[theme-reviewers] more experienced feedback

Tue Dec 27 17:58:30 UTC 2011

That's sounds great to simply say it's required that the theme stands on
its own, and any externally-referenced APIs or libraries degrade without
errors:

*Required:* Themes must degrade gracefully with no on-screen errors if not
connected to the Internet.

*Why?* Many sites, such as internal Intranets, do not always have access to
the public Internet; in these cases, the user still deserves predictable
and usable output from the theme.

*Example:* An externally referenced Google Font will simply degrade to
another font in the stack with no on-screen errors (approved), while the
zoom.it API gives an error and no image (not approved).

*Best practice:* In many cases, libraries (such as Google Fonts) can simply
be bundled with the theme, giving users the most functional and consistent
experience in both situations.

On 24 December 2011 13:51, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net> wrote:

> Well, answers that one, then. :)
>
> Any other potentially relevant APIs that might be included in Themes?
>
> Chip
>
>
> On Sat, Dec 24, 2011 at 12:33 PM, Amy Hendrix <sabreuse at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> From http://www.google.com/webfonts#AboutPlace:about
>>
>> "Open Source Fonts
>>
>> All of the fonts are Open Source. This means that you are free to
>> share your favorites with friends and colleagues. You can even improve
>> or customize them and collaborate with the original designer. And you
>> can use them in every way you want, privately or commercially – in
>> print, on your computer, or in your websites."
>>
>> The font contribution form also requires a checkbox statement that the
>> submitter owns all rights, and a choice of SIL/OpenFont License,
>> Apache, or "other open-source license". No indication of which others
>> they'll consider, but the prose description on the about page
>> certainly at least fits with GPL in spirit.
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Dec 24, 2011 at 1:24 PM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net>
>> wrote:
>> > I don't know that all of the Google Font API-available fonts are
>> > GPL-compatible...
>> >
>> > Chip
>> >
>> >
>> > On Sat, Dec 24, 2011 at 11:54 AM, Edward Caissie <
>> edward.caissie at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Why not include, from your example, the Google Font in the package? Is
>> >> there a benefit to making an API call versus referencing a locally
>> available
>> >> resource?
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Cais.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Sat, Dec 24, 2011 at 11:22 AM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net>
>> >> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> I'm wondering why it would be a *bad* thing to say that all Themes
>> must
>> >>> be self-contained, and should not hotlink any resources?
>> >>>
>> >>> (I think API references are okay; e.g. Google Fonts - if they're not
>> >>> there, the CSS will fall back to another font, so the experience
>> might be
>> >>> degraded, but it will degrade mostly gracefully.)
>> >>>
>> >>> Chip
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> On Sat, Dec 24, 2011 at 9:56 AM, Edward Caissie
>> >>> <edward.caissie at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>> @Kirk - Leave a comment to the effect of what Otto has suggested why
>> >>>> this method should not be used.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> @Otto et al. - This should go into the Guidelines as *not* "best
>> >>>> practice", again for the same reason. "Banning" seems like such a
>> harsh word
>> >>>> to use, I'm thinking simply not-approve-able due to the potential for
>> >>>> "common" end-user conditions to cause the theme to simply not work,
>> i.e.:
>> >>>> intranet installation.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> I'm thinking something along these lines for the Guidelines: Themes
>> must
>> >>>> be self-contained within themselves and/or the WordPress core
>> functionality.
>> >>>> For example, externally referenced files may not always be available
>> to the
>> >>>> end-user and therefore should not be used.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> The question is now where to put that into the guidelines as I
>> recommend
>> >>>> it become effective with the "new" 3.3 guidelines. Any one have any
>> >>>> suggestions?
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Cais.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 7:42 PM, Otto <otto at ottodestruct.com> wrote:
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 4:32 PM, Kirk Wight <kwight at kwight.ca>
>> wrote:
>> >>>>> > In particular, the theme uses a bunch of external APIs for the
>> post
>> >>>>> > formats;
>> >>>>> > I've searched the mailing list archives, and didn't find anything
>> >>>>> > explicitly
>> >>>>> > banning it, but, well, it weirds me out. A look at how the options
>> >>>>> > are
>> >>>>> > implemented would be appreciated too.
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> While there's nothing wrong with the files he's including and the
>> >>>>> sources are trustworthy enough, these files should be included in
>> the
>> >>>>> theme and not added directly from external sites.
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> In particular:
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> wp_register_style('html5reset',
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> 'http://html5resetcss.googlecode.com/files/html5-reset-1.4.css
>> ',false,$theme_data['Version']);
>> >>>>> wp_enqueue_style( 'html5reset');
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> wp_register_script('yui-css','
>> http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/yuiloader/yuiloader-min.js
>> ',false,'2.8.0r4');
>> >>>>> wp_enqueue_script('yui-css');
>> >>>>> wp_register_script('jquery-template',
>> >>>>> 'http://nje.github.com/jquery-tmpl/jquery.tmpl.js',
>> array('jquery'),
>> >>>>> '0.1');
>> >>>>> wp_enqueue_script('jquery-template');
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> This is bad because it adds a dependency on those sites. This means
>> >>>>> the theme won't work for some cases, such as on an internal intranet
>> >>>>> where the user viewing the site has no access to the public internet
>> >>>>> (this is a *far* more common use case than you might think).
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> While there's no explicit guidelines prohibiting it that I found in
>> >>>>> the theme review list, I kinda sorta think that it should be banned.
>> >>>>> There's no good reason a theme can't simply package up these
>> libraries
>> >>>>> in the theme, presuming the licenses on the libraries is compatible.
>> >>>>> YUI is BSD licensed, JQuery Template is MIT or GPLv2, and the reset
>> >>>>> CSS is public domain. All compatible.
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> -Otto
>> >>>>> _______________________________________________
>> >>>>> theme-reviewers mailing list
>> >>>>> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>> >>>>> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> _______________________________________________
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>> >>>> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>> >>>> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>> >>>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
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>> >>>
>> >>
>> >>
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>> >
>> >
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