Blog / WordPress Development
December 21, 2017 WordPress Development

ThemeForest rejections: types and reasons

The product should meet certain requirements in order to be sold in Envato marketplace. Otherwise, it will get soft rejected or hard rejected status.

What does Soft Rejected status mean? The Product is almost ready to go up for sale on Envato Market,  but it still needs some minor improvements to be accepted. It can be submitted once again after all remarks/comments are considered.

What is a Hard Rejection? Hard Rejected means that the Product is not suitable for sale on Envato Market. Hard Rejected submissions cannot be re-submitted.

Reasons for Soft Rejects:

  • If the logo “WordPress” in written incorrectly, for instance: WordPress or wordpress;
  • If the Theme includes bugs while testing the “theme check” plugin.
  • If the Theme does not meet Markup Validation requirements (https://validator.w3.org/)
  • If Premium plugins are not the latest versions;
  • If Premium plugins are not included in the package;
  • Unit test is not displayed in an appropriate way;
  • Posts, widgets, search page, 404 page, menu, images are displayed incorrectly;
  • Navigation on the main page does not work at all or works with some mistakes;
  • Sticky Posts are displayed inappropriately;
  • Comments are displayed incorrectly;
  • Typography mistakes or paddings issues;
  • Design is not responsive;
  • If browser displays Javascript errors in Console;
  • If the product does not follow WordPress PHP Coding Standart https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/best-practices/coding-standards/php/ ; ;
  • If PHP, JS, CSS libraries are not the latest versions;
  • If JS library is included in WordPress by default (You can find the list of JS libraries included in WordPress by default here: https://developer.worHYPERLINK “https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/basics/including-css-javascript/”org/themes/basics/including-css-javascript/;
  • If .POT file is missed;
  • If the esc function for dynamic data display as well as data used for other purposes is missed;
  • If the text appears by default, although it was not added by user;
  • The Theme includes unused code or hardcode;
  • The name of the comment add button or the field name to write the comment text is incorrect;
  • If button which submits comment or field for comments are named incorrectly
  • Bed quality theme screenshot or it does not match the size of 1200 x 900;
  • If the Theme includes not clickable links
  • Due to mistakes in documentation
  • If shortcodes, custom post types, widgets, SVG support are created with the help of options in the Theme. This feature functionality should be generated in one plugin
  • If Debugger returns PHP, warning, notice message. And the following rules had not been adhered by developer while writing the code:
  • if the prefix is not added to functions, classes, constants, custom images sizes, hooks, global variables, handles styles and scripts which refer to the theme: http://themereview.co/prefix-all-the-things/ ;
  • If a tip how to add menu does not display ( in case it is not installed)
  • If the force_deactivation for plugins has status ” True”
  • If the verification is_active_for sidebar is missed;
  • If google fonts are added incorrectly. How to add google fonts in WordPress: https://gist.github.com/kailoon/e2dc2a04a8bd5034682c
  • When empty tags are displaying or the following errors occur:
  • The word “Categories” or “Tags” appears in posts, while there are no categories or tags itself.
  • The word “Comments” displays when the comments are absent;
  • Another fault of this type;
  • If the content is missed at the beginning of the file for CSS and JS files.

Reasons for Hard Rejection

  • Template does not meet basic requirements or is not unique
  • Design issues with the following template categories: PSD, HTML, WordPress);
  • Different padding/margins;
  • Typography issues;
  • Problems in code
  • Other;