[theme-reviewers] Theme names and updates

[Chip Bennett]

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> 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
>
>
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>
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