Wp-calypso: Themes: add a friendly warning when switching away from a retired theme
Suggested by @jjchrisdiehl (on this internal thread: pbg9X-epe-p2)
The task is to adapt the current "Theme activation notice" to display a friendly message to site owners just before they take the destructive action to switch away from a retired theme.
The action isn't reversible for "Unlimited Theme Usage" on Premium, Business, and eCommerce plans. (Site owners who purchase a single theme can get it back in WP Admin theme viewer.)
@senff Adds this note:
Avoid this from happening in the first place by making it clear that switching away from a retired theme is a permanent action and can not be undone... it might help those who accidentally switch.
Suggested wording
Your active theme Lodestar is retired. If you activate a new theme, you might not be able to switch back to Lodestar.
lancewillett
All 19 comments
@lancewillett Could you please clarify the circumstances it which this occurs?
The action isn't reversible for "Unlimited Theme Usage" on Premium, Business, and eCommerce plans.
I'm finding that this isn't the case with a test Business plan site; it is still possible to switch in the WP admin theme viewer, and I assumed that was the case for everyone. I know that a lot of people (certainly me!) prefer this certainty so I'm unsure if the dialog should advise that it isn't possible when it is.
It looks like the WP-Admin generally seems to be advertised for everyone, presumably as it offers this additional flexibility, although I do recall there being a time where this wasn't the case (it was shown based on when a user signed up)
Aurorum
on 23 Mar 2020
It looks like this behavior will vary depending on whether a site is Simple or Atomic. On my Atomic test site, if I deactivate a retired Premium theme the theme is still symlinked and can be reactivated. In practical terms, this will mostly benefit Premium sites since most active Business sites and all eCommerce sites are Atomic.
@lancewillett Curious for your thoughts on the current behavior and if we should sever the symlink on Atomic when a Premium theme is switched away from to match the simple behavior.
kriskarkoski
on 23 Mar 2020
I don't have a site with a Premium plan, but it is still possible to switch themes from a retired one on my site with a Free plan through WP-Admin (fortunately - it has helped me plenty of times!). I would assume that it would be the same with a Premium plan?
Aurorum
on 24 Mar 2020
@Aurorum The behavior varies between free and Premium themes as well. So for free themes you can activate any theme, retired or not, as long as it was available when your site was created, but for Premium themes they cannot be reactivated on Premium once switched away from.
kriskarkoski
on 24 Mar 2020
Yes, there are various cases at play here:
We don't allow switching back to any retired theme from the Calypso theme viewer. That's why this message is important. The wording might need clarity, though: "You may not be able to switch back again." That would make it a warning but less final.
Overall philosophy — we don't encourage using retired themes. This is a strongly held view: we think they are outdated, possibly insecure or unsupported. If they were safe and recommended, they would not be retired.
That means we should do everything we can to hide them and discourage their use.
Retired free themes are hidden by date from new sites created after the retirement action. Any WordPress.com Simple site created before that date, on any plan, _could_ switch back to the retired theme using the WP Admin theme viewer. We don't want them to, of course, yet also don't block it.
Retired premium themes are hidden from all sites, no matter the date of site creation or theme retirement. With one exception: any site that purchased the exact theme as a single, one-time purchase. They will have access to it forever via the WP Admin theme viewer "Purchased" view. All other sites should not use retired themes, and we only make exceptions if they contact us via support and the switch was accidental.
@kriskarkoski I didn't know about the Atomic case. Let's leave that in place for now, but not advertise it.
lancewillett
on 24 Mar 2020
It looks like the WP-Admin generally seems to be advertised for everyone
This is correct — now visible to everyone in Calypso.
lancewillett
on 24 Mar 2020
@Aurorum I updated the issue body above with suggested wording:
Your active theme Lodestar is retired. If you activate a new theme, you might not be able to switch back to Lodestar.
lancewillett
on 24 Mar 2020
Clarifying (for myself and others) that this banner should show for both free and premium themes.
lancewillett
on 28 Mar 2020
The wording might need clarity, though: "You may not be able to switch back again." That would make it a warning but less final.
The risk with being vague is that it could be construed incorrectly, and doesn't really give confidence on whether or not they'll be able to switch back. I am a bit biased as I used a retired theme on my site, but I think people would appreciate that certainty when switching a theme; that message implies that retired themes could be hidden at anytime without warning.
Generally, I'd personally advocate the warning of using a retired theme upon activation and allowing users to assess the pros/cons themselves, but that might be a bit tricky, mainly as it's outside of Calypso. Although, I suppose a warning could be added to the themes page.
Technically speaking, it seems plausible to add; although I can't find a selector to check if a theme is retired, that information does appear to be recorded.
Anyway, that's a bit outside switching a dialog. I was trying to think of alternative wording, but to be honest, as it conveys a warning for something which could be reversed, so perhaps the vagueness in the wording proposed is best (assuming this dialog is necessary)
Aurorum
on 28 Mar 2020
Here's the equivalent message we've used in the past in WP Admin, showing up in "Appearance" > "Themes" to a site using a retired theme.
Typically only added if the old theme has an equivalent new theme to replace it — aka "theme refresh."
In this case, Sweet Blossoms was replaced by Bouquet.
For themes without a replacement, it makes less sense to announce the retirement without something better that would match a similar look & feel.
lancewillett
on 28 Mar 2020
I'd like to add the warning even with the vague message:
- Provides a basic message (even if not perfect) to site authors to warn them before they switch away.
- Reduces the support burden on Happiness Engineers dealing with confused customers.
lancewillett
on 28 Mar 2020
For themes without a replacement, it makes less sense to announce the retirement without something better that would match a similar look & feel.
Would it be implausible to suggest new themes based on the current theme's tags?
For example, with those, you could suggest based on subject, style and fluidity.
Aurorum
on 29 Mar 2020
@Aurorum Yes! I like the way you're thinking for improving this experience. "Find a similar theme" by tags is a smart approach.
It's a bit beyond scope of this exact request, though. 😄 If you want, you can work on it in a separate pull request.
To close this one, however, we just need the alert that shows when you first try to activate away from a retired theme.
lancewillett
on 30 Mar 2020
Digging into this specific issue a bit further, and it looks like the existing dialogues for this are controlled by code outside of Calypso, and I'm assuming it's best (potentially even necessary) to stick with the same mechanism.
https://github.com/Automattic/wp-calypso/blob/c8107c4340affbdc78b708ceb9d445d5ac946ed4/client/state/themes/reducer.js#L461-L488
https://github.com/Automattic/wp-calypso/blob/c8107c4340affbdc78b708ceb9d445d5ac946ed4/client/state/themes/action-types.js#L41
So sadly, not sure I can open a PR for this.
Aurorum
on 31 Mar 2020
Here's where the auto-loading homepage warning is created, see #39436:
lancewillett
on 31 Mar 2020
I'm assuming that's the only example of such a dialog - that is the one where I think it isn't possible to do this with code solely in Calypso sadly.
Aurorum
on 31 Mar 2020
I'm looking at this again, and I think that it is possible to spin up a PR for this issue. I'll take it, and spin up a PR with how far I get. :)
Aurorum
on 5 Apr 2020
It definitely puzzled my brain several times, but I think that I've found a working solution to this issue in #40793. :)
Aurorum
on 5 Apr 2020
Thanks for your persistence, @Aurorum — I'll loop back to this one soon.
lancewillett
on 6 Apr 2020
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