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Theme Check

by Simon Prosser

Version: 20231220

Description

The theme check plugin is an easy way to test your theme and make sure it’s up to spec with the latest theme review standards. With it, you can run all the same automated testing tools on your theme that WordPress.org uses for theme submissions.

The tests are run through a simple admin menu and all results are displayed at once. This is very handy for theme developers, or anybody looking to make sure that their theme supports the latest WordPress theme standards and practices.

How to enable trac formatting

The Theme Review team use this plugin while reviewing themes and copy/paste the output into trac tickets, the trac system has its own markup language.
To enable trac formatting in Theme-Check you need to define a couple of variables in wp-config.php: TC_PRE and TC_POST are used as a ticket header and footer.
For example:

define( 'TC_PRE', 'Theme Review:[[br]]
- Themes should be reviewed using "define(\'WP_DEBUG\', true);" in wp-config.php[[br]]
- Themes should be reviewed using the test data from the Theme Checklists (TC)
-----
' );

define( 'TC_POST', 'Feel free to make use of the contact details below if you have any questions,
comments, or feedback:[[br]]
[[br]]
* Leave a comment on this ticket[[br]]
* Send an email to the Theme Review email list[[br]]
* Use the #wordpress-themes IRC channel on Freenode.' );

If either of these two vars are defined a new trac tickbox will appear next to the Check it! button.

Faq

What’s with the version numbers?

The version number is the date of the revision of the guidelines used to create it.

Why does it flag something as bad?

It’s not flagging “bad” things, as such. The theme check is designed to be a non-perfect way to test for compliance with the Theme Review guidelines. Not all themes must adhere to these guidelines. The purpose of the checking tool is to ensure that themes uploaded to the central WordPress.org theme repository meet the latest standards of WordPress themes and will work on a wide variety of sites.

Many sites use customized themes, and that’s perfectly okay. But themes that are intended for use on many different kinds of sites by the public need to have a certain minimum level of capabilities, in order to ensure proper functioning in many different environments. The Theme Review guidelines are created with that goal in mind.

This theme checker is not perfect, and never will be. It is only a tool to help theme authors, or anybody else who wants to make their theme more capable. All themes submitted to WordPress.org are hand-reviewed by a team of experts. The automated theme checker is meant to be a useful tool only, not an absolute system of measurement.

This plugin does not decide the guidelines used. Any issues with particular theme review guidelines should be discussed on the Make Themes site.

Reviews

Great plugin and support! It works well!

By Samsul Islam Rana (ranafge) on December 12, 2024

Great plugin and support! It works well!

False positives aplenty.

By digstertron on April 22, 2023

I heard good things about this plugin until I used it. It says my theme name and text domain/slug do not match. They do so why is it flagging a non-existent error?

A Necessity For Theme Developers

By Organic Themes (organicthemes) on December 4, 2019

We regularly use Theme Check for the development of all Organic Themes. Thanks for creating and maintaining such a useful plugin!

Perfect!

By Jose (giuse) on June 6, 2019

One of the best plugins for theme developers. Really a very good job! Have you never thought to create a similar plugin to check plugins? Plugins developers would also need a so helpful tool.

Useful Plugin from first level user to WordPress Developer

By vbaimas on January 18, 2019

This is a great plugin for everyone that really likes to develop a WordPress theme and make successfully tests for the basic WordPress standards. The errors separated in 'Required', 'Warning', 'Recommended' and 'info'. Also provide the basic information of this error and makes you understand where the problem is.