Preliminary Theme Review Process
People often asked me if I can share some information on how I review WordPress Themes, so here it is.
Please note that today we’re not going over the best practices or specific guidelines.
SPAM Elimination
The very first thing is to check whether the “author” is there to contribute or we’re dealing with the spammer. In most cases this will be directly in URLs
- Theme URL: http://example.com
- Author URL : http://example.com
If both URLs check out I will move directly to footer.php Template. (note that this is still in Trac).
Signs of real Spam: (I like my spam with eggs only)
Example Theme Powered by WordPress and Chicago Apartments
And if there is nothing here I will click and download the Theme and start the process.
header.php
After we’re done with the elimination of spam I usually like to begin with header.php
What to look for in header.php
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<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="<!--?php bloginfo('name'); ?--> RSS Feed" href="<!--?php bloginfo('rss2_url'); ?-->" /> |
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="<?php bloginfo('html_type'); ?>; charset=UTF-8" /> |
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<link rel="shortcut icon" href="<?php echo get_stylesheet_directory_uri(); ?>/images/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" /> |
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wp_enqueue_script( 'jquery' ); |
Just some obvious stuff that either should not be there or if they are not properly implemented. And also for:
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<script type="text/javascript"> // javascript code here </script> |
footer.php
footer.php can be pretty easy as well. Look for improper JS usage:
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jQuery(document).ready(function($){ ... } |
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<script type="text/javascript" src="http://example.com/wp-content/themes/example-theme/js/my-script.js"> |
Hidden links added via functions.php etc.
license.txt, readme.txt etc
License is always prioritized in my reviews and not just the Theme itself. GPL-Compatible applies to everything, including:
- Images
- Scripts
- Stylesheets
- and or everything else included in any given Theme
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/*! example.js v1.0 | Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. */ |
There you have it, nothing really that complicated.
Additional Resources
- Official Theme Review Guidelines
- A Guide to Reviewing Themes for the WordPress Theme Repository
- How To Join the WPTRT
Husband, Father, WordPress Theme Review Admin, Chicago Fire fan and creator of Responsive Theme. What more do you need?
Hm, I do pretty much the same thing, but with checking the license stuff before downloading. Seeing an image or JS folder with no explicit license info is a common problem these days.
I’ve also started noticing some themes list tags that they don’t properly implement (if implemented at all), so I’ve started paying more attention to that too.
All great examples of important requirements that are easily caught.
Thanks for the comment Kirk, I really appreciate that!
Emil
Emil,
It is really a great piece of information in theme reviewing process. It will also help me in speeding the review process before downloading the theme.
Thanks!
Thanks Qamar!
Emil