[wp-testers] A RE-EXAMINATION OF THEME REQUIREMENTS - AN ESSAY

[Philip M. Hofer (Frumph)]

"The problem is - just how many commercial shared servers exist that
actually work that way? Seriously."

Bruce, I am behind you 99%, except for this.  Even though I am a proponent 
of allowing fopen I do know that out of the 20 thousand people using 
ComicPress that I can only vouch for 4-5 hostings that properly assign the 
user,  hostgator, cirtex, dreamhost, bluehost and godaddy are the ones that 
I know about, ever other one that allows shared hosting have *huge* 
permission issues when it comes to reading and writing authorizations;  I 
can guestimate that 50%+ of all my theme users have permission related 
problems.

It's my belief that the theme designer must make aware and have 
documentation on permission related issues (which you have, and I have) to 
the end user.  The only factor that really stops fopen writes is what the 
theme review team wants to see as a standardization, to that end requiring 
fopen to not be used I can relate with.

I utilize fopen writes to write a logfile of transactions for an IPN return 
via paypal, there really is NO OTHER WAY to do it, since that IPN file does 
NOT communicate with (or 'did' not) with any wordpress core files.   What's 
the alternative to writing a file? Dunno, so my users are at an impasse if 
they want to utilize that feature of my theme.

Argumentatively I've been weighing the option of moving it to a plugin, but 
even then the plugin will have the same situational difficulties as it being 
in a theme and I really like having all my features in the theme for 
distribution and not relying on another plugin; probably the same as 
yourself; since integration Is a key factor with most functionalities.

However, like you said and I only sort of agree with; and I'll put it 
another way - the theme designer,  your theme and my own should be able to 
assist and help those users who use the function in those situations which 
warrant it when permission issues arise - theme designers should be held 
accountable for the code that they use, much the same way plugin developers 
should.

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On another note, about plugins and requirements, the fact that plugins can 
update on the fly via SVN the amount of manpower hours to review plugins 
would be astronomical.  That is why - in place are user reviews of the 
plugins where end users can declare them broken or working for revisions and 
more.    Unfortunately that information is 'just for the end user searching 
for plugins to use' and does nothing for those plugins which are declared 
broken or removing them from the repo from being downloaded further.

I have on many occasions 'certified' plugins that are secure and written up 
to spec for my end users to use when they ask me to.  I would hope that 
WordPress would be inclined to do something similar in the future with maybe 
a symbol graphic saying that the plugin has been reviewed and accredited; 
but to that end it would require more users to get involved in a team effort 
to examine those plugins and the manpowers involved as I said would be 
astronomical.

And again, you're right.   What's good for the goose needs to be good for 
the gander.   Plugin's need to have some sort of checking on them and I hope 
something happens sometime in the future, but the feasibility difference 
between them and themes is quite different in many ways, especially the way 
they are able to be updated as I said above.
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On an off note, I think the theme review team is doing an excellent job at 
making top of the line themes available on the repository, the methodology 
in place is not flawless but it works.   Just need to resolve some minor 
issues on acceptability is all.

The best person to talk to is Cais in this regard, while Otto 'knows' what 
should be acceptable and not acceptable, Cais KNOWS what can be feasible in 
requirements for a developer and what is good for the theme review team and 
the theme developers.   That's why he's in the lead position he is on the 
theme review team imho.

- Phil