Just lately, there was quite a lot of posts on the Themeforest boards in regards to the present theme evaluate course of, evaluate occasions, hard-rejections, soft-rejections and many annoyed authors, so we thought we’d write a brief publish on the topic.
We’ve been part of Themeforest now for over four years and we’re additionally Elite Authors, that means we’ve had our personal fair proportion of rejections through the years, subsequently, as you’d count on, we've got a reasonably good thought of the principle causes for rejection and hopefully this publish will help you.
Evaluate Instances
Okay, so the primary grievance we’ve began to see quite a lot of is the evaluate time.
“I’ve been ready 7 days, is one thing unsuitable, what ought to I do?!”
Nicely, firstly, you need to perceive has grown exponentially over the previous few years, four million members, 6 million objects on the market and a small evaluate staff.
You possibly can already see the place that is going, clearly the variety of objects being submitted is large, subsequently it takes time so that you can transfer by the evaluate queue, it’s simply the way in which it's.
What ought to I do?
Nothing. Nothing in any respect. Submit your merchandise and transfer on, take a break, begin one other theme, study some new stuff, something is much better than sitting at your Dashboard ready for the evaluate, use your time constructively as a substitute.
Quite a few Gentle-Rejections
Okay, let’s transfer on, the following grievance is the variety of rejections an creator receives.
“I acquired a soft-rejection for X and I mounted, resubmitted, after which acquired a soft-rejection for Y, why didn’t they are saying that the primary time?!”
Nicely, give it some thought, think about that the reviewer sat down and went by each single theme and wrote an inventory of each single challenge first time round, you’d be within the evaluate queue for much longer than the present 7 day common, and also you’d be feeling much more annoyed.
Or, how in regards to the reviewers are solely human?
They missed it the primary time spherical, that is acceptable isn’t it? In spite of everything, you missed the bug too while you submitted.
There's an upside to quite a few soft-rejections although, the bugs are being caught earlier than your merchandise goes dwell.
Think about in the event that they didn’t, sure you’d repair them ultimately, however what number of gross sales would you lose within the meantime, what number of 1 star rankings would you obtain?
We additionally get the truth that many authors prefer to know roughly when their merchandise goes to be accredited for advertising functions, and possibly that's one thing Purchasewp might have a look at, probably an possibility for an creator to set their merchandise dwell every time they need after being accredited, this will likely simply assist with the evaluate course of as a complete.
The Bottomline
The very fact of the matter is, in case your merchandise has points, then it’s going to have rejections, it doesn't matter what, the simplest means to not get rejections, or scale back the quantity of rejections, is to ensure the merchandise is true within the first place.
Therefore the following part within the publish, we’ll cowl frequent causes for rejection and a guidelines of issues try to be doing your self earlier than submitting your merchandise.
Rejection Guidelines
Okay, so the evaluate methodology is one thing like this:
- Superior Design + Nice Code = Accepted.
- Generic Design + Nice Code = Gentle-Rejection.
- Superior Design + Poor Code = Gentle-Rejection.
- Generic Design + Poor Code = Laborious-Rejection.
Design
So, with that in thoughts, the very first thing you’re going to wish to verify is the design, in spite of everything, if the reviewers see a extremely poor design they received’t even get into the code evaluate.
Submit it up on the boards and ask for a critique, however be ready, generally you received’t hear what you wish to hear, you could assume it’s superior, however in actuality in might not be, however that’s a part of being a designer, take the critique, make some tweaks and make it superior!
Code
Okay then, you’ve posted your merchandise for critique, everybody says it’s as superior as you knew it was, good things, now to checkout the code.
A lot of this part focuses totally on WordPress themes, however you may take away a number of the recommendation for HTML templates too.
Validation: Your first verify must be validation, does your code validate? Don’t get too hung up on validation although, sure you need to take away as many validation errors as potential, however some errors are simply going to happen it doesn't matter what you do, EDGE errors, or nesting points due to a dynamic part being inserted, you simply want to make use of your personal judgement as to what's acceptable and what isn’t.
A few of our personal themes have 10 or so validation errors, merely due to nesting points, or WordPress doing it’s standard trick of wrapping parts in p tags the place they’re not wanted, it occurs, however some themes have 200+ errors, which simply isn’t acceptable in any respect.
Capabilities: When creating customized capabilities you need to hook intoafter_setup_theme
to run your capabilities as soon as the theme is initialized.
perform my_theme_setup() add_action( 'after_setup_theme', 'my_theme_setup' );
You also needs to prefix your whole capabilities to forestall any conflicts with plugins:
// un-prefixed perform the_excerpt_length( $size ) add_filter( 'excerpt_length', 'the_excerpt_length', 99 ); // prefixed perform lovethemes_the_excerpt_length( $size ) add_filter( 'excerpt_length', 'lovethemes_the_excerpt_length', 99 );
It's also good practise to prefix your whole capabilities to forestall any naming conflicts with plugins:
// unprefixed perform the_excerpt_length( $size ) add_filter( 'excerpt_length', 'the_excerpt_length', 99 ); // prefixed perform lovethemes_the_excerpt_length( $size ) add_filter( 'excerpt_length', 'lovethemes_the_excerpt_length', 99 );
Sanitize Knowledge: This is essential, not solely is it a giant purpose for rejection, it’s good practise to ensure your theme is as safe as it may be.
// escape customized variables esc_url( $emblem['picture'] ); // escape wordpress perform esc_url( home_url() ); // sanitize callbacks when utilizing add_setting in theme customizer $wp_customize->add_setting( 'lovethemes_styling[accent_color]', array( 'default' => '#862437', 'kind' => 'possibility', 'functionality' => 'edit_theme_options', 'transport' => 'postMessage', 'sanitize_callback' => 'sanitize_hex_color', ) );
Translation: Once more, it’s good practise to make any static textual content all through your theme translatable, this manner, even when the consumer doesn’t wish to translate the theme, they will change the values of static textual content all through just by utilizing .mo/.po recordsdata quite than having to look by recordsdata.
// make static strings translatable <?php esc_html_e( "Learn Extra...", "lovethemes" ); ?>
Default WordPress Capabilities: Be sure to’re using default WordPress capabilities appropriately.
// enqueue the remark reply script within the <head> <?php if ( is_singular() ) ?>
// wp_head() should be current instantly earlier than the closing </head> tag <?php wp_head(); ?>
// wp_footer() should be current in your footer <?php wp_footer(); ?>
// enqueue theme kinds perform my_theme_styles() add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'my_theme_styles' ); // enqueue scripts perform my_theme_scripts() add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'my_theme_scripts');
jQuery
// use jQuery appropriately with strict (perform($) )(jQuery);
CSS
Make certain your CSS file has a desk of contents:
@Writer: LoveThemes @URL: http://lovethem.es This file incorporates the styling for the precise theme, this is the file it's essential to edit to vary the look of the theme. This recordsdata contents are outlined under. 1. Default WordPress 2. Base Kinds three. Preloader four. E-newsletter 5. Hellobar 6. Emblem 7. Major Navigation eight. Search 9. Social Module 10. Content material 11. Slider Module 12. Twitter Module 13. Footer 14. Secondary Navigation 15. Contact Module 16. 404 Web page 18. Posts 19. Social Share 20. Associated Posts 21. Postmeta 22. Pagination 23. Postnavi 24. Feedback 25. Sidebar 27. Widgets 28. Shortcodes & Lessons
Guidelines Overview & Ideas
- Is your design distinctive and as much as customary?
- Does your code validate?
- Is your code properly documented?
- Are your capabilities prefixed?
- Have you ever sanitized information?
- Is your theme translatable?
- Are you utilizing WordPress capabilities appropriately?
- Are you enqueuing scripts & kinds?
- Are you utilizing jQuery in strict mode?
- Does your CSS have a desk of contents?
- Have you ever examined your theme with unit take a look at information?
- Have you ever examined all widget areas?
- Have you ever enabled debug in wp_config.php and examined with theme verify plugin?
- Have you ever checked loadtime and improved by combining & minifying your CSS/JS?
- Have you ever checked loadtime and improved by optimizing pictures?
Helpful Hyperlinks & Assets
- Validate Code – W3 Validator.
- Enqueuing Scripts – wp enqueue script on WordPress.org.
- Enqueuing Kinds – wp enqueue style on WordPress.org.
- Knowledge Validation – Data Validation on WordPress.org.
- Knowledge Validation – Data Validation With WordPress.
- Knowledge Validation – Developing for WordPress? Keep Your S**t Secure.
- Sanitizing – Validating Sanitizing and Escaping User Data on WordPress.org.
- CSS/JS Compression – JS/CSS Compression Using YUI Compressor.
- Compress Pictures – Ysmush.it/.
- Theme Unit Check – Theme Unit Test on WordPress.org.
- Check Widget Areas –Monster Widget WordPress Plugin.
- Theme Verify – Theme Check WordPress Plugin.
- ThemeForest Tips – WordPress Theme Submission Requirements.
- Understanding The Evaluate Course of – Understand the ThemeForest Reviewing Process.
- Visible Hierarchy – Achieving Visual Hierarchy.
- Inspiration – Awwwards.
- Inspiration – Dribbble.
Conclusion
Following this listing received’t assure first time approval, but it surely ought to scale back the quantity of rejections you obtain.
Hopefully you discovered this publish helpful and if we’ve missed something you’d prefer to see included go away us a message within the feedback.
This publish was initially printed by LoveThemes on their weblog here.