"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?"
The St. Louis Good Friday tornado ended up being a rather close call for us. The storm track is in red; our location is in yellow:
St. Louis Good Friday Tornado, 22 April 2011
Unlike the 2010 Saint Ann tornado, this one did major damage in the area. Thankfully for us, though, the worst thing we suffered was a 12-hour power outage.
Thanks in large part to Justin Tadlock's recent blog post, in which he solicited more people to get involved with the WordPress Theme Review Team (WPTRT), we have seen a fantastic, huge influx of new volunteers. Many of these new volunteers have had questions about how to perform a Theme review. Hopefully this guide will help answer those questions.
First things first: review How to Join WPTRT.
Ensure that a few WordPress settings are modified in order to facilitate the Theme Unit Tests:
Settings -> General: set the Site Title to something fairly long, and set the Tagline to something even longer. These settings will facilitate testing how the Theme handles these values.Settings -> Reading: set "Blog pages show at most" to 5. This setting will ensure that index/archive pagination is triggered.Settings -> Discussion: enable Threaded Comments, at least 3 levels deep. This setting will facilitate testing of Theme comment list styling.Settings -> Discussion: enable Break comments into pages, and set 5 comments per page. This setting will facilitate testing of Theme paginating link markup/styling.Settings -> Media: ensure that no values are set for max width or height of Embedded media. This setting will facilitate testing of the Theme $content_width setting/implementation.Settings -> Permalinks: ensure that a non-default permalink setting is selected, e.g. "Month and name". This setting will facilitate stepping through the Theme Unit Tests.Next, create at least two Custom Menus:
Now, you're ready to be assigned a ticket! Read on for the detailed review process.
The first area to review involves some policy requirements, rather than code quality. I verify these before I ever download or install the Theme, by reviewing the appropriate template files using the "SVN" link in the Trac ticket.
style.css. Ensure that the License: and LicenseURI: header tags exist, that the indicated license is GPL-compatible, and that the indicated URI is a valid, full-text license.style.css, readme.txt, or somewhere similarly appropriate.footer.php, to ensure that there are no inline comments regarding use restriction, such as prohibiting changing the footer, or requiring a credit link, etc.style.css. Ensure that Theme URI and Author URI, if used, are valid and appropriate.footer.php, sidebar.php, etc. and ensure that the Theme does not include any other inappropriate hard-coded links (sponsor links, SEO links, spam links, etc.). Ensure that all public-facing copyright notices indicate the site name, rather than the Theme name or developer.functions.php and ensure that the Theme does not hook in any other inappropriate links or copyright notices.screenshot.png is sized appropriately.Next, install the Theme, and before activating, run Theme Check. Note any Warning or Required notices in the Trac ticket. (Note: for any Theme uploaded since late March 2011, Theme Check should return no such notices, as they should all be caught by the Theme uploader script. If you notice any, please email the Theme-Reviewers mail list, and indicate what notices you observed.)
You are welcome to note Recommended or Info notices in the Trac ticket, but I generally don't. These notices are more for your reference, as you continue to review the Theme.
For Recommended notices regarding Theme functionality (Post Formats, Post Thumbnails, Navigation Menus, etc.), verify that the Theme does not use a custom implementation. If the Theme does use a custom implementation, note in the Trac ticket that the Theme is required to support the core implementation of the functionality.
Step through each Info notice, and review the Theme template files to determine if the notice is applicable. For example: verify appropriate use of include() vs. get_template_part(); verify appropriateness of hard-coded links; etc.
Now, the review enters the bulk of the requirements in the Theme Review guidelines.
Review header.php, and verify:
html, head, meta, etc.)style.css are hard-coded into the document head. (These files must either be enqueued and hooked in appropriately, or added using IE conditional tags.)meta tags (WordPress generator tag, SEO meta tags, copyright meta tags, etc.) are hard-coded into the document head.wp_head() template tag is placed immediately before the closing HTML head tag.Review footer.php, and verify:
wp_footer() template tag is placed immediately before the closing HTML body tag.Review functions.php, and verify:
add_theme_page() rather than add_menu_page()edit_theme_options, rather than admin, manage_options, edit_themes, etc.$_POST, $_GET, and $_REQUEST data are sanitized/validated upon input into the database, and escaped upon outputfunction_exists() conditionals.Verify that all tags listed in the Tags: header tag are appropriate, and that all claimed functionality is included in the Theme.
Note which hierarchical template files are used (e.g. single.php, page.php, archive.php, date.php, author.php, category.php, tag.php, taxonomy.php, 404.php, home.php, front-page.php, and search.php), so that you will know which of these to verify when performing the Theme Unit Tests, later.
Review Theme template file names, and ensure that any hierarchical template file name variants (e.g. page-foo.php, category-foo.php, etc.) are included in the Theme documentation, with an explanation for their use.
Review Theme template files, make note of any uses of include() or require() and ensure that such use is valid. Verify that:
get_header()get_footer()comments_template()get_sidebar()get_template_part()get_search_form()wp_login_form()Now the review moves on primarily to the requirements in the Theme Unit Tests.
Dashboard -> Tools -> Deprecated Calls, verify that Log Deprecated Notices does not return any deprecated function calls or other notices.
theme_location, and verify that the menu renders properlytheme_location, and verify that the menu renders properly, without breaking the site/menu layouttheme_location, ensure that such limitation is documented in readme.txtreadme.txtRun the W3C HTML/CSS validator on the Readability Test post (to ensure minimal WordPress-caused validation errors), and note any egregious validation errors, such as:
View the site index page, and verify:
index.php, home.php, archive.php, date.php, author.php, category.php, tag.php), verify requirements, as specified.front-page.php or a home.php template file, go to Dashboard -> Settings -> Reading, and set the Front Page to display a Static Page (use any existing Page), and set the Blog Posts index to another Static Page (e.g. "Lorem Ipsum"). Verify requirements, as specified.404.php page by navigating to a non-existent Page slug (e.g. www.domain.tld/sit-amet). Verify requirements, as specified.search.php page by performing a search (e.g. "lorem ipsum"). Verify requirements, as specified.Return to the Blog Posts index page. Step through the Blog Posts Index Page tests.
Step through each Blog Post and Static Page, verifying all requirements, as specified. Each unit test should be fairly self-explanatory.
At this point, the review is thorough and complete. Summarize your comments in the Trac ticket and close the ticket with the appropriate resolution (or propose a suggested resolution, if you do not have appropriate rights to close the ticket).
If you're worried about radiation dose and health effects in the wake of the hurricane- and tsunami-induced damage to the Japanese nuclear power plants, then I would highly recommend that you take a look at this Radiation Infographic. 1
Radiation Dose Chart
More than likely, this infographic should help to allay some unwarranted fear about radiation and health effects.
(h/t: @BradleyPotter)
Notes:
The inter-tubes are awash in tutorials for how to add Theme Options to WordPress Themes - so why write another? Primarily, because most such tutorials are several years old, don't implement current best-practices, and were written without any awareness of the WordPress Settings API.
While others such as Otto and Ozh have done yeomen's work in explaining how to implement the Settings API, I have not yet come across anything that really put everything together, and explained the process and implementation from beginning to end, in a way that even the less-experienced Theme developers (like me) could easily understand.
This tutorial will attempt to fill that gap, by providing examples of current (as of the pending release of WordPress 3.1) best-practice implementation, not merely of the Settings API, but of Theme Options implementation as a whole, including:
Throughout this tutorial, I will be using code from my Oenology Theme for implementation examples. For full code, see the latest development version.
The following will be the working list of best practices that will be incorporated:
The first thing we need to do, even before touching any code, is to determine:
In my case, I am adding only a handful of simple options:
Given that I'm only adding four Theme options, I could very easily put all four together on one Settings page. However, I may want to add additional options in the future - and also, I want to provide a proof-of-concept for creating complex Theme Settings pages in a way that supports the Settings API. So, the Theme Settings page will have two tabs: "General", and "Varietals". Further, the "General" tab will have two sections: "Header Options" and "Footer Options".
So, that's our basis. Let's get started!
Oh, rutabaga, where have you been my whole (low-carb) life?
I have been a dedicated low-carber for over a decade. While I could go the rest of my life without eating another dessert or drinking another soft drink, my meat-and-potatoes farm-community up-bringing often leaves me missing starch-laden foods of my youth, such as fried potatoes and biscuits and gravy. In fact, when I decide to splurge, it is almost alway with one of these two foods. In over ten years of living low-carb, I had never found a suitable, low-carb replacement for crispy potatoes fried in bacon grease.
Enter the rutabaga: humble root vegetable, that also happens to be incredibly low in carbohydrate (under half the net carbohydrate content of a potato). While not a strictly low-carb food, it makes for a great option for the occasional potato fix.
Apparently, the rutabaga has fallen out of popular use, due to its reputation as famine food during World War II. How unfortunate. As it turns out, the rutabaga is basically just as easy to work with as the potato, and makes an equally good accompaniment as the potato when fried.
Here are the results of tonight's experiment with making fried rutabaga.
The rutabaga is at first a somewhat unusual-looking vegetable, but is actually easier to peel than a potato:
Rutabaga Peeled and Unpeeled
Once peeled, rutabaga is considerably more difficult to cut through than a potato; however, once I quartered the rutabaga, the mandolin made quick work of slicing:
Rutabaga Quartered and Mandolin-Sliced
I initially fried a small batch (1/2 rutabaga) of potato chip-thin slices, to get a feel for the texture and taste of fried rutabaga.
Frying a trial batch of rutabaga
Having discovered that rutabaga fries essentially the same as potato, we were pleasantly surprised further to discover the mild, natural sweetness of rutabaga that - especially when crispy-fried - pairs in a rather addictive manner with a little salt and pepper.
Finding the trial run successful, I set the mandolin to one setting thicker, sliced another whole rutabaga, and fried the whole batch in bacon grease, as before.
First full batch of fried rutabaga
This batch definitely took longer to cook than the potato chip-thin slices, but still barely took longer than the time required to broil pork chops.
The pork chops and fried rutabaga (garnished with a few bits of crumbled bacon), combined with some Brussels sprouts "slaw" (steamed Brussels sprouts, core removed, mashed/quick chopped, with butter, Parmesan cheese, and a few drops of lemon juice) made for a tasty and - and unexpectedly filling - meal.
Fried rutabaga with broiled pork chop and Brussells sprout slaw
(I actually was unable to finish the entire plate.)
Next up: rutabaga chips in the deep fryer, rutabaga soup (using my secret family potato soup recipe), and roast with rutabaga.