Activating a new theme on multisite is very long-winded

[johnbillion]

Scenario:

I've just uploaded a new theme to my theme directory and I now want to activate it on a site. I head to the Appearance › Themes menu for that site and, whoops, I forgot to activate it on the network first. Now I need to:

1. Click my name in the header
2. Click Network Admin in the dropdown menu
3. Click Sites
4. Find the site and click Edit
5. Click Themes

From there I can enable the theme.

We're not done yet though. We need to traverse a minimum of two screens to get back to the Themes menu of the site (even more if the admin bar isn't enabled) in order to activate it.

Two things would make this process easier:

1. A link from the Themes screen to the Themes tab of the site in network admin, so five clicks become one.
2. The ability to activate a theme from the Themes tab of the site in network admin.

[johnbillion]

I might patch this up in the next day or two if I'm not too busy.

[kawauso]

I've always thought it would be a lot easier if the Super Admin just wasn't subject to the per-site theme restrictions and upon activating, the theme was added to the per-site allowed option. Might be a bit inconsistent though.

[johnbillion]

Replying to kawauso:

I've always thought it would be a lot easier if the Super Admin just wasn't subject to the per-site theme restrictions and upon activating, the theme was added to the per-site allowed option. Might be a bit inconsistent though.

Yeah this crossed my mind, but it might make it unclear to the network admin which themes are enabled (for normal admins) on the current site and which aren't.

[scribu]

Another idea:

If you're on the themes admin page, the Network Admin link sends you to the network themes admin page (and then the Site Admin link sends you back).

This could be done for plugins as well.

[ocean90]

Related: #17099

[PeteMall]

Activate themes form the network admin site-themes page.

[johnbillion]

Pete, that patch needs some logic so the "activate" link doesn't show up for the active theme.

Should we also display the currently active theme at the top of that screen? It's only displayed on the "Info" tab at the moment.

[jane]

"If you're on the themes admin page, the Network Admin link sends you to the network themes admin page (and then the Site Admin link sends you back)." << I'd rather those links always go to the same place for consistency instead of switching on the fly. If you want to write a plugin that implements your suggestion, we could do some testing and see if it performs better (and if so, would consider the switch).

I think having Enable and Activate might be confusing, as enable as a regular word (vs a specific WP term) means something very similar. I also wonder how different those two words are once we get into translations. Maybe we should rethink one or both of those labels.

"Should we also display the currently active theme at the top of that screen? It's only displayed on the "Info" tab at the moment." << That sounds like a good idea. Or maybe highlight the active theme within the table. I can post to UI group to see if anyone wants to mock up an 'active' state.

[scribu]

Replying to jane:

"If you're on the themes admin page, the Network Admin link sends you to the network themes admin page (and then the Site Admin link sends you back)." << I'd rather those links always go to the same place for consistency instead of switching on the fly. If you want to write a plugin that implements your suggestion, we could do some testing and see if it performs better (and if so, would consider the switch).

Here you go: ​https://gist.github.com/1208492

If you're on the themes/plugins/users screen, it will send you to the equivalent network/admin screen.

Here's what it looks like:

I'm completely open to ideas regarding positioning and styling.

[Ipstenu]

"I think having Enable and Activate might be confusing..."

It is for NES, I know for sure. Andrea and I have already had a couple rounds explaining that one means to make available and one to turn on :/ People complain already about the two words.

Activate - Make available
Enable - Turn on

Barely makes sense to me and I (supposedly) speak English.

[jane]

Replying to Ipstenu:

Activate - Make available
Enable - Turn on

Isn't it the other way around? Enable makes it available, Activate turns it on on the live site?

Thinking maybe "Allow" instead of "Enable"?

Activate then would be clearer (Make Active), but other options for the label could be "Choose," "Select," "Use this Theme," "Turn On," "Switch and Publish," etc.

[Ipstenu]

Yeah, that's why everyone's confused.

If I "network activate" a theme, it becomes available for use on all sites but it does not become the default theme for any of them. It's just there, ready to be used.

If I go to Network Admin -> Sites -> Edit -> Themes, I can "enable" a theme for a site, which does ... the same thing! Makes it available for use!

And then if I go to Site -> WP Admin -> Themes, I can "activate" a theme on that site and NOW it's being used, huzzah!

There's no way to logically handle both 'network activate' and per-site activate on the Network Admin -> Themes page, so leaving that alone for now, the Network Admin -> Sites -> Edit -> Themes page should remove 'Enable' and just name it 'Activate', at the very least for consistencies sake. Then a 'Use This Theme' would be fine. I suspect the brain-breaking was from trying to have a clean, short, explanation.

(Though now I wonder if there mightn't be a need to have a 'Make Default' on the Network Admin -> Themes page ... So people don't have to edit the wp-config.php)

[SergeyBiryukov]

Replying to Ipstenu:

If I "network activate" a theme, it becomes available for use on all sites but it does not become the default theme for any of them. It's just there, ready to be used.

Isn't that "Network Enable"?

[Ipstenu]

Hmm. It is now. It WAS network Activate (in ... 3.1, I have an old screenshot from a confused Francophile). Looking at 3.3 svn r18660 it's 'Enable.'

Enable and Activate are still too close in terminology to be used on the different theme pages, IMO.

[scribu]

I suggest a new ticket is created for the "enable" vs. "activate" debate.

The focus of this ticket should be the fact that it takes 5 steps to set up a new theme on MultiSite.

[scribu]

So, regarding my Network Quick-switch plugin:

If you're on /blog-x/themes and you click "Network Admin", you are sent to the network admin. But afterwards, you are not sent back to /blog-x/themes, but to /main-blog/themes.

In order to make this work as expected, a cookie would have to be used or an URL parameter, both of which are pretty fragile solutions, so I'm dropping the idea.

[Ipstenu]

We could probably use ​http://make.wordpress.org/ui/2011/09/10/18301-multisite-theme-activation/ to bash out terms first.

[ryan]

Punting enhancements from 3.3.

[betzster]

I think it would be easier if network admins could just activate any theme

[betzster]

Network admins can see all themes

[Ipstenu]

betzster - Not per site. If I go to any site, I can only see the themes active for the network or that site.

A separate section 'The following these are not enabled for this site...' with an 'Enable and Activate' sort of button would be nice. Hide it so only the super admin can see it.

[DrewAPicture]

Punting to future release pending a plan and a patch (that I'm writing). See the linked Slack logs for user testing discussion.

[JoshuaWold]

We discussed this in the #design channel today for our meeting. It'd be helpful if someone is able to post updated screenshots showing what the flow looks like in the latest version of WordPress.

[johnbillion]

The flow hasn't changed in seven years. Just the colour scheme of the admin area has changed.

[khleomix]

@JoshuaWold as discussed in #design channel, here's the screencast of activating a theme in multisite. It is still the same process as it was 7 years ago when this ticket was created.

​https://www.screencast.com/t/Gx3vtZw8hS

[chaion07]

Thanks @johnbillion for reporting this. We discussed this ticket during a ​recent design triage session. Based on the feedback from the Team we feel the need to have updated screen recordings walking through to see if the issues still persists. The Team finds it hard to tell how relevant they are — as they're quite dated. Perhaps this can help significantly for this ticket to move forward.

Cheers!

Props to @themebeans for the discussion