We are a group of volunteers who review and approve themes submitted to be included in the official WordPress Theme directory.
We do license, security, and code quality reviews.
We help build and maintain default themes.
The primary focus of the team is to help theme authors transition to blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience.-based themes.
This introduction is intended for new reviewers and does not cover advanced topics.
The Themes Trac is a ticket system that we use to keep track of submitted themes.
Please note that TracTracTrac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. is also used by the CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and MetaMetaMeta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. teams. If you are looking for the Core Trac tutorial please go here.
In order to review a theme in Trac, you need to register or login to your WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ account.
A ticket is automatically created when a new theme is uploaded via the upload page.
A ticket can have the following status:
New Themes that have not been reviewed yet.
Reviewing Themes that are being reviewed, or have been returned to a ticket queue.
Approved Themes that have been reviewed and approved by a reviewer.
Reopened Themes that have been approved but reopened by a moderator.
Live Themes that have been closed and set live are visible in the Themes Directory.
Not approved Themes that have been closed as not approved as they have more than 3 issues or because there was no response from the author.
Closed-newer-version-uploaded Themes that have been closed because there is a new ticket.
The status of the ticket can be found at the top, next to the ticket number:
Opened, Modified or closed:The age of a ticket can help you prioritize. We review the oldest tickets first.
THEME: This is the theme name – and the theme version.
Reported by: This is the username of the person who submitted the theme.
Owned by: The username of the reviewer will be placed here.
Priority
There are two priorities that you can come across as a new reviewer: New Theme and Previously Reviewed.
Previously Reviewed means that the previous ticket has been closed as not approved.
Keywords
There are three keywords that you need to pay attention to:
child-theme The theme is a child themeChild themeA Child Theme is a customized theme based upon a Parent Theme. It’s considered best practice to create a child theme if you want to modify the CSS of your theme. https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/advanced-topics/child-themes/..
parent-(name) The name of the parent theme.
accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility)-ready The theme has an accessibility-ready tag and needs an accessibility review before being approved.
Cc:
This is a list of usernames that will receive an email notification of future comments to the ticket.
Below this you will find the theme description and theme and author links. This is the same description and links that the author has added to style.css.
If you want to test run the theme, you can download the zip file. You can also gain access to the file contents by clicking the svn link.
If a theme has been reviewed in the past, ticket history may be added to the ticket above the themes screenshot. It is recommended that you open the tickets and read the ticket history, this can be helpful to your review.
Make sure that you always review the latest version of the theme.
Note: Sometimes non related tickets with similar names can show up in the list. You can ignore these tickets.
Below the screenshot, you may find automated notices similar to the example:
Theme Check Results:
RECOMMENDED: No reference to add_theme_support( “custom-headerHeaderThe header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes.”, $args ) was found in the theme. It is recommended that the theme implement this functionality if using an image for the header.
RECOMMENDED: No reference to add_editor_style() was found in the theme. It is recommended that the theme implement editor styling, so as to make the editor content match the resulting post output in the theme, for a better user experience.
When a theme is uploaded, it is run through a version of the Theme Check pluginPluginA 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 result is posted in the ticket.
Do not get alarmed if you are reviewing a child theme and there are lots of errors. Only some of the issues applies to child themes.
Remember to separate requirements and recommendations when you write your review. Even when you do not find any problems, please include a note of what you have reviewed.
When you add comments, do not change the status of the ticket unless you have completed the review.
Tip: Do not write your review in the comment form. Write it in your preferred text editor and paste it into the form when you are done, so that you do not lose any content in case the Trac is temporary down or you accidentally close your browser.
When a theme is updated, you can review the updates by downloading or browsing the Diff.
The Diff shows all the changes made, including files that have been removed or added. You can browse the Diff in Trac, or you can download the file at the bottom of the page:
If you mention the ticket number in SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/., a link to the ticket will be added automatically.
On the front page of Trac, you will first see some statistics. From here, select the menu option “View Tickets”. Here you will find a list of reports, or queues, separating tickets depending on their status.
