Make WordPress Themes » Child-Theme

Child Theme Support

Chip Bennett — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:26:40 +0000

I have just added a draft section to the Theme Review Guidelines, to cover requirements for Child Theme support/facilitation for hosted Themes:

Themes are required to facilitate the use of Child Themes. A “basic” Child Theme (i.e. a style.css with Template header tag and @import() of the Template style.css), when activated, should function exactly as the Theme itself functions.

Themes are required to include functional and resource files in a manner that facilitates the use of Child Themes:

Use get_template_directory_uri() to include functional files, or resources that are not intended to be included in/over-ridden the Child Theme.

Use get_stylesheet_directory_uri() to include resources that are intended to be included in/over-ridden by the Child Theme.

Based on discussion on the mail-list, consensus appears to be that facilitating end user use of Child Themes is beneficial, so this discussion is the first step in incorporating Child Theme support into the Guidelines.

Please discuss. Do you agree/disagree that Child Theme support should be added to the Guidelines? Are the above Guidelines sufficient? What should be added/removed/changed? What about pluggable/filterable functions?

Child Themes will now be considered for inclusion…

Edward Caissie — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 15:00:28 +0000

~~Child-Themes will now be considered for inclusion into the WordPress Extend Themes repository.~~

Note: Child Themes are not currently being considered for inclusion in WordPress Extend.

Please be sure to read the Theme Review process and guidelines; also, please note the additional Child-Theme guidelines before submitting a Child-Theme for consideration.

Please note, although at the time of this writing the upload script may note the Child-Theme “fails” as the criteria used for Child-Themes is slightly different. If the Child-Theme did actually pass you would see at the bottom of the upload acknowledgement page a reference to the new Themes Trac ticket as well as receiving an email referencing the ticket as well.

You will also be able to check the open status of the Child-Theme in this Trac report: http://themes.trac.wordpress.org/report/6

Discussion – Child Themes on the Repository – Guidelines

Frumph — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:10:25 +0000

1) Parent themes of child themes that are developed need to be made child-theme ready; proper use of where to find files with get_template_part, get_stylesheet_ and get_template_ functions.
2) http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes documentation is applied as part of the theme review process when checking child themes, all information is to be considered good practice and required, with addition to the theme review representation of license information.
3) Parent themes of child themes submitted must have passed the current theme review guidelines for the current revision of WordPress, not if they have passed before, but specifically with the current revision of WordPress.
4) Child themes are reviewed with the parent theme; must pass current theme review guidelines and associated child theme documentation.
5) Recommendation to use the parent themes repository slug as the prefix to the child theme’s name. ex. easel-highsociety, atahualpa-wired, this is only the name of the theme & directory name of theme in the zip, not where to find the theme; even as found in the http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes being part of the review process, this naming convention will stay a recommendation; however, declared best-practice.
6) Description in the style.css must clearly state that it is a child theme example: “This is a child theme for the Easel theme.” – This is for redundancy of recognition that it is a child theme, even though other things will be noted on the repository that it is a child theme, this is for the wp-admin -> themes page for the end user.

Additional For Developers:
1) It is the responsibility of the developer of child themes to keep their child themes up to date with the current revision of their theme that is updated. If a developer make changes to the parent theme, it is the developers responsibility to keep the child themes updated as well.

Changes, word usage, additional guidelines and protocols, as well as information regarding use of child-theme tag requested as part of this discussion.