Also reported here - https://forums.limesurvey.org/index.php/forum/installation-a-update-issues/135650-after-v6-2-0-update-from-6-1-8,-we-receive-an-incompatible-theme-error

We are unable to reproduce the issue that was reported. Maybe there are some additional details on how to reproduce it?

There are no additional details and we are now up to 3 reports of the same thing in the forums - one person had 50+ surveys affected.

Did you actually try updating a system with surveys using custom themes from 6.1.x to 6.2.x?

Have the same issue, think it was due to skelvanilla (really incompatible, based on BS3).

But : 6.1 to 6.2 mean NO need update of theme.

@tpartner "Did you actually try updating a system with surveys using custom themes from 6.1.x to 6.2.x?"

Yes, this was tested multiple times, and also after you reported the issue, trying to reproduce the issue you mentioned. I thought the issue was that when you did the changes to config.xml of your custom theme, you still couldn't reinstall it.

1. The extended theme is supposed to be invalidated.
2. In the application you have instructions (link to manual) https://manual.limesurvey.org/Extension_compatibility
3. I have followed the instructions using the theme you provided and made changes (image1)
4. I could install the theme again and use it in my survey

@tibor.pacalat, please don't patronize me and point to the manual. I have been using LimeSurvey for 15 years and understand versions better than most.

This custom theme was created via the GUI in 6.1.x, so how could the version be a factor.

Also. as @DenisChenu says, there should be NO need to update themes across minor version changes.

This has destroyed many active surveys!

How is it that we are all experiencing the problem but you are dismissing it as non-reproducable?

As the person who has spent yesterday all day to reconfigure 58 active surveys, and is still dealing with the aftermath, I can only underline what @tparner has said: this should have never happened with a minor version bump. At the very least, ComfortUpdate should have signalled this will happen, similar to when an update overwrites locally changed translation files. More adequately, the existing themes should have been automatically amended with the compatibility section in their config.xml, which is simply missing.

I am sorry that this change has caused so many issues, I am just trying to figure out where the issue is.

Is the issue here in user experience, or you can't install the theme even when you add compatibility version to the config file?

The issue is that, on updating the LS version, surveys using (valid) custom survey themes were automatically reset to use a core theme and that (valid) custom survey theme was uninstalled.

The surveys should not have been affected in this minor version update.

Thanks @tibor.pacalat – the issue is user experience. In my case: the theme got disabled silently, no warning in the backend issued, all active surveys fell back to the new fruity2023 theme, which does not yet cover several of the question types we are using, all custom.css is gone, all survey settings are changed back to standards. It caused a moment of panic, followed by hours of work.

I'm not sure if the following detail is needed, but in case it helps:

In addition to the issue noted above (NonFormality) whereby a survey had lost its association with a previously assigned custom theme and it did this without warning (UX issue), there is a secondary issue. When we attempt to import a theme into v6.2.0 that we had previously exported from 6.1.8, LS responds stating that the theme was uninstalled since it is incompatible.

I wanted to clarify this in case all of the attention is just on the one half of the problem related as described above by NonFormality. This other issue is also substantial and doesn't appear to be a UX challenge but inhibits the ability to import the theme when prior to v6.2.0 it was not a challenge importing this same theme.

We are extending Vanilla - I will attach the exported theme from v6.1.8. Thanks

Have the same issue - nothing else done - just updating from 6.1.8 to 6.2.0. Skelvanilla was already installed and running in 6.1.8. See attached screenshot. Get the same Error-Message as shown from tpartner.

Hm looks like something for Patrick, but he's on vacation this week. I just got back from vacation.

But yeah, the error message is in fact correct, because the survey theme HTML was changed between 6.1 and 6.2. Patrick should be able to give precise details. Maybe I can find them somewhere.

This is affecting our deployment as well. Needed to pull a theme from a backup, add to the XML:

<compatibility>
<version>6</version>
</compatibility>

And then import the adjusted theme and edit the relevant surveys to apply.

Makes me very nervous to update in the future.

Hello. Our team wanted to check to see if this is still being worked on or if it has been considered not an issue. If it is considered an issue, is the fix simply to add some user feedback (alert, popup, language) informing the user that the old themes will no longer work and require rebuilds based off of the most current themes? Or will the fix actually allow older themes to be imported? In the meantime, we have rebuilt the extended theme within version 6.2 and assume we will be ok exporting and importing our theme as long as we stay within the 6.2+ versions and may not require a fix. But just wanted to confirm to help with scheduling of our surveys and future development needs on our end. Thanks

But yeah, the error message is in fact correct, because the survey theme HTML was changed between 6.1 and 6.2. Patrick should be able to give precise details. Maybe I can find them somewhere.

Again and again : it broke all system of Semantic Versioning … «MINOR version when you add functionality in a backward compatible manner»

When we really use semantic versionning ?

Confirming that this bug still exists in limesurvey 6.2.6+230904. It throws errors that none of the existing themes are compatible. Creating a new custom theme by extending the provided base theme also has an issue and get's removed.

@tibor.pacalat, is this being looked into?

@tpartner the original issue reported here "Custom themes not compatible after update"?

If so, after confirming with my colleagues, no - as stated above it works as designed. We added warnings before upgrade, which were missing initially because of an oversight from our side.

Again and again : it broke all system of Semantic Versioning … «MINOR version when you add functionality in a backward compatible manner»

Yeah it's not good :/

Hi @tibor.pacalat,

There is a bug with extending the base survey theme that is included in the latest version. Here's how to re-create the issue:

1) Under Themes extend the Fruity TwentyThree theme.
2) Next, in the Theme Editor, select Questions from the Screen dropdown
3) These cause an error and the custom theme is dropped.

@lintu thank you for the instructions to reproduce the issue, I will create a separate ticket for it. New ticket for this issue: https://bugs.limesurvey.org/view.php?id=19083

@tibor.pacalat : fixed or not fixable ?

You can now import simple v6.1.8 extend_vanilla but not skelvanilla (really incompatible) ?

It works as intended. There is a warning before upgrading and a guide about compatibility. Nothing else to do here.

Really ?
It must be closed as Not fixable not as Fixed …

reopen for feedback ty Toiny

Where is this "warning". In my opinion, the theme(s) should not be automatically dropped and the warning should appear in the survey settings when a non-compliant theme is used.

This warning is before user upgrades to LS6 using Comfort Update (see below). We decided to invalidate the themes that are incompatible and there is also a link under "Show errors" to the manual with instructions how to add compatibility (https://manual.limesurvey.org/Extension_compatibility).

Upgrade Notes:

1. Safety: There will be a 2-minute downtime. Your data remains safe during this process.
2. Active Surveys: Avoid upgrading during active surveys. Especially if you created custom survey themes.
3. Custom Themes: Customized admin and survey themes will be uninstalled, but can be updated to achieve compatibility.
4. Custom Plugins: Any previously installed custom plugins will be deactivated. Contact the plugin author for upgrade details.
5. Custom question themes: Please check the compatibility of your custom question themes.
6. Achieving Compatibility: Follow the instructions here [https://manual.limesurvey.org/Extension_compatibility].

Er...what about people who update manually or via GIT?

Why the decision to invalidate the theme(s)? Was this decision made by actual LimeSurvey survey developers (regular users)?

Er...what about people who update manually or via GIT?

People shouldn't use git on production systems, we always recommend against that.

For manually, you mean with the downloaded ZIP?

Why the decision to invalidate the theme(s)? Was this decision made by actual LimeSurvey survey developers (regular users)?

Incompatibility in the HTML between Bootstrap 3 and 5.

Why the decision to invalidate the theme(s)? Was this decision made by actual LimeSurvey survey developers (regular users)?

I think it's because previous theme are not invalidated when update to 6 …
For example skelvanilla seems OK … before 6.2.0

(we have a apiVersion but don't use it …)

For example skelvanilla seems OK … before 6.2.0

Yea, we had some loose hopes to be able to update the survey themes Bootstrap without breaking the HTML, but in the end, it wasn't possible.

People shouldn't use git on production systems, we always recommend against that.

Fair enough.

For manually, you mean with the downloaded ZIP?

Yes.

I guess my point is why automatically disable and, more to the point, remove the themes? You are taking control from the user. I think there should simply be warnings in the edit-survey interface and in the edit-themes interface.

Incompatible survey themes must be automatically disabled if there are any running surveys during an upgrade. Else participants would be blocked.

Are they removed? Removed how?

Yea, we had some loose hopes to be able to update the survey themes Bootstrap without breaking the HTML, but in the end, it wasn't possible.

Yes, but here it's the original issue !

Not disable old theme when move from 5 to 6.

Yes, if we had more resources we could have worked on admin theme and survey theme at the same time. :)

An upgrade should be blocked if there are running surveys with incompatible survey themes.
The automatic deactivation of survey themes without the consent of the administrator should not be permitted.
Resetting a running survey to a core theme does not ensure that the survey is ready to accept participants.
The custom theme could contain corresponding changes/content for the survey itself.

If "breaking by upgrading" is the way to go, a survey developer should learn not to make any changes at all. No adjustments at all. Because everything will break in the next six months.

That is true, resetting to a base theme could make a survey impossible/hard to complete if the survey theme is heavily customized, or symbiotic, so to speak. I want to believe this is an exception, or quite rare, at least.

I totally second jelo's statement.

Such issues, causing users to manually edit > 50 surveys, will cause people turning away from Limesurvey.

I want to believe this is an exception, or quite rare, at least.

90% of surveys I develop are customized. That's why I use LimeSurvey.

90% of surveys I develop are customized. That's why I use LimeSurvey.

Of course, but Jelo was talking about surveys that DO NOT work without a particular customized survey theme. Or maybe that's what you mean?

That is what I mean. Things like aggregated questions, hidden data-collection questions, page/question customizations. When these break the survey is unusable.

Such issues, causing users to manually edit > 50 surveys, will cause people turning away from Limesurvey.

It's not really an issue when moving from 5 to 6, but need a time frame to let Theme developer to create new theme.

We need to move from bs3 to BS5, it's clear. Like we need to move to i10n table between 3 and 4.

PS : I move only my plugins to 5.X currently … time frame …

ca we close this one as «Not fixable» ? Because there are an issue inside 6.X, but we can not really fix it (because we must disable theme between 5 and 6)

I don't understand the reasoning. There is an issue inside LS6 which is not fixable? And the reason for that is that a survey has to be disabled between 5 and 6?

Typically there are two paths for an upgrade in tech. Inplace upgrade or two installations moving the data from one installation to another.
If an inplace upgrades breaks something which is already known you need to put a blocker into the upgrade process.
That's it. If a CMS does an update and removes all CSS data and replace it with something else, the homepage is not working as expected
Why is that different when it comes to surveys?

Sidenote: I don't understand why LS 5 is still a migration target? PHP support for LS5 is EOL.
Only LS 6 runs with an actively supported PHP version. Third party patch support for PHP 8.0.X and below ignored.

I don't understand the reasoning. There is an issue inside LS6 which is not fixable? And the reason for that is that a survey has to be disabled between 5 and 6?

Seems really hard to allow Bootsrap3 Survey theme.

Sidenote: I don't understand why LS 5 is still a migration target? PHP support for LS5 is EOL.

Time for plugin and theme migration : only 24 hours by day