#13774 closed task (blessed) (fixed)
Theme installer should support child themes
| Reported by: |
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Owned by: |
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| Milestone: | 3.4 | Priority: | normal |
| Severity: | normal | Version: | 3.0 |
| Component: | Upgrade/Install | Keywords: | has-patch 3.4-early needs-testing |
| Focuses: | Cc: |
Description
The theme installer and by extension the theme repo should support child themes.
i.e. Handle update and install gracefully
This become more important now that there are a lot of child themes from TwentyTen likely to be created.
Attachments (5)
Change History (45)
#4
in reply to:
↑ 3
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14 years ago
- Cc batmoo@… added
Replying to dougal:
I'm not sure how much infrastructure the Theme and Plugin repositories share, but it would also be interesting if the general idea could be abstracted to support plugin dependencies. Then we could develop plugins which purely provide API infrastructures that other plugins could build upon. For example, someone could create an OAuth support plugin, which other plugins could depend on to authenticate with Twitter, Photobucket, Google, Brightkite, Meetup, Netfix, etc.
Definitely would be great to have something like this. In terms of the installation process, I have something we can use as a start.
A couple weeks back, I wrote an installer plugin for Google's Living Stories plugin, which automatically installs all the necessary dependencies for you. If a dependency is already installed, it skips it. It allows installation from the plugin directory or a custom URL. (The manual installation process involves installing a bunch of different plugins and theme in a specific order, which is an unnecessary huge pain!).
The installer is fairly abstracted as is and uses standard WordPress APIs, and if others see value in this, I'll abstract it out further and submit a patch. (I was originally envisioning using to it create something like a directory where people could create and submit plugin bundles, somewhat like Firefox add-on Collections, but that's a lofty dream.)
Code for the plugin is available here: http://code.google.com/p/living-stories/source/browse/installer/living-story-installer.php?repo=wordpress
#7
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13 years ago
Proposed patch will install the parent for a child theme from the repo, if the parent isn't already installed, when you attempt to install the child. Most of the installer changes are for visual prettiness, the actual installation is relatively simple.
#8
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13 years ago
- Keywords has-patch 3.3-early added; needs-patch removed
- Owner changed from dd32 to nacin
- Status changed from new to accepted
Awesome. Marking for 3.3.
#17
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13 years ago
attachment 13774.2.diff added
- My stab at implementing the parent theme installation.
- Doesnt handle themes_api() failing on the parent installation
- Doesnt handle parent theme installation failing (see screenshot) - It shouldn't offer activation/preview in that case.
I've taken the approach of having the parent themes installation details being included in the "steps" rather than having a duplicated header as in Otto's patch, this makes it less obvious that 2 themes are being installed, but also brings a few issues where the messages area easy to mistake for the child themes installation.
One suggestion I've got for that is something like this:
Installing Theme: Journalist 1.9 <-- page header Downloading install package from http://wordpress.org/...zip… Unpacking the package… Installing the theme… Successfully installed the theme Journalist 1.9. Preparing to install the parent theme The Common Blog 1.5.3… <-- Same font size as the lines above and below Downloading install package from http://wordpress.org/..zip… Unpacking the package… Installing the theme… Successfully installed the parent theme The Common Blog 1.5.3. ..Actions on child theme here...
attachment child-theme-install.png added
- Top: Installing a child theme, automatically installing the parent (Note: The above patch is forcing installation of that "parent" theme for all theme installs)
- Bottom: Installing a child theme, when the parent is already installed.
attachment child-theme-install-parent-fail.png added
- An example of the Child theme installing whilst the parent installation fails.
#20
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13 years ago
See also: #18490 - Add a message saying installation of the parent theme is needed. Close/Duplicate that one if this is completed for 3.3, otherwise, consider implementing that if time runs out here.
#21
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13 years ago
- Keywords ui-feedback removed
Suggested alterations to display. If parent theme not already installed:
Installing Theme: Child Theme 2.0
Downloading install package from http://wordpress.org/..zip…
Unpacking the package…
Installing the theme…
This theme requires a parent theme, Parent Theme 1.0.
Checking for parent theme, Parent Theme 1.0…
Preparing to install Parent Theme 1.0…
Downloading install package from http://wordpress.org/..zip…
Unpacking the package…
Installing the theme…
Successfully installed parent theme, Parent Theme 1.0.
Successfully installed the theme Child Theme 2.0.
You may now begin using Child Theme 2.0.
Preview | Activate | Return to Themes
If parent theme is already installed:
Installing Theme: Child Theme 2.0
Downloading install package from http://wordpress.org/..zip…
Unpacking the package…
Installing the theme…
This theme requires a parent theme, Parent Theme 1.0.
Checking for parent theme, Parent Theme 1.0…
Parent theme, Parent Theme 1.0, is currently installed.
Successfully installed the theme Child Theme 2.0.
You may now begin using Child Theme 2.0.
Preview | Activate | Return to Themes
#22
follow-up:
↓ 23
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13 years ago
- Keywords needs-testing added
attachment 13774.3.diff added
Just posting what I've got for testing, Most of Janes suggestions have been added with the exception of a few which I felt don't fit the current UI.
- "You may now begin using Child Theme 2.0." is a good line, but isn't consistent, we should do that when we repaint the upgraders to make them all visually similar.
- Combined the Theme Requires a parent theme... and checking for parent theme into a single string: This theme requires a parent theme, Checking if <strong>parent-theme</strong> is installed… It fits the overall flow better IMHO.
- The failure string for when a Parent them can't be installed is currently: <strong>The parent theme could not be found, You will need to install the parent theme %s before you can use this child theme.</strong>
- The This theme requires a parent theme, Checking if <strong>parent-theme</strong> is installed… line uses the parent theme slug, as this is what is within the style.css file.. It could be altered to display the actual themes name (But it'll do that /after/ it's searched for the theme being installed and checking the installer API..)
Examples:
Parent Theme already installed:
<h2>Installing Theme: Child Theme 3.0</h2> Downloading install package from http://wordpress.org/....zip… Unpacking the package… Installing the theme… This theme requires a parent theme, Checking if <strong>parent-theme</strong> is installed… The Parent theme, <strong>Parent Theme 2.0</strong>, is currently installed. Successfully installed the theme <strong>Child Theme 3.0</strong>. Preview | Activate | Return to Theme Installer
Parent Theme Not Installed
<h2>Installing Theme: Child Theme 3.0</h2> Downloading install package from http://wordpress.org/...zip… Unpacking the package… Installing the theme… This theme requires a parent theme, Checking if <strong>parent-theme</strong> is installed… Preparing to install <strong>Parent Theme 2.0</strong>… Downloading install package from http://wordpress.org/.zip… Unpacking the package… Installing the theme… Successfully installed the parent theme <strong>Parent Theme 2.0</strong>. Successfully installed the theme <strong>Child Theme 3.0</strong>. Preview | Activate | Return to Theme Installer
Parent Theme can't be installed
<h2>Installing Theme: Child Theme 3.0</h2> Downloading install package from http://wordpress.org/.....zip… Unpacking the package… Installing the theme… This theme requires a parent theme, Checking if <strong>non-existant-theme</strong> is installed… <strong>The parent theme could not be found, You will need to install the parent theme non-existant-theme before you can use this child theme.</strong> Successfully installed the theme <strong>Child Theme 3.0</strong>. Return to Theme Installer
The Final case of "Child's installed, Parent Failed, It was a success!" wording is a bit disconnected, but that's quite common with errors in the upgraders right now, Ideally they should all be fixed at the same time rather than wrapped in this patch.
This is all good for testing now, Note however, That this is not as simple to test as no child themes are currently available in the Extend directory, Line 679 of the patch forces all install attempts to have "The Common Blog" as a parent theme.. So just imagine that's a parent (or change it to a non-existant theme for testing there).
It also works for themes uploaded from zip files:
Installing Theme from uploaded file: twentyeleven-child.zip Unpacking the package… Installing the theme… This theme requires a parent theme, Checking if twentyeleven is installed… Preparing to install Twenty Eleven 1.2… Downloading install package from http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/download/twentyeleven.1.2.zip… Unpacking the package… Installing the theme… Successfully installed the parent theme Twenty Eleven 1.2. Theme installed successfully. Preview | Activate | Return to Themes page
#23
in reply to:
↑ 22
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13 years ago
Replying to dd32:
This is all good for testing now, Note however, That this is not as simple to test as no child themes are currently available in the Extend directory
FWIW, I've found a couple:
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/multi
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/shelter
#24
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13 years ago
FWIW, I've found a couple:
Thanks! I didn't even think they were accepted in the repo yet. There are a few BuddyPress child themes as well it seems.
#25
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13 years ago
They're not accepted yet generally, but I put through a couple extras to help us test things with, back when I wrote the first attempt at a patch.
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/mazeld is another one. It uses twenty-ten as the base, so it's handy for testing the parent-theme-already-exists case.
#26
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13 years ago
- Keywords 3.4-early added; 3.3-early removed
- Milestone changed from 3.3 to Future Release
Unfortunately the Feature freeze has hit us a few weeks back, Leaving this here sitting and waiting for early 3.4
#30
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12 years ago
- Milestone changed from Future Release to 3.4
This appears good to go. Let's kick the tires and get it in this week. The theme reviewers will certainly appreciate it.
#31
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12 years ago
Testing it now.
Notes:
- Check the 13774.3.diff before commit. There's two sections of debug code that needs to be removed first. Both are marked with TODO's.
- Works for pre-existing parent themes (mazeld depends on twenty-ten):
Downloading install package from http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/download/mazeld.1.0.zip… Unpacking the package… Installing the theme… This theme requires a parent theme, Checking if twentyten is installed… The Parent theme, Twenty Ten 1.3, is currently installed. Successfully installed the theme Mazeld 1.0.
Works for children that don't have a parent installed (multi depends on desk-mess-mirrored):
Downloading install package from http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/download/multi.1.8.3.zip… Unpacking the package… Installing the theme… This theme requires a parent theme, Checking if desk-mess-mirrored is installed… Preparing to install Desk Mess Mirrored 2.0.1… Downloading install package from http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/download/desk-mess-mirrored.2.0.1.zip… Unpacking the package… Installing the theme… Successfully installed the parent theme Desk Mess Mirrored 2.0.1. Successfully installed the theme Multi 1.8.3.
- Works for both cases in direct mode.
- Works for both cases when forcing FTP mode (ftpsockets). Note, tested on localhost, so PHP timeouts not a problem in this case. But nothing much that can be done about that anyway.
- FTP Filesystem finder works correctly to find the right directories on a multi-single-site install in FTP mode. Tested with 8 subdirectory WP installs on localhost and the FTP directory pointing at the htdocs root (so it can see them all).
Looks good to me. Remove the debug lines and should be good to go. UI details can be adjusted later if needed.
#33
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12 years ago
This is an important ticket for the WPTRT ... and I just noticed the testing was done with my Parent-Theme / Child-Theme as examples, too (*grin*).
PS: I would really like to get Multi updated as it will fail due to changes I made in Desk Mess Mirrored. The current working version of Multi can be found here: https://github.com/Cais/multi
This would definitely be great. I think it would spur a new wave of theme submissions.
I'm not sure how much infrastructure the Theme and Plugin repositories share, but it would also be interesting if the general idea could be abstracted to support plugin dependencies. Then we could develop plugins which purely provide API infrastructures that other plugins could build upon. For example, someone could create an OAuth support plugin, which other plugins could depend on to authenticate with Twitter, Photobucket, Google, Brightkite, Meetup, Netfix, etc.
Anyhow, back to the child-theme bits... I'm wondering if the details for child themes should show the screenshot for the parent theme, in addition to the child theme's screenshot, for comparison? I think that would be kinda neat. But OTOH, I worry that it could be confusing to novice users, if we can't present it in a clear way. Perhaps there could be a text link saying something like, "Bazzo is a child theme, based on the Foobar theme." And maybe 'Foobar' would be a link, which could popup an overlay showing the two screenshots?