Permanently activate WordPress theme

Question

It it possible to permanently activate a theme so that it cannot be disabled or changed?

Something similar to:

define( 'WP_DEFAULT_THEME', 'apollo' );

Answer 1

Here's one idea:

/**
 * Reactivate the sticky theme, if someone activates another theme.
 */

add_action( 'switch_theme', 'wpse_permanent_theme' );

function wpse_permanent_theme( $new_name )
{
    $sticky_theme_name = 'twentyfifteen';  // Modify this to your needs!

    // Get the sticky theme info, to check if it exists (named):    
    $sticky_theme = wp_get_theme( $sticky_theme_name );

    // Reactivate the sticky theme:   
    if( $sticky_theme->get( 'Name' ) && $sticky_theme_name !== $new_name )
    {
        remove_action( current_action(), __FUNCTION__ );
        switch_theme( $sticky_theme_name );
    }
}  

where you have to modify the sticky theme name to your needs. You may need to test this further.

Another thing to try out would be to remove the switch_themes capability for all users!

For example, we can filter out this capability on the fly with:

/**
 *  Remove the 'switch_themes' capability for all users.
 */

add_filter('user_has_cap', function( $allcaps )
{
    if( isset( $allcaps['switch_themes']  ) )
        unset( $allcaps['switch_themes'] );
    return $allcaps;
});

so the current_user_can( 'switch_themes' ) check during a theme activation in themes.php returns false.