Nilambar Sharma 10:38 am on April 9, 2018
Tags: themereview ( 35 )

Changes in Theme Review Process

We all know that queue time is around 3 months. We have quite a small numbers of active theme reviewers at the moment, and even when a ticket is being reviewed, the review process itself can take pretty long to complete.

The change is based on moving burden from reviewer’s shoulder to theme author’s and making theme authors more responsible. From today, reviewers can check mainly following issues to pass the review.

Security
Licensing
Malicious or egregious stuff
Content Creation

Although these are the points to pass the theme review, theme authors are expected to follow the guidelines (required and recommended) like how it is going currently.

Moderators will spot check the themes after it is set live. If theme authors are found intentionally not following the guideline, Moderators will ask theme authors to fix the critical issues. In the case of not abiding the guidelines, theme could be on temporary or permanent suspension.

#themereview

eDataStyle 10:44 am on April 9, 2018

Great. Thanks for your instructions…
Justin Tadlock 12:00 pm on April 9, 2018
Oh, awesome! I’m glad we’re moving in this direction now. Putting the responsibility back on theme authors is a much welcome change. I hope this frees up the review team to focus on the big issues. And, maybe we can continue to improve the automated checks.

I did want to provide some examples of egregious issues for clarity:
- PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. Errors
- Illegal
- Dishonest
- Morally offensive
DannyCooper 12:46 pm on April 9, 2018

It looks like the biggest requirement that has been dropped is that all strings should be translatable. Is that correct?
- DannyCooper 12:48 pm on April 9, 2018
  
  The biggest “check” I should clarify. Translatable strings are still a requirement.
- poena 2:58 pm on April 9, 2018
  
  And functionality. I don’t think we will need to test the theme other than look for php errors.
  - Joy 3:02 pm on April 9, 2018
    
    Or javascriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. errors?
    But it is still required that all options work, isn’t it?
    And that if the PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. version is not supported, a graceful fallback is used?
    And the correct content is shown on the front page?
    And that there are pagination and navigation links?
    - kevinhaig 3:53 pm on April 9, 2018
      
      Yep, required but reviewer does not have to check. It will be an interesting user experience in the next 6 months 🙂
williampatton 5:03 pm on April 9, 2018

I spent some time last year starting work on a set of notes about doing ‘pre-reviews’ or quick initial reviews to help speed up the queue. With these recent changes I feel that it is worth revisiting that repo as many of the notes in it are now matching with this updated process. https://github.com/pattonwebz/theme-review/

Additional notes, updates and PRs to make it sync better with these recent changes are very much welcomed at the repo 🙂
Guido 3:03 pm on April 10, 2018

I always use the Theme Check pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, but notice it’s not been updated for over a year now. When giving theme authors more responsible, please provide up-to-date tools as well.
- Justin Tadlock 6:36 pm on April 11, 2018
  
  Just because something’s not been updated in a year, doesn’t mean it’s not up-to-date. The Theme Check pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party is the same code used during the submission process.
  - Guido 10:32 pm on April 12, 2018
    
    Just because something’s not been updated in a year, doesn’t mean it’s not up-to-date.
    
    True, but not being updated for such a long time causes doubt among developers (at least me).
bloggingthemes 8:12 pm on April 10, 2018

hopefully this will help speed things up and make it easier for everyone, reviewer and author. But we should also make sure that the docs of checking themes during a review are up-to-date and specific to what is going to be checked and “required”.

For myself, before submitting themes, I use the Theme Check pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party (yes, this should be updated), but also the NS Theme check plugin as well. I’m not sure how many authors go in and fix “warnings” but noticed all approved live themes (even the WP default themes) have a big list of them when I check them. However, for myself, I’m now digging in and fixing even the warnings so I get a green light.

Cheers 🙂
Ciprian 8:49 am on April 11, 2018

What about this pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party – https://wordpress.org/plugins/theme-check/ – ?

It badly needs an update, just like the PHP7 compatibility checker.
- DannyCooper 8:54 am on April 11, 2018
  
  Most reviewers are using this instead now – https://github.com/WPTRT/theme-sniffer
  - Ciprian 9:00 am on April 11, 2018
    
    Nice one! I’ll give it a try.
codersantosh 5:08 am on April 12, 2018

I think checking prefix is also as important as the mentioned point. Functions/class name need to be unique, so that it does not conflict with plugins. If the name of functions is same, it cause fatal error and crash the site.
- Justin Tadlock 1:26 pm on April 12, 2018
  
  I could pick out a number of existing guidelines that I think are super important but not listed above, but that’s a slippery slope back to the pre-change system.
  
  To have the new system, everyone has to compromise on the manual checks they think should be done. The above list is the list that we originally discussed and agreed upon a year ago as absolute blockers.
TimsSolutions 8:49 am on April 12, 2018

Perfect direction to be moving in!
archana17 5:13 pm on April 17, 2018

Great 🙂
Matt Mullenweg 10:09 pm on April 27, 2018

Can we just shift it to be the same as the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party review process, and eliminate the queue almost entirely?
- Justin Tadlock 1:34 am on April 28, 2018
  
  That’s the direction the team has been moving. It’s taken a while, but we’re almost there. We practically have no queue now. We’d love to get off TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. and use the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party system if you can make that happen.
  - Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 3:53 am on April 29, 2018
    
    TBH, I don’t think it’s the system (which has it’s own flaws) as much as the mentality and the process. Also keep in mind, we’re reliant on emails which are harder to track (hah) than tracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. as people loooove using multiple emails or having a manager submit a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party and the developer reply.
    
    Every day, someone goes through all the emails, oldest to newest, and makes sure what was supposed to be fixed was fixed. Either a plugin is approved or it’s sent back for more revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision..
    
    Once that’s done, someone goes through every new plugin, downloads, reviews, emails, and moves to the next one.
    
    But the ‘magic’ and the reason it actually works well is that someone (me) takes the responsibility to ensure it all gets done. If someone else doesn’t reply to a review in a reasonable time, I do it. Or I ride herd on them to get them to complete their responsibility of the review.
    
    I’m not 100% sure what happens when an author re-uploads their code), but realistically this process should be able to be applied to themes today, as long as someone steps up and is, well, the team repTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. and manages the humans.

WordPress.org

Welcome to the Theme Review team!

Handbooks and review requirements

Coding standards and plugins

Code Packages

Communication

Important notice about TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. issues

Changes in Theme Review Process