When developing a new Wordpress theme for a site there are a number of things to check before the theme is released. Naturally, all the things in the list are not mandatory for every site. For example, if a theme is created for a specific customer that has no need for comments, such a thing is not necessary to include. It is however good to have a personal list that you quickly can read through and verify that you haven’t forgotten any crucial part. Here is my personal list that I use.
- Validate with W3C standards. Make sure all templates and parts of the site are validated.
- Test the site on hand-held devices, like for example the iPhone and Android-based phones.
- Make sure the header has all it should, including correct doctype above it, RSS feed, etc. Also remove the bloginfo(‘version’) part.
- Make sure wp_head() and wp_footer() are called properly.
- Set content width in functions.php.
- Include a readme.txt and theme information with up-to-date information.
- Does the theme have a screenshot.jpg?
- Information about help and support on the dashboard.
- Proper 404 handling.
- Is the_excerpt() and the_content() used correctly?
- Does previous/next posts work as the should?
- Does attachments display as they should? Leftalign, rightalign and aligncenter for images.
- Style for block quotes, tables, ordered and unordered lists, headings 1 to 6, etc.
- Remove unused files, images and resources from the theme folder.
- Check that widgets are functioning as they should in the widget areas.
- Are RSS and Atom feeds set up correctly?
- Edit links for posts and pages on the front-end?
- Custom logo to the Wordpress back-end?
- Support for Gravatars?
- If comments are used, make sure there are support for threaded comments down to at-least five levels.
- Does the theme support localization?
- Does the theme work with all plugins deactivated? Should it work with all plugins deactivated?
- Search functionality?
- Image galleries?
- Are dates displayed correctly?
- Should there be any theme customization (option pages) available?
This list is in no way final or complete and I will probably extended and change it as I go on and continue building sites. It is however a good reference point for me to go back to each time I am about to release a new theme or site based on Wordpress.