[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #28509: Allow themes specifically meant to be parent themes to prevent activation

[WordPress Trac]

#28509: Allow themes specifically meant to be parent themes to prevent activation
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 Reporter:  nathanrice   |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Themes       |     Version:  3.9.1
 Severity:  normal       |  Resolution:
 Keywords:               |     Focuses:
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Comment (by Otto42):

 Replying to [comment:19 nathanrice]:
 > It's not that they're not themes, it's that they aren't meant to be used
 without a child theme ... '''they're meant to be extended'''. Do we not
 call a PHP class a "class" just because we intend it to be extended? No,
 we use the "abstract" keyword to prevent it from being used without being
 extended. That's all I'm suggesting here.

 I do understand what you're saying here, really. But a theme that you're
 not supposed to actually activate and use isn't really a theme, in my
 view. If you're not supposed to activate it and use it to make your site
 look a certain way, then it should not be in the themes list at all. Or in
 the themes directory.

 What you're describing is half-a-theme. Some set of code and functions
 that somebody can use to build a working theme from. Now, the way you're
 doing it happens to fit the parent/child model, but maybe another model
 would fit better.

 Because, to me, the parent/child model was intended to make adjustments,
 large or small scale, to already working themes. Re-defining it to make
 parents that are not actually working themes doesn't make any sense to me.
 Instead, I think a new model might be more appropriate. A plugin can do
 everything a theme can, just not as easily. Maybe making it easier on that
 level would provide a better approach overall.

 Or something else, I don't know everything. I just think that if we want
 to support a mechanism for some chunk-o-code to replace large parts of
 what is traditionally done by the theme, so the theme doesn't have to,
 then having that appear in the existing Theme UI at all is ugly and kinda
 hacky.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/28509#comment:22>
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