How to find, fully test, and
setup new WordPress
themes on your blog
without anybody knowing.
Don't put it live until it's
ready!
One of the worst things
about WordPress is that
when you hack your blog,
or your theme, or try a new
plugin or theme you're
doing it "live". In other
words - everybody sees it.
So if you want to try a new
theme you have to switch
them live while visitor are
going to your posts and
pages. I hate that. I've
heard of guys keeping a
"test" version of WordPress
installed in another folder
just to test new themes
and hacks - and that's not
only more effort than I'm
willing to do, it's just a bit
ridiculous.
I have a one web site where
the WordPress theme was
causing too many
problems, it was old, and
not worth hacking and
fixing anymore. I have too
many web sites and way
too much to do to create a
new theme from scratch.
So I went theme shopping,
and within 10 minutes I
found one that really
impressed me. You'd be
amazed what you can find
just Googling "WordPress
themes".
Next, I downloaded the
free open source Theme
Test Drive WordPress
Plugin, and installed and
enabled it. This plugin
allows you to set a theme
for your entire blog that
only the administrator will
see. In other words, when
you are logged into your
WordPress dashboard as
the admin account, you
can test any post or page in
your site under a theme
and nobody will be the
wiser. You can hack the test
theme pages and nobody
on your site using your
normal theme will see
what you are testing. Of
course, if you make
changes to widgets or
plugins, everyone will see
them on both the public
and test themes. Once you
enable the plugin all you
have to do is go do
"Presentation -> Theme
Test Drive" in your WP
Dashboard and enable the
theme you want to test.
So in another browser
window I went to my
dashboard, and one by one
enabled and tested 6 new
WordPress themes I had
uploaded to the server. I
found and settled on one
that I really liked. Luckily in
this web site I use theme
widgets, so everything
updated beautifully
because I didn't need to
make any changes to the
sidebar. Now, all I'm
missing are any
customizations I made to
my current theme pages
manually by adding code.
So I looked at the code for
my Main Index, Single Post,
Archive, Comments, etc., to
see what I've added over
time to make a list.
It turns out I added quite a
few things, but they're easy
to put into the new
template:
Print this page
Ratings
Threaded Comments
Post Views
Feedburner Flare
Breadcrumbs
AdSense
Then I went through the
pages in my new theme
and added in the code to
add these functions one by
one. I tested each one as
went, because with "theme
test drive" installed as
admin I could view any
page in the site with the
new theme and see these
changes as I went. After I
added the code and
uploaded the updated
theme files to my site - I
tested everything one last
time. Looking through the
pages the only other thing
that I saw was in the
sidebar(s) of my new
theme the category pages
weren't listed, and in my
current theme they are. I
did a little shuffling of the
sidebars, and then I set the
theme live! So instantly
when I enabled the theme
for the first time, people
saw a fully functional ready
to go blog with nothing
broken! I did all the testing
and updating behind the
scenes on my WordPress
blog without anybody
knowing it, and when I put
the new theme live - voila,
there is was! Now that I
have this routine I'll do this
every time I update to a
new WordPress theme, and
I'm so happy I no longer
have to do it "live" where
current visitor's see!
John Pratt is a full time
WordPress Consultant, and
also owner of the eBay
Plugin WP-Easybay.
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