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Gearing up for WP theme submission? A checklist you can’t afford to skip

by | Feb 9, 2015 | Articles, Web Design, Web Development, Wordpress | 0 comments

wp theme submission

WP Theme Submission

After having put in your best efforts into designing and developing your WordPress theme, you’d surely want to submit it to the WordPress directory for gathering maximum downloads and applauds. Well, getting the ‘Green’ signal for successful theme submission at WordPress Theme Directory isn’t that simple as it seems to be. As a WP theme development enthusiast, you need to follow a well-defined checklist for ensuring 100% acceptance of your theme at the WP Theme Directory. This is exactly what I bring to you in this post. Go on reading to find some handy and tremendously helpful pointers which need to be considered before planning to submit your WordPress theme to WP Themes Directory.

  1. Make it a point to go through the Theme Review Guidelines

Before taking up the decision of uploading your theme to WordPress Theme Directory, ensure to gather a detailed understanding of everything that has been mentioned within the Theme Review Guidelines. Since WordPress Themes Directory comprises of just the high quality, bug-free themes; you can’t afford to skip any guideline that has been set by WordPress theme design and development community. Here is a list of some major pointers included within the WordPress Theme Review Guidelines:

  • Your theme must not support backward compatibility for more than two prior major WordPress versions.
  • Your WordPress theme must not use any deprecated functions.
  • Your WordPress theme must not generate any Javascript errors/warning messages.
  • Your theme must have all public-facing text in English.
  • Your theme may optionally incorporate translation/internationalization.
  • Your theme should not implement custom favicon functionality.
  • Your theme must incorporate vital WordPress core theme functions such as: Automatic Feed Links, Comments and Sidebars.
  • Your theme must not incorporate Admin/feature pointers
  • Your theme must contain certain critical tags and hooks such as: wp_title(), wp_head() and wp_footer.
  • All the standard template files included within the theme must be called correctly, such as: get_header(), get_footer(), get_template_part()
  • Your theme must utilize theme template files correctly. For example, it should include index.php, style.css and comments.php files. Plus, it should also include archive.php, search.php, 404.php, single.php, header.php, footer.php, sidebar.php and page.hp.
  • Your theme’s thumbnail must be 600x450px in dimension.
  • Your theme must validate and sanitize all untrusted data.
  • Your theme must prefix all options, custom variables, custom functions and custom constants with the help of a theme slug.
  • Your theme needs to be 100% GPL Licensed. That means, it should include all HTML, PHP, CSS, images, icons, fonts and all the other things.
  1. Test your theme using sample data

If you’re about to submit your theme to WordPress Themes Directory, stay informed that the WordPress Theme Review Team would be reviewing your theme using the sample data that is available within the WordPress export file. You can choose to download this file from here and test your theme using the sample export data available here.

  1. Ensure proper enqueuing of scripts and styles

Accurate enqueuing of Javascript and CSS stylesheets must be ensured using the built-in WordPress functions. Doing this will increase the chances for your theme to get accepted at the WordPress Themes Directory.

  1. Ensure a clean HTML head for your WordPress theme

You must affirm proper indention of every piece of code which is included within the theme structure. Opt for a single stylesheet which will work well for multiple browsers. All in all, you should emphasize on appropriate use of descriptive block-level elements such as: nav, header, article, section and many more.

  1. Don’t forget the usage of bundled scripts and styles

In order to make it to WordPress Theme Directory, your theme must use a bundled scripts and styles for some common libraries like jQuery etc. Individual scripts and styles must be avoided as a whole.

  1. Your WordPress Theme must have zero PHP Error Messages

If you’ve enabled the debug mode for your WordPress theme, there shouldn’t be any PHP error messages or warnings. If you are incompetent in ensuring the same, you need to re-think the submission of your theme to the WordPress Themes Directory.

Conclusion

So, that was a checklist which if followed seriously can aid you in getting prepared for submitting your theme to the WordPress Theme Directory, ascertaining 100% chances for acceptance.

About Author: Emily Heming is a professional WordPress developer for a leading company WordPrax Ltd. She also provides the services like HTML to WordPress theme conversion and many more. She has served many WordPress companies helping them in developing user-friendly website. So feel free to contact her.

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