Template is missing error

  • I’m designing and developing a theme from scratch. No parent/no child. Just a simple theme based on the HTML code.

    After getting absolutely nowhere with XAMPP to do things locally, I uploaded to the server.

    When I go into the WP admin > Appearance > Themes, my theme doesn’t appear, but down at the bottom I have the following error:

    Broken Themes

    The following themes are installed but incomplete. Themes must have a stylesheet and a template.
    Name Description
    eztile/css Template is missing. Delete

    So, why?

    My style.css is in the root folder, not in a styles folder.

    The folder for my theme, under the /wp-content/themes folder, is called /eztile, after the name of the company I’m designing the site for.

    Here’s the top portion of the styles sheet:

    /*
Theme Name: eztile
Version: 1.0
Description: A magazine-style theme for WordPress
Author: rgwhitaker
*/

body {
	background-color: #fff;
}

/** MAIN WRAPPER **/

#wrapper {
	width: 950px;
	margin: 0 auto;
	padding: 0;
}

/** TOP BAR **/

#top-bar {
    height: 140px;
    margin-bottom: 0;
	background: none;
	display: table;
	width: 950px;
	margin: 0 auto;
	position: relative;
	border-bottom: 2px solid gray;
}

    Here’s the top portion of the header.php file:

    <!doctype html>

<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">

  <title><?php wp_title( '|', true, 'right' ); ?></title>
  <meta name="description" content="EZ Tile and Marble">
  <link rel="pingback" href="<?php bloginfo( 'pingback_url' ); ?>">
		<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_url'); ?>" type="text/css" />
		<!--[if lt IE 9]>
		<script src="<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/js/html5.js"></script>
		<![endif]-->
		<?php wp_head(); ?>
</head>

<div id="wrapper">

	<!-- HEADER/NAV AREA -->

		<header id="top-bar" class="clear">
			<div id="hgroup">
				<a href="index.html"><img src="img/logo.png" width="250" height="195" /></a>
			</div>

    And here’s the index.php file:

    <?php get_header(); ?>

<!-- MAIN CONTENT SECTION -->
	<section id="mainpage_content_area">

		<div class="content">
			<?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>
				<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
					<div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" <?php post_class(); ?>>
						<div class="post-header">
							<div class="date"><?php the_time( 'M j y' ); ?></div>
							<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>

							<div class="author"><?php the_author(); ?></div>
						</div><!--.post-header-->
						<div class="entry clear">
							<?php if ( function_exists( 'add_theme_support' ) ) the_post_thumbnail(); ?>
							<?php the_content(); ?>
							<?php edit_post_link(); ?>
							<?php wp_link_pages(); ?>
						</div>
						<!--. entry-->

						<footer class="post-footer">
							<div class="comments"><?php comments_popup_link( 'Leave a Comment', '1 Comment', '% Comments' ); ?></div>
						</footer>
						<!--.post-footer-->
					</div>
					<!-- .post-->

				<?php endwhile; /* rewind or continue if all posts have been fetched */ ?>
					<nav class="navigation index">
						<div class="alignleft"><?php next_posts_link( 'Older Entries' ); ?></div>
						<div class="alignright"><?php previous_posts_link( 'Newer Entries' ); ?></div>
					</nav>
					<!--.navigation-->

				<?php else : ?>
			<?php endif; ?>
		</div>
		<!--.content-->

		<aside>
			<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
		</aside>

	</section>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

    The error says that the template is missing. I thought that a template file was merely an index.php file?

    Any ideas?

    Thank you.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Thread Starter rgwhitaker

    (@rgwhitaker)

    OK. Something I noticed in the Appearance > Themes screen.

    Why is it calling my theme eztile/css? It should be just eztile. I thought I’d force it to look at my root directory for the css file so I named the css folder to /old.

    Then, when I logged back into WP Admin, the Appearance > Themes screen showed the name of my theme as eztile/old.

    What’s going on?

    My style.css is in the root folder, not in a styles folder.

    It’s supposed to be located directly inside the theme’s own folder (e.g., /wp-content/themes/eztile), not in the root folder of your site.

    Why is it calling my theme eztile/css?

    If you actually put the style.css file in a folder named css, and that folder is located inside the /wp-content/themes/eztile folder, then the name would be displayed that way (because again, the style.css file belongs right inside the theme’s own folder, so having it in a subfolder confuses WordPress).

    The error says that the template is missing. I thought that a template file was merely an index.php file?

    The index.php file and the style.css file have to be in the same folder (which, as already explained above, is the /wp-content/themes/eztile folder) in order for them to both be recognized as belonging to the same theme.

    See also Theme Development: Anatomy of a Theme.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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