Comments on: Child Theme Inclusion in the WordPress Directory

By: WordPress Tips 2010

WordPress Tips 2010 — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:48:01 +0000

[...] prediction is that before long the majority of new themes will be child themes. That is, once the WordPress theme repository supports child themes I think they will catch on quickly with developers and gradually gain users. The reason is simple. [...]

By: Improved Child-Theme Support in WordPress - WordPress Tavern Forum

Improved Child-Theme Support in WordPress - WordPress Tavern Forum — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:12:45 +0000

[...] an article that was written about the topic at the end of October: http://developdaly.com/wordpress/chi…ess-directory/ I guess the real problem is just getting someone with power to support the idea and get the job [...]

By: Wordpress Child Themes « EVOL.reverse

Wordpress Child Themes « EVOL.reverse — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:24:46 +0000

[...] A case for including child themes in the official WordPress theme directory http://developdaly.com/wordpress/child-theme-inclusion-in-the-wordpress-directory/ [...]

By: Child Themes in the WordPress.org Directory?

Child Themes in the WordPress.org Directory? — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:12:07 +0000

[...] a better visual on how some think it should work, check out this post or read some more thoughts about it [...]

By: Should Child Themes Be Listed on WordPress.org? | Theme Lab

Should Child Themes Be Listed on WordPress.org? | Theme Lab — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:07:16 +0000

[...] has been some discussion recently on child theme inclusion in the official theme repository. Child themes are WordPress themes that latch onto a parent theme to do something a little extra, [...]

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:56:02 +0000

I wonder if the WordPress core should be revamped. The idea of having to edit a theme is a troublesome one to begin with. We’re taught to never touch the source, but WordPress, without the concept of a Child Theme, forces it. Further, without carefully written themes and widgets like Hybrid Hook, folks are forced to learn PHP and edit themes all the time.

Wouldn’t an alternative solution be to redo the WordPress core to present the Header, Body, Loop, Sidebars, Footer, etc. with hooks already in them? Then allow a place, like the wonderful plugin mycss and a unique function template for people to write their own code.

Theme builders would actually write conglomerations of widgets with a default css template which the user would affect with their own unique codes. The widgets themselves could either replace WordPress core modules (like the terrible menu) or act as add-ons.

That’s really where Justin Tadlock and others are going with child themes. Maybe it would be more efficient if the WordPress core presented it.

The benefits to worrying about updates would then begin to go away as well.

By: Patrick Daly

Patrick Daly — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:53:49 +0000

The grandchild discussion has been had in plenty already in fact. There’s certainly some validity to using a grandchild theme, but WP doesn’t need to officially support them in the repository.

Child themes were a great new feature of 2.7, and several versions later there’s not a whole lot being done with them. I say give child themes their chance and don’t even think about the grandchild theme “problem”.

By: Joseph Scott

Joseph Scott — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:19:29 +0000

Good to see some ideas on what this process might look like. Aside from the WordPress.org theme directory side of things there are some issues for WordPress itself to improve (as you’ve pointed out) as well.

Only slightly related to this, child themes have a generation problem. You’ve got the standard parent/child theme relationship, what happens when people start doing grand-child themes (a child theme of a child theme)? It sounds funny but I can see people creating grand-child themes in order to preserve their changes to an existing (child) theme.

By: Patrick Daly

Patrick Daly — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:15:41 +0000

You’re right, testing for the existence of the declared parent theme would be required. If one doesn’t exist then the child theme can’t be approved.

My guess at what would happen in the case of a suspended parent theme is that all child themes would be suspended as well, simple as that. More administrative functions would need to be added to the repository as well. If the parent theme is suspended it would be nice for the author, as well as all child theme authors, to get an email that the parent theme was suspended.

By: Edward Caissie

Edward Caissie — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:56:09 +0000

An interesting topic for discussion, but something I did not read in this discussion is the testing for the parent theme’s existence / availability.

In its simplest terms, IMHO, a child theme simply imports another themes “templates” and carries forward. Therefore, any theme could be a “parent” not just the more well known “frameworks” such as Hybrid, Thesis, etc.

Now, for instance, what happens if a “parent” theme is suspended? Whose responsibility will it be to address all the child themes in the theme repository associated with it?

Just a thought …