Shrimpy WordPress Theme Help

Envato Customers Looking For
1

I just purchased the Shrimpy WordPress theme through Themeforest/Envato.

It is throwing PHP errors when you try to Activate it or even do Live Preview in the latest version of WordPress and PHP.

It does not seem to have been supported for several years.

I put in two support tickets with HighThemes the last two weeks with no response, and now when I try to go to their website, it is blocked by all browsers as being a phishing site.

I would really like to make this theme work, as we already have a site we built a few years ago using the HTML version of the same theme and we just wanted to redo it in WordPress.

Unfortunately my PHP knowledge is limited and not enough to be able to figure out the problems.

I was wondering if anyone else is currently using this same theme and might be able to offer guidance.

Here is the error information, with server path replaced with SERVERINFO and website name replaced with WEBSITE for privacy since this is a public forum.

When seeking help with this issue, you may be asked for some of the following information: WordPress version 6.8.1 Active theme: Shrimpy (version 1.2.2) Current plugin: (version ) PHP version 8.1.32

An error of type E_ERROR was caused in line 74 of the file /home/SERVERINFO/public_html/WEBSITE.com/wp-content/themes/ht-shrimpy/framework/functions/functions-metaboxes.php.

Error message: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function create_function() in /home/SERVERINFO/public_html/WEBSITE.com/wp-content/themes/ht-shrimpy/framework/functions/functions-metaboxes.php:74

Stack trace:
#0 /home/SERVERINFO/public_html/WEBSITE.com/wp-content/themes/ht-shrimpy/includes/meta-boxes/page-metabox.php(193): ht_register_metabox()
#1 /home/SERVERINFO/public_html/WEBSITE.com/wp-content/themes/ht-shrimpy/includes/meta-boxes/index.php(43): require_once(’/home/SERVERINFO…’)
#2 /home/SERVERINFO/public_html/WEBSITE.com/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(324): ht_default_metaboxes()
#3 /home/SERVERINFO/public_html/WEBSITE.com/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(348): WP_Hook->apply_filters()
#4 /home/SERVERINFO/public_html/WEBSITE.com/wp-includes/plugin.php(517): WP_Hook->do_action()
#5 /home/SERVERINFO/public_html/WEBSITE.com/wp-admin/admin.php(176): do_action()
#6 /home/SERVERINFO/public_html/WEBSITE.com/wp-admin/customize.php(13): require_once(’/home/SERVERINFO…’)
#7 {main}
thrown

2

That theme is a long long way out of date - you are going to massively struggle to get it working with any version of WP from the last few years.

1 Like
3

I recently purchased the Shrimpy WordPress theme via Themeforest/Envato, but unfortunately, it is not functioning correctly with the latest versions of WordPress (6.8.1) and PHP (8.1.32). When I attempt to activate or preview the theme, it throws a fatal PHP error:

This is caused by the use of the create_function() function, which has been completely removed in PHP 8.0 and later. It was previously used to create anonymous functions but has been deprecated for security and performance reasons.

Error details:

  • Theme: Shrimpy (version 1.2.2)
  • WordPress version: 6.8.1
  • PHP version: 8.1.32
  • Error file: functions-metaboxes.php (inside the theme folder)
  • Error line: 74
  • Error message:
  • Support attempts: Submitted two tickets to HighThemes without any reply.
  • Developer website: Currently flagged by browsers as a phishing/malicious site.

Recommended Solutions:

1. Fix the code manually

Find and replace any usage of create_function() in the theme with modern anonymous functions. Example:

// ❌ Old code (incompatible with PHP 8+)
$callback = create_function('$args', '/* some code */');

// âś… New code (compatible with PHP 7+ and 8+)
$callback = function($args) {
    /* some code */
};

add_filter('some_hook', create_function('$args', 'return $args;'));

add_filter('some_hook', function($args) {
    return $args;
});

2. Temporarily downgrade PHP to version 7.4

This allows create_function() to work again, but it’s not a long-term solution as PHP 7.4 has reached end-of-life and no longer receives security updates.

3. Hire a developer

If you are not familiar with PHP, it’s safer to hire a WordPress developer to update the theme and replace all deprecated functions properly.

4. Rebuild using your HTML version

Since you already have the HTML version of the theme, you could hire a developer to convert it into a modern, custom WordPress theme using current coding standards.

4

As suggested earlier, request refund: