[theme-reviewers] Use Static Front Page by Default for Reviews?

[Chip Bennett]

There may be more than you realize. :)

Google results for "home.php" in SVN:
http://www.google.com/#q=%22home.php%22+site:themes.svn.wordpress.org&fp=2e0367e39f3acd1c&hl=en&safe=off

Google results for "front-page.php" in SVN:
http://www.google.com/#q=%22front-page.php%22+site:themes.svn.wordpress.org&fp=2e0367e39f3acd1c&hl=en&safe=off

But here's my thinking:
1) It doesn't negatively impact Themes that include neither template file
2) It eliminates the need to make setup changes from Theme to Theme
3) It removes an opportunity to overlook something that will be *very*
important to the end user

I definitely don't see a need for *two* sets of Theme Unit Test data. After
all, this change would merely add two additional static Pages.

In any case, I'll do some experimenting, and report back regarding what
positive/negative difference this setup makes.

Chip

p.s. note: some of my ideas (good, bad, or otherwise) come not from
reviewing Themes, but from spending time in the WPORG support forums, where
I run into end-user problems that might not otherwise be as apparent. The
mis-use of "home.php" is one such issue.

On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 8:56 AM, Edward Caissie <edward.caissie at gmail.com>wrote:

> I think I understand what you are trying to accomplish, but how many themes
> actually include a home.php or front-page.php template ... I do not recall
> any recent ones that I have looked at.
>
> Besides a simple review of the included template files will tell you if you
> are, or should be, testing the functionality of the home.php and/or
> front-page.php templates.
>
> By all means, switch over your test environment to more suitably test those
> templates, I would even suggest some of the other reviewers volunteer to do
> it as a trial ...
>
> ... maybe have two Theme Unit Test data sets: one for "standard" blogging;
> and, another for a "standard" CMS setup, which is where I would expect the
> home.php and front-page.php templates to more typically be used.
>
>
> Cais.
>
> On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 9:40 AM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net>wrote:
>
>> All,
>>
>> I'm thinking of switching up my review setup (and perhaps adjusting the
>> Theme Unit Test data accordingly), such that by default, it is setup to use
>> a Static Page as the Front Page, and a separate Static Page for the Blog
>> Posts Index.
>>
>> I've seen a few instances where:
>>
>> 1) I might forget to test the front-page.php template file, or
>> 2) The Theme Developer mistakenly uses "home.php" instead of
>> "front-page.php" as the Front Page template, which causes the Blog Posts
>> Index to behave incorrectly when in a Static Front Page setup.
>>
>> I'm trying to think of any drawbacks, but can't come up with anything. If
>> the Theme doesn't include "front-page.php" and/or "home.php", then the
>> template hierarchy will fall back properly to "page.php" for the Static
>> Front Page and "index.php" for the Blog Posts Index.
>>
>> Can anyone think of any drawbacks with using this approach?
>>
>> Chip
>>
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>>
>>
>
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