Themes should be able to opt-in to a static front page

[nacin]

A theme should be able to register that they are designed to have a static front page by default. Core should then pick up on this as part of the activation process and allow them to pick or create a page, or ignore it and show posts on the front.

Twenty Twelve will most likely need this (​http://wpdevel.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/default-theme-twenty-twelve/).

Should it perhaps display a select box with a list of pages to choose from or simply give a notice that the theme is recommended to be used with a static home page and give a link to the reading settings page (similar to how a theme supporting widgets gives a link to configure them)?

19627-patch1.diff is an example of the latter. It allows a theme to register that it is optimized to be used with a static front page template by appending the following line to the theme's style.css file:

Front Page: static

This came up in IRC today during the weekly meeting. It is going to be end up being super-simple.

add_theme_support( 'static-front-page' )

All this will do is add another section to the 3.4 customizer that lets the user know the theme explicitly supports a designed static front page, and offer the same dropdown already provided for at wp-admin/options-reading.php.

Assigning to koopersmith as this will have zero implementation outside of the customizer.

My idea is to use something like add_theme_support( 'static-page' , array( 'front' => (ID|slug), 'posts' => (ID|slug) ), the array is optional.

The Customizer will fetch this and shows the same dropdown menu as on options-reading.php. The values, defined in the array, will be selected by default. If the user wants to use a static page, he/she just needs to check/confirm it.

Perhaps the add_theme_support() call could allow for a description from the theme letting them know about their implementation. A distributed theme isn't going to be able to line up post slugs or IDs.

I think this requires #16379 to not suck.

Should we just support add_theme_support( 'static-page' ) for 3.4 and maybe extend it with 3.5 and Twenty Twelve?

The Customizer should, if the theme supports it, display the setting section for a static page .

Any theme hypothetically supports a static front page already. I think the add_theme_support() call is only good for descriptive text as to what the theme does special when it comes to static headers (or an explicit "Your theme supports a static front page." line).

Discussed at dev hack day at WCSF 2012, we are going to keep it at future release and not work on this for 3.5.

What are the odds that this makes the 3.6 cut?

Replying to chipbennett:

What are the odds that this makes the 3.6 cut?

That would be great!

Potentially related: #23669