Optimize themes collection response when querying active theme by aduth · Pull Request #11032 · WordPress/wordpress-develop

aduth · 2026-02-24T21:21:18Z

Updates WP_REST_Themes_Controller#get_items to shortcut returning the current theme when the request explicitly queries for the active theme, avoiding expensive call to wp_get_themes.

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/64719

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No AI was used in the generating any of the code changes here, though I did use Claude Opus 4.6 as part of the research process in investigating whether an optimization was possible.

This Pull Request is for code review only. Please keep all other discussion in the Trac ticket. Do not merge this Pull Request. See GitHub Pull Requests for Code Review in the Core Handbook for more details.

github-actions · 2026-02-24T21:21:27Z

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github-actions · 2026-02-24T21:21:28Z

The following accounts have interacted with this PR and/or linked issues. I will continue to update these lists as activity occurs. You can also manually ask me to refresh this list by adding the props-bot label.

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Props aduth, westonruter.

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aduth · 2026-02-24T21:23:28Z

src/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-themes-controller.php

+				$theme_status = ( $this->is_same_theme( $theme, $current_theme ) ) ? 'active' : 'inactive';
+				if ( is_array( $status ) && ! in_array( $theme_status, $status, true ) ) {
+					continue;
+				}


There might be some refactoring we could do here to avoid handling the active case, now that it's handled above.

It's not completely though, right? The $status can have both active and inactive:

wordpress-develop/src/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-themes-controller.php

Lines 722 to 729 in a695820

'status' => array(

'description' => __( 'Limit result set to themes assigned one or more statuses.' ),

'type' => 'array',

'items' => array(

'enum' => array( 'active', 'inactive' ),

'type' => 'string',

),

),

Yeah, I wrote the comment at the time that I thought $request['status'] was a string value and not an array (prior to a695820), so it's less clear now that there's much refactor opportunity here.

github-actions · 2026-02-24T21:41:38Z

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westonruter

Minor suggestion, but otherwise looks like a great improvement.

westonruter · 2026-02-25T01:54:56Z

src/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-themes-controller.php

+				$theme_status = ( $this->is_same_theme( $theme, $current_theme ) ) ? 'active' : 'inactive';
+				if ( is_array( $status ) && ! in_array( $theme_status, $status, true ) ) {
+					continue;
+				}


It's not completely though, right? The $status can have both active and inactive:

wordpress-develop/src/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-themes-controller.php

Lines 722 to 729 in a695820

'status' => array(

'description' => __( 'Limit result set to themes assigned one or more statuses.' ),

'type' => 'array',

'items' => array(

'enum' => array( 'active', 'inactive' ),

'type' => 'string',

),

),

westonruter · 2026-02-25T01:56:13Z

src/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-themes-controller.php

+			$active_themes = wp_get_themes();
+
+			foreach ( $active_themes as $theme ) {


Minor suggestion for conciseness and because $active_themes appears to have been misnamed, since it is all themes whether active or inactive:

Suggested change

$active_themes = wp_get_themes();

foreach ( $active_themes as $theme ) {

foreach ( wp_get_themes() as $theme ) {

Minor suggestion for conciseness and because $active_themes appears to have been misnamed, since it is all themes whether active or inactive:

Good idea 👍 Updated in 9bb7db9.

westonruter · 2026-02-25T02:02:58Z

It might be good to add a unit test or assertion to which verifies that when the provided status is just active that only one theme ever is returned:

https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6727d1872251f5a0a5a96ce801cdbebdace318ad/tests/phpunit/tests/rest-api/rest-themes-controller.php

Concise, and avoids misnomer of "active" themes (vs. more accurately, all themes) Co-Authored-By: Weston Ruter <134745+westonruter@users.noreply.github.com>

aduth · 2026-02-25T14:29:01Z

It might be good to add a unit test or assertion to which verifies that when the provided status is just active that only one theme ever is returned:

Yeah, I see there's a fair bit of indirect coverage of status=active because perform_active_theme_request is the primary helper used in the tests and sets this query. Though it could be good to have an explicit test for it, and also to your point about returning a single entry. We could alternatively make the assertion in test_get_items.

I had considering adding test coverage for the specific optimization here, especially after realizing with a695820 that I was "doing it wrong" and the condition never actually matched. I decided against it since this kind of change feels very much the "refactor" stage of TDD red-green-refactor optimizing within the bounds of existing test coverage, and that testing the optimization would ultimately lead to mocking or testing the implementation.

Indirectly tested in other tests via `perform_active_theme_request`, but this has additional coverage: - Verify fields unique to active themes (default_template_part_areas, default_template_types, theme_supports) - Verify that the returned array is exactly the one we expect

aduth · 2026-02-25T14:40:00Z

I added a test case for active themes request in 6d4f4e6 . Although I do feel like there's some redundancy with test_get_items. For example, there are some fields that are returned only for active theme (default_template_part_areas, default_template_types, theme_supports), which is already tested there. I wonder if it would be better to just move the $this->assertEquals( array( 'rest-api' ), wp_list_pluck( $data, 'stylesheet' ) ); into that existing test case to verify the single returned theme.

tests/phpunit/tests/rest-api/rest-themes-controller.php

Co-authored-by: Weston Ruter <westonruter@gmail.com>

Optimize themes collection response when querying active theme

eed7987

Use Yoda conditional style

8ff7db4

aduth commented Feb 24, 2026

View reviewed changes

Compare status as expected array, appending prepared theme

a695820

westonruter approved these changes Feb 25, 2026

View reviewed changes

Inline call to wp_get_themes

9bb7db9

Concise, and avoids misnomer of "active" themes (vs. more accurately, all themes) Co-Authored-By: Weston Ruter <134745+westonruter@users.noreply.github.com>

westonruter reviewed Feb 25, 2026

View reviewed changes

tests/phpunit/tests/rest-api/rest-themes-controller.php Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

Explicitly assert count on returned data size

b4b9274

Co-authored-by: Weston Ruter <westonruter@gmail.com>

apermo mentioned this pull request Feb 26, 2026

Docs: Replace void with null in union return types in Administration #11008

Open

Merge branch 'trunk' into update/rest-themes-active

47eba48

	'status' => array(
	'description' => __( 'Limit result set to themes assigned one or more statuses.' ),
	'type' => 'array',
	'items' => array(
	'enum' => array( 'active', 'inactive' ),
	'type' => 'string',
	),
	),

		$active_themes = wp_get_themes();

		foreach ( $active_themes as $theme ) {

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aduth commented Feb 24, 2026

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