Genesis Child Theme Index

Crowdsourcing an index of all available Genesis child themes.

The purpose is to gather a list of all themes, and their feature attributes, which can then be used as a datasource for those wanting to create a filterable showcase. Since the data comes from (or on behalf of) the theme authors, it should be more accurate and up to date.

Once there are enough individual datafiles, I'll find a way to automatically concatenate them into a single file.

The Theme Data File

1. Each theme has it's own file inside the themes directory.
2. Each file is named in the format of {vendor-name}_{theme-name}.json e.g. studiopress_parallax-pro.json.
3. Populate the properties as required. Check with JSONLint that your file is valid JSON.

Here's an example file:

{
    "name": "Incipio",
    "author": "Gary Jones, Gamajo Tech",
    "purchaseUrl": "http://shop.example.com/incipio/",
    "demoUrl": "http://demo.example.com/incipio/",
    "free": false,
    "html5": true,
    "responsive": true,
    "mobileMenu": true,
    "layouts": 6,
    "accessibilityReady": false,
    "customBackground": true,
    "customColors": false,
    "editorStyle": true,
    "featuredImageHeader": true,
    "grunt": true,
    "parallax": false,
    "postFormats": [
        "aside",
        "gallery"
    ],
    "psds": false,
    "rtlLanguageSupport": true,
    "starter": true,
    "translationReady": true,
    "browsersSupported": {
        "IE": 8,
        "Chrome": 22,
        "Safari": 6,
        "Firefox": 12
    },
    "pluginsSupported": [
        "WooCommerce",
        "bbPress",
        "Simple Social Icons"
    ]
}

Properties

name (string)

Name of the theme. Required

author (string)

Name of the individual or company who is credited as the author of the theme. Required

purchaseURL (string)

The URL of the page where the theme can be purchased from, or in the case of being free, downloaded from. Required

demoURL (string)

The URL where a live demo of the theme can be found.

free (boolean)

true if the theme is free, false if a premium theme.

html5 (boolean)

true if the theme supports HTML5, false if it outputs XHTML instead.

responsive (boolean)

true if the theme displays well at various screen sizes, false if it is fixed width.

mobileMenu (boolean)

true if the theme displays a mobile-specific menu at small screen sizes, false if it doesn't.

layouts (integer)

The number of layouts the theme supports (Genesis default is 6 but child theme may register or register others).

accessibilityReady (boolean)

true if the theme meets all of the guidelines at http://make.wordpress.org/themes/guidelines/guidelines-accessibility/, false if not.

customBackground (boolean)

true if the theme supports the WordPress custom background feature, false if it doesn't.

customColors (boolean)

true if the theme allows a user to choose custom colors via an interface, false if it doesn't.

editorStyle (boolean)

true if the theme includes styles for the post editor that match the front-end, false if it doesn't.

featuredImageHeader (boolean)

true if the theme displays a featured image as a header, false if it doesn't.

grunt (boolean)

true if the theme includes support for grunt to allow development tasks to be automated, false if it doesn't.

parallax (boolean)

true if the theme design includes a parallax feature, false if it doesn't.

postFormats (boolean|array)

List of post formats the theme supports, false if it doesn't support any.

    "postFormats": [
        "aside",
        "gallery"
    ],

or

    "postFormats": false,

psds (boolean)

true if the theme includes PhotoShop (PSD) files of the original design, false if it doesn't.

rtlLanguageSupport (boolean)

true if the theme includes right-to-left (RTL) style sheets, false if it doesn't.

starter (boolean)

true if the theme author considers this theme to be a starter theme, false if not.

translationReady (boolean)

true if the theme has all strings internationalised, loads a child theme text domain, and includes a .pot file, false if it doesn't.

browsersSupported (object)

Key-value pairs of browser names and their minimum supported versions. Browsers currently recognised are Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera and Safari.

pluginsSupported (array)

List of plugins names that the theme explicitly includes styles for, false if none.

    "pluginsSupported": [
        "Gravity Forms",
        "Simple Social Icons"
    ]

or

    "pluginsSupported": false

Add Your Theme

1. Fork this project.
2. Edit your fork to create new theme data files in the theme/ directory. You can use the empty data file as a starting template.
3. Ensure your files are named as {vendor-name}_{theme_name}.json
4. Commit (and push back to your GitHub repo if editing locally).
5. Submit a pull request.

Please do separate commits for each theme file. Multiple themes files can be sent in one pull request.

In the future, I may accept screenshots as well.

Checking Your Theme Data File

The project includes grunt support for checking the validity of your theme data file if you clone this repo locally.

1. Open terminal and navigate to your repo.
2. Type npm install.
3. Type grunt.

That will check the validity of all of the theme data files, including the one(s) you've just added.

Remove Your Theme

If your theme gets retired and is no longer available, then submit a pull requests which deletes the respective theme file.

What Will Happen With This Data?

As mentioned, the intent of this project is to collect data for each available Genesis child theme, into one central location. That data can then be used, by anyone who wants it, without having to go and do their own research for hours and hours. They could:

• import it into posts or custom post types in their own site and create a review of each one, with affiliate links
• create a simple interface interface to help themselves or someone else filter down the best theme for a particular project.
• collect some interesting statistics about the state of the Genesis child theme ecosystem, and potentially use that to influence their own theme-building decisions.

Aren't there existing sites that showcase individual theme features already?

Yes, to some extent:

• GenesisThemes.ca 316 entries, but some are pro packs of themes, or plugins, and at least one links to a dead end so not all entries are available themes. Very good list of features, all filterable, though things like "Developer License" and "Genesis Theme Options" are redundant.
• Genesis Themes Guide - 70 themes, no filters, without finding a theme that has the feature you're looking for and clicking the taxonomy term link. Doesn't include all features (Winning Agent has one feature, one category).
• Genesis Designr - 76 themes, only HTML5. Some filters avaible, but limited.
• Genesis StudioPress Themes - 220+ themes, some filters, but mostly for categories and authors, not features.

I'd like to work with the creators of these sites in two ways - to have them help establish the "standard" (schema) by which themes can be indexed, and then to find a way to have this data power their sites, for the benefit of everyone.

Credits

Built by Gary Jones, inspired by remy's work on mit-license.