Provide a tool to know if a theme name or slug is available and can be used in the theme directory

[mmaattiiaass]

How could a theme creator know if a name is or was taken to avoid the need to rename themes?

Not finding the name in the SVN list (​https://themes.svn.wordpress.org/) does not guarantee that the theme name is available. Usually, the theme creators need to rename the theme after submitting it for approval to the theme directory despite the slug not being listed in the SVN list.

A public tool where theme creators can enter a name and receive an answer saying "This name is available" or "This name is not available" would be very useful before starting work on the theme.

It could avoid the frequent and time-consuming task of renaming all the parts of a theme, which is not always possible with a "search & replace all" because, for example, design assets could need extra work.

[Otto42]

Why not just Google the name?

If a name is already used, then simply googling for "XYZ wordpress theme" would most likely work. This is because we only block a theme from submitting when we know of at least 50 sites running that exact slug. In other words, the theme name is being used by some people, somewhere in the world, so therefore, they had to find it too.

[mmaattiiaass]

Why not just Google the name?

Simply because that's not always effective.

This is because we only block a theme from submitting when we know of at least 50 sites running that exact slug

The tool should check this and answer: "available" / "not available".

I think that's easy to implement and can't produce any harm.

[dd32]

I think that's easy to implement and can't produce any harm.

On the other hand, I think it's potentially harmful as it provides some form of acknowledgement of "you may use that name" which while true, isn't accurate.

Likewise, as you've found out, that looking at https://wordpress.org/themes/$name/ isn't accurate.

It's only accurate as to whether it would be blocked on submission to the Theme Directory at the time of checking, it provides no confirmation that the theme name isn't already in use or available on a 3rd-party site, or that it'll be available in a months time still. The theme author is still expected to check that before they develop and/or submit a theme, a tool on WordPress.org cannot do that more accurately than a human.

For example, if you were to look at any marketplace that sells WordPress Themes, and take any of the recent submissions, you'll find names that are totally submittable but should not be submitted.

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That all being said; there is an option we could do if this is something that is absolutely needed (And I'm not convinced it is).

We could adjust the data collection for the statistics to a number lower than 50 (say 20?) which would mean there's a higher chance that those 3rd-party themes would be picked up as being unavailable. But we'd have to keep the block-submission number at something higher like 50 to account for theme authors who are submitting their own theme after having set it up on their demo sites & potentially distributed it first.

That's not foolproof though; as I just checked a handful of new themes from some marketplaces and I'm not seeing enough data that convinces me that it would even have 20 active sites. Infact I see the opposite, I'm seeing new themes submitted on those sites that appears like it's likely that there either exist other themes by those names in the past (or they just started working on it literally years ago, and only just published now).

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As an alternative though; Perhaps the actual underlying request here is something more like the following:

We should find a way to have multiple themes with the same name, with different slugs, to avoid issues with updates. Theme Names should still be unique on WordPress.org.

It would be completely possible for a theme to have the name My Theme but the slug for it be dd32-my-theme which would avoid the potential update issues, and avoid issues where a submitted theme conflicts with an existing theme that exists somewhere. This would not however resolve the trademark issues with having a theme name that matches another companies product, which makes me even less confident that this is an actual solution.

That's similar to what is possible for Plugins (the slug is based on the initial submission and can be modified by reviewers; the plugin name can be completely different).

[rinkuyadav999]

@mmaattiiaass

It can help: ​https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/search?q=fixmate&noquickjump=1&changeset=on

and also:

You can take help of ​https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?old_path=twentyseventeen&new_path=my-theme-name

If return : The Target for Diff is invalid.

Means this name is available and also take help of Google search.

Note: here replace my-theme-name with your theme name.

[mmaattiiaass]

It's only accurate as to whether it would be blocked on submission to the Theme Directory at the time of checking

I think this is OK, all the availability checks on the internet works like that. For example domain name checks.

[kafleg]

There is an old meta ticket where the discussion happened, https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/3002
I think we can close this ticket and continue the discussion on the old one by reopening it.

[dd32]

Replying to mmaattiiaass:

It's only accurate as to whether it would be blocked on submission to the Theme Directory at the time of checking

I think this is OK, all the availability checks on the internet works like that. For example domain name checks.

That's not an equal comparison, because that suggests that submission to the Theme Directory guarantees you a specific name - which it does not, and should not.

To use the domain name example, a tool on WordPress.org would be something like "Great! That domain name is available! Register now at Dions Domain Registry" but later after you pay I'd say "oops! That domain wasn't in MY registrations; but OtherRegistry sold that domain last year. Can you please choose another one?"