There really is no definitive answer to those questions - at least, not right now. That's why such things are being considered on a case-by-case basis. Remember: we're trying to balance ensuring that repository-hosted Themes are following best practices against ensuring that we are encouraging/facilitating - or, at least not discouraging/stifling - innovative Theme development.<div>
<br></div><div>Trying to define "innovative" is much like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it">Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart trying to define pornography</a>: <i>we know it when we see it</i>. If we could definitively describe and categorize such development/design, then it probably wouldn't be innovative.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The best I can say is: exceptions can be made for almost every guideline, if sufficient justification is provided. If you're doing something that would require such an exception, and you believe that the benefits of what you're doing outweigh the reasoning behind a particular guideline, then ask for an exception, and explain your rationale.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I try to remain particularly cognizant of any perceived precedents that might be set by such exceptions; rest assured that the only precedent set by any such exception is that every request for an exception will be treated objectively and fairly, to the best of our ability.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Chip<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 4:31 PM, Sayontan Sinha <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sayontan@gmail.com">sayontan@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Chip,<br>What would be deemed innovative, extended functionality? Purely from the theme's point of view the theme customization needs no top level menu (everything could be added under "Appearance"). Rather, a top level menu is defined to support plugins that are distributed through the framework store, which may or may not add sub-menu items under this top-level menu. <br>
<br>My contention is that any theme that is distributed as a framework could claim that it needs a top-level menu (even if the theme itself needs none), so that plugins based on the theme could add their menu pages to the top-level menu.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>Sayontan.</font></span><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 2:23 PM, Chip Bennett <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chip@chipbennett.net" target="_blank">chip@chipbennett.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
I could buy into that, provided that the extra options pages are added via add_appearance_page(). I still think that top-level menu entries should be treated on a case-by-case basis, and generally represent innovative, extended functionality.<span><font color="#888888"><div>
<br></div></font></span><div><span><font color="#888888">Chip<br><br></font></span><div class="gmail_quote"><div>On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 4:14 PM, Otto <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:otto@ottodestruct.com" target="_blank">otto@ottodestruct.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
</div><div><div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 3:43 PM, Sayontan Sinha <<a href="mailto:sayontan@gmail.com" target="_blank">sayontan@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> I took a look at the ticket: this theme asks for an exception on<br>
> add_submenu_page() because plugins rely on it. Is that permissible? Why<br>
> wouldn't plugin authors create their own top-level menu instead of relying<br>
> on the theme's? I can foresee a situation where several theme authors might<br>
> request this as an exception saying that they have ancillary plugins<br>
> developed by others, and the plugin developers rely on a top-level menu<br>
> required by the theme.<br>
<br>
</div>Actually, I've always thought that rule was a bit too tight and could<br>
do with some loosening up a bit. There's no technical reason to<br>
restrict theme authors into one-and-only-one menu item, for example.<br>
<br>
I don't much like themes (or plugins) adding top level menus myself,<br>
but I don't see anything particularly bad about a theme adding more<br>
than one submenu under Appearance, for example. Grouping different<br>
sets of related functionality into better places for example. Too many<br>
themes try to implement tabbing or some such to shove everything onto<br>
one page, which isn't very user friendly.<br>
<span><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
-Otto<br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br></div></div><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5">-- <br>Sayontan Sinha<br><a href="http://mynethome.net" target="_blank">http://mynethome.net</a> | <a href="http://mynethome.net/blog" target="_blank">http://mynethome.net/blog</a><br>
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