytime soon. The seller seems to encourage buyers to use PS17 since PS16 will be phased out next year. My guess is that he will wait to see if there will be a greater demand for thirtybees to determine if it will be worth the effort.

[vzex]

If he has hundreds/thousands of 1.7 customers and a handful of TB users it's a good bet 1.7 will take priority.

I got my Panda $$$ worth since it got me live and is taking orders.

[vzex]

Received email from theme forest!

We'd like to let you know that an update to your item Panda - Responsive Prestashop Theme by tantan199 is now available in your Downloads page.

But it's for 1.7 :(

Maybe we are next!

Looks like Jonny has his own support forum now:

http://www.sunnytoo.com/forums/forum/panda-theme

[MockoB]

Ok, please explain me because I don't get it. When I browse the sunnytoo's site the Panda theme is announced as ps 1.6/TB theme. I was considering to buy it because there are really nice features included in it, which I was planning to buy additionally. But later I read in their forum that retina images and lazy load are in the "to do list", which is something that is definitely in the demo on their site. My question is, what are the differences between TB and PS1.6 versions of Panda theme? Because I already think that TB version has nothing in common with the demo version.

[MockoB]

And some Panda theme offtopic. @alwayspaws I don't think your issue with favicons on Iphone and Ipad are theme related. On clean TB installation they don't show either, so the issue is long time not solved on TB side.

[hubbobubbo]

@MockoB I share your concern about this. Having a strong base theme to work from if/when moving to TB is the most important thing for me and missing core features such as lazy loading, infinite scroll, (retina?) is very concerning.

[MockoB]

Retina (apple given name) images are those extra sharp images you see on every other platform except on ps/tb if you use device with high density screen :) I see it is implemented in their demo template.

[alwayspaws]

@MockoB Jonny's blog has TT/Panda comparisons here:

https://www.sunnytoo.com/11252/differences-transformer-theme-panda-theme

About iPhone and iPad favicons does anyone have them working?