WordPress News Roundup September 2004: A Theme System Lands in Development and Kubrick Is Ported to WordPress 1.3

September 2004 is when WordPress themes began. On September 11, Ryan Boren committed a change titled simply “Themes,” the first version of a system that let a blog switch between complete designs instead of editing one index.php file. Within a week there was a theme manager in the admin, comments that followed the active theme, and a fallback to the default theme if the chosen one broke. The design that would come to define the era was ready for it. Michael Heilemann announced Kubrick 1.2.5 on September 5, and Boren posted a port of Kubrick for the 1.3 theme system on September 18.

WordPress Core Updates

• Themes (September 11–30): Boren’s commits introduced themes, then made the theme editor load the active theme and comments_template() follow it. Broken themes fell back to the default, and new functions such as get_template_directory() gave theme authors a stable way to find their files. A later dev blog post confirmed the work began this month.
• Install and upgrade rebuilt (September 5): Matt Mullenweg finished refactoring install and upgrade along with a large cleanup of the options. Geographic features were removed, and the permalink options were cleaned up.
• Pingback and XML-RPC: Michel Valdrighi wrote a new pingback server with proper error codes and moved xmlrpc.php to the root directory, where it has stayed ever since.
• Spam tools: A “retrospam” check from the contributor known as Kitten went in on September 8. It let users check comments already on their blogs against the moderation word list.
• Plugin fixes: Valdrighi stopped the same plugin from being activated or loaded twice. Mullenweg added more plugin hooks and updated the bundled Markdown plugin to version 1.0.

Other WordPress News

• Kubrick on wp-hackers: Heilemann announced Kubrick 1.2.5 on the hackers list on September 5. On September 18, Boren posted a version for 1.3 that split Kubrick into separate index, single-post and page templates. It was an early demonstration of what the new theme system could do.
• Meetups: The dev blog reminded readers about the September Meetup. Meetup.com now let organisers choose their own times and venues, and the Houston group met at a downtown coffee shop.

Industry Trends and Insights

Themes changed what it meant to customise a WordPress site. Until now, changing a blog’s look meant editing index.php and a stylesheet, and the edits had to be redone on upgrade. A theme would be a self-contained package that could be swapped in the admin. Along with plugins and Pages, it would turn WordPress into a platform that designers and developers could build businesses on.

Theme of the Month: Kubrick

Kubrick had a blue header, a rounded content area and a tidy sidebar, and it was already in use on WordPress 1.2 blogs. Boren’s 1.3 port turned it into a reference theme for the new system. Kubrick was added to the WordPress codebase at the end of December and shipped as the default theme in WordPress 1.5. It stayed the default until Twenty Ten arrived in 2010.

Founder of the Month: Michael Heilemann

Michael Heilemann, a Danish designer who wrote Binary Bonsai, created Kubrick. For several years it was the first thing most new WordPress sites looked like, and it was the starting point for a large share of early custom themes. Few single designs have shaped a platform’s look as much.

Looking Ahead to October 2004

Work on themes, Pages and a new login system was continuing for 1.3, with no release date set. As it turned out, a public security advisory in early October would force a quick 1.2.1 release first.