[theme-reviewers] Theme names and updates

[Morgan Kay]

I will certainly do this (probably a combination of prefixing theme 
names and the exclude from updates filter) from now on when I develop 
themes.... But this particular site is actually using a theme developed 
by a friend of mine, so I'm concerned about the bigger picture here.  I 
have seen this happen more than once I sites I have developed and/or 
maintained. In all my years developing themes and reading tutorials, I 
have never seen this problem addressed... So it seems like we either 
need to do a better job of letting theme developers know that this is a 
potential problem, or adjust how the API looks for updates so that it is 
less likely to be a problem.

Thanks!

Morgan Kay
WordPress Alchemists
http://wpalchemists.com

Alchemy Computer Solutions
http://alchemycs.com

Skype: wp-alchemist
206-321-1742

On 12/22/2013 1:38 PM, Chip Bennett wrote:
> Theme developers can simply exclude their Theme from the update API 
> check, through a simple filter. Given how deeply the Theme and Plugin 
> directories are integrated into the WordPress user admin, I would 
> strongly recommend that developers of Themes/Plugins not hosted by 
> WPORG implement such filters, as a matter of course. (Note: there is a 
> similar method for hooking a third-party update *into* the update API, 
> so that non-WPORG-hosted Themes/Plugins can make use of the automatic 
> update/upgrade functionality.)
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 22, 2013 at 4:27 PM, Morgan Kay <morgan at wpalchemists.com 
> <mailto:morgan at wpalchemists.com>> wrote:
>
>     This might be slightly off-topic for this list.... but I just ran
>     into a problem on a client's site that I have seen happen more
>     than once.  The client has a custom theme, and the theme's name is
>     "Polaris."  The client was being diligent about doing updates on
>     their site, and WordPress told them that they needed to update the
>     Polaris theme, so they did.  Unfortunately, "Polaris" is also the
>     name of a theme in the WordPress theme repository, which has a
>     later version number than the custom theme named "Polaris" on the
>     client's website.  So they thought they were updating their
>     current theme, when actually they were installing a whole new
>     theme which completely broke their site.
>
>     This isn't the first time I have seen this happen.  Apparently
>     WordPress only compares the theme name and the version number, and
>     then prompts for an update.
>
>     So I have two questions here:
>     1) Is there anything that theme authors who write bespoke themes
>     can do to prevent this from happening?  Other than only using
>     really obscure names, or giving our themes artificially high
>     version numbers?
>     2) Can we change how WordPress looks for theme updates so that it
>     checks Author name or some other required parameters to make sure
>     that it is actually the same theme?  (I know - you're going to
>     tell me to fix it myself.  I would actually be happy to do that,
>     but there seem to be some policy questions involved here, such as
>     whether authors are likely to change their author name or URI, and
>     whether these changes would prevent themes from being updated when
>     they should.)
>
>     Thanks!
>     Morgan.
>
>     -- 
>     Morgan Kay
>     WordPress Alchemists
>     http://wpalchemists.com
>
>     Alchemy Computer Solutions
>     http://alchemycs.com
>
>     Skype: wp-alchemist
>     206-321-1742 <tel:206-321-1742>
>
>
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