How To Add Dummy Theme Content using WordPress Theme Unit Test Data (video)

Using WordPress Theme Unit Test Data

Are you looking for a new WordPress theme or maybe even writing your own WordPress theme?

In either case you will probably need dummy theme unit test data which will test all aspects of the theme under review or development. I know there are plugins which will add dummy posts to WordPress but in my opinion this is not an ideal solution. What you really need is a consistent set of theme unit test data which can be used on all themes.

In this video-article I will show you how to add dummy content for theme review and development using the officially recommended WordPress theme unit test data.

Many WordPress users want to create their own theme, edit an existing theme or simply evaluate some of the many themes available. In either case you need dummy content to check

What is WordPress Theme Unit Test Data?

WordPress theme unit test data is an XML data document containing dummy content for WordPress theme development. It can be used to evaluate any WordPress theme and is especially useful to WordPress theme designers when testing their themes.

• This is the official theme unit test data used by the WordPress theme evaluation team to evaluate themes for inclusion in the WordPress theme directory.

When evaluating or creating a WordPress theme, you need to consider many aspects of the theme and its usage. Aspects such as image formats, links, widgets, post formats, gallery displays, list organisation, comments and page navigation, to name but a few.

When evaluating or designing a theme you need a test for all of the fundamental formats a WordPress site is supposed to handle. Theme unit test data helps you test a themes HTML tags, CSS formatting, navigation menus, comments area, widgets, etc. so ensuring a theme is really compatible with WordPress.

For theme developers, it is extremely important you test your theme with the official WordPress theme unit test data before publicly releasing your theme.

Using WordPress Theme Unit Test Data to Add Dummy Content

To import the theme unit test data into a WordPress site follow these steps:

• Download the theme unit test data XML file from the WordPress repository.
• Launch your local WordPress testing site.
• Login to the site as administrator.
• Navigate to, Tools > Import in the WordPress admin.
• Select the “WordPress” importer from the list.
• Install the WordPress Importer plugin, if it is not already installed.
• Click, Activate Plugin and Run Importer, after the installation is complete.
• Upload theme unit test data XML file you downloaded earlier using the form provided.
• You will be asked to map the authors in the theme unit test data file to users on the site. Just leave the defaults.
• Check the “Download and import file attachments” box.
• Click the Submit button.
• WordPress will then import each of the posts, pages, comments, categories, etc. contained in the theme unit test data file into your site.
• Let the import process run until complete. *Do not close the browser tab / window or navigate away from page while importing.* You should see an ‘All done. Have fun!’ message when the import is complete.
• Once it is done, preview your site to make sure the new content is there.

What’s Included in WordPress Theme Unit Test Data?

Everything that you would need to test your WordPress theme is packed in theme unit test data. It has categories, child categories, menu items, nested comments, pages, sub-pages, images of different sizes, image alignment, etc. There are lists, blockquotes, links, code, and other HTML tags that you should style in your themes. It is a comprehensive set of dummy data which is far better than using any dummy content generator plugin for WordPress.

Recommended WordPress Testing Setup

To get the best from the theme unit test data a few WordPress settings should be modified:

• Settings -> General:
  Set the Site Title to something fairly long, and set the Tagline to something even longer.
• Settings -> Reading:
  Set “Blog pages show at most” to 5. This will ensure that index and archive pagination is triggered.
• Settings -> Discussion:
  Enable Threaded Comments, at least 3 levels deep. This will facilitate testing of Theme comment list styling.
• Settings -> Discussion:
  Enable Break comments into pages, and set 5 comments per page. This will facilitate testing of Theme paginating link mark-up and styling.
• Settings -> Media:
  Ensure no values are set for max width or height of Embedded media.
• Settings -> Permalinks:
  Ensure a non-default permalink setting is selected.
• Test away.

Well, after all that, the dummy data should be ready for you to test either your own themes or those you would like to download and use on your site.

Finally, if you have any thoughts or suggestions, don’t forget to let me have them in the comment box below. Thanks for dropping by.