Sven Lehnert, CEO of Themekraft, published his company’s experience migrating from a custom theme options page to the theme customizer. He describes how difficult it was to move between the two and how it caused user frustration. “I’m sorry for the trouble some users are experiencing. We receive positive as well as frustrated feedback and…
The Theme Review Team’s controversial decision to require the use of the Customizer API for building theme options unearthed a wave of criticism and concern about the capabilities of the customizer. In response to more than 150 comments debating on the topic, Nick Halsey, who has worked extensively on the feature in WordPress core, stopped…
In March 2014, WordPress.com opened its marketplace to new theme authors. Prior to that time, new sellers were added via invitation only. A year ago there were only 300 themes available to WordPress.com users, but after having the marketplace open to new authors that count is up to 345. Recently the submission form disappeared from…
Toivo Lite is a new theme on WordPress.org that features a bold minimalist design that really shines on mobile. Sami Keijonen created the theme to be suitable for both business and blog sites. Toivo is Finnish and it means “hope” in English. It’s one of a very small number of WordPress themes listed as accessibility-ready…
Aaron Jorbin, who contributes to WordPress core on a regular basis, has published a script called WordPress Theme Directory Slurper. The PHP based script downloads and updates a copy of the latest stable version of every theme in the WordPress.org theme directory. Devin Price put the script to good use and has published a series…
In light of the WordPress Theme Review team’s recent decision to enforce the use of the native customizer for themes in the official directory, the folks behind the Redux and Kirki frameworks are joining forces to better support developers for the new requirement. Redux, which is built on the WordPress Settings API, is one of…
Over the weekend, Theme Review Team member Jose Castaneda posted a proposal to add change logs to themes hosted on WordPress.org. The discussion has been on the table for years, but renewed interest in change logs is surfacing for the upcoming 4.3 and 4.4 release cycles. Adding changelogs to themes requires action on two related…
The WordPress Theme Review team made a major decision this week to enforce the use of the native customizer on new themes submitted to the directory. Theme authors who want to include customization options will no longer be able to create their own settings panels but will be required to follow the new customizer standard,…
Gateway is an elegant and eye-catching new theme that recently landed on WordPress.org. Since its release less than a week ago, the theme has already been downloaded more than 1400 times. It’s easy to see why it’s an instant hit – the versatile design is perfect for writers, businesses, or personal sites. The homepage design…
The Array theme shop, founded by Mike McAlister, is celebrating one year since becoming a completely independent operation. Array, formerly known as Okay Themes, pulled out of Envato’s marketplace last April to rebrand and relaunch with the freedom to further build the business. At that time, McAlister said, “After fighting the good fight for five…
When ModernThemes launched its site with a dozen free WordPress themes last year, founders Robbie Grabowski and Mike Driscoll committed to getting all of their themes listed on WordPress.org following positive feedback from the community. At that time many of their themes had issues that would preclude them from being hosted in the official directory.…
Hew is Automattic’s 67th free theme release on WordPress.org. The new theme, designed by Ola Laczek, was inspired by Ryu, a classic among personal blogging themes. Ryu was released two years ago and for awhile it seemed like everyone was using it. Hew brings that same clean, identity-focused design that features the author’s Gravatar at…
WordCamp London 2015 was packed full of excellent presentations, lightning talks, and panels. For several of the more technical sessions, attendees were actually turned away at the door due to the rooms being filled to capacity. This was the case for Jack Lenox’s presentation on Building Themes with the WP REST API. “I was overwhelmed…
WordPress.org launched a new design for the Theme Directory just over a month ago and the meta team has continued to fix bugs and add enhancements. Preliminary stats and feedback indicate that the directory improvements have had a positive impact on users’ ability to hunt for themes. WordPress.org contributor Konstantin Obenland reports that user engagement…
The WordPress Foundation website is sporting a fresh coat of paint, based on the Twenty Fifteen default theme released with WordPress 4.1 last December. The foundation exists to further the mission of the open source project, most importantly by ensuring free access to the software for years to come. It also serves to protect the…