Custom theme throws php errors: Class "Shimmie2\Page" not found

[lushen124]

Hi,

I was setting up a new instance of this from the docker image and my understanding is that custom themes should be placed in the theme folder. I made a new folder and copied the default theme files to it as a base to work off of, but when I selected the theme, it starts throwing php errors. Specifically:

2025/11/29 23:10:17 [notice] 30#30 [unit] #26: php message: PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Class "Shimmie2\Page" not found in /app/themes/borange/page.class.php:7
Stack trace:
#0 /app/core/util.php(642): require_once()
#1 /app/index.php(54): Shimmie2\_load_theme_files()
#2 {main}
  thrown in /app/themes/borange/page.class.php on line 7

I'm unsure how to proceed here. I've tried making those files empty php files, but then the errors eventually bubbles up to a file I don't have access to:

2025/11/29 21:47:58 [notice] 13#13 [unit] #10: php message: PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Class "Shimmie2\Themelet" not found in /app/ext/admin/theme.php:7
Stack trace:
#0 /app/core/util.php(611): require_once()
#1 /app/core/util.php(644): Shimmie2\require_all()
#2 /app/index.php(54): Shimmie2\_load_theme_files()
#3 {main}
  thrown in /app/ext/admin/theme.php on line 7

I'm guessing I should have access to the Shimmie2 namespace in my theme files, but I don't, hence the error and not being able to find the class.

[shish]

Can you share the files? It's difficult to see what's wrong when I can't see anything 😅

Broadly speaking, looking at existing theme files should show the format that they need (namespace settings etc) - also note that there were a bunch of changes between 2.11 and the work-in-progress 2.12, so be sure to copy from the right version

[lushen124]

I actually just copied the files from the main branch in https://github.com/shish/shimmie2/tree/main/themes/default:

page.class.php, which looks like this

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace Shimmie2;

class DefaultPage extends Page
{
}

and style.css, which I won't paste since it should just be visual. I also tried just making it empty, as in

<?php ?>

Are there any other files you want to look at? I haven't actually done that much yet besides setting up via docker-compose. None of the other folders have anything else additional in them. /app/db has the usual db stuff which I haven't touched, and /app/data has a cache and config folder, next to an empty index.php. I can also post the docker-compose.yaml file if that helps.

[shish]

You haven't mentioned what version you're using, but seeing /app/core/util.php makes me think that it's 2.11 or earlier -- so you'd want to be using the 2.11 custom themes as a reference, eg https://github.com/shish/shimmie2/tree/branch-2.11/themes/lite

[lushen124]

I am indeed on 2.11.5. I'll take a look at those themes then. Thanks!