Admin bar edit action is affected by query_posts, tax_query

[kanuck54]

I don't know if this part is a bug, but I'm guessing yes:

If I run query_posts() in a custom post type's template, I lose the admin bar's "edit" action.

This part, however, is definitely a bug:

If I include a tax_query in my query_posts(), my edit link actually changes to an edit link for the last item in the array that was given to the tax_query, with the label "Edit Category."

Here's the minimum offending code to reproduce, placed into a custom post type template:

query_posts( array(
	'post_type' => 'fp_toy',
	'tax_query' => array(
		array(
			'taxonomy' => 'fp_gender',
			'field' => 'ID',
			'terms' => array(14)
		)
	),
) );

Now my "Edit Toy" button says "Edit Category" instead, and points to edit-tags.php?action=edit&taxonomy=fp_gender&tag_ID=14.

Ideally I would expect the admin bar's edit action to be unaffected by what happens inside the template. And I definitely don't expect a completely unrelated action to show up instead!

That all sounds like expected behavior. "Edit Category" shows because a taxonomy was queried, not a particular post. Linking to "/wp-admin/edit.php?taxonomy=category&tag_ID=14" would likely be more useful than linking to edit-tags.php, but either way showing Edit Category is correct here.

If you don't want the admin bar and other areas to reflect queries made within your template, use get_posts() instead of query_posts().

If that's supposed to be the idea there, I would expect the "edit" link to disappear entirely. It doesn't make a lot of sense to offer me the opportunity to edit whichever of the many categories happens to be last in the list; it's confusing.

Replying to kanuck54:

If that's supposed to be the idea there, I would expect the "edit" link to disappear entirely. It doesn't make a lot of sense to offer me the opportunity to edit whichever of the many categories happens to be last in the list; it's confusing.

No argument there. It is not very useful or predictable.

You should use an instance of the WP_Query() object to make the query, then follow it with a call to wp_reset_query();

​http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_reset_query

That 'should' fix your issue.

Related: #18677

Replying to kanuck54:

If that's supposed to be the idea there, I would expect the "edit" link to disappear entirely. It doesn't make a lot of sense to offer me the opportunity to edit whichever of the many categories happens to be last in the list; it's confusing.

wp_reset_query() indeed should be used, but here's a patch to hide the "Edit" link if a subsequent query has been made.

If you use new WP_Query(), use wp_reset_postdata() to restore the globals.

If you use query_posts(), use wp_reset_query() to restore the query and the globals.

I think the patch is on the right track, but I'm not sure it's catching the right situation. Would it make more sense to use $wp_the_query-> get_queried_object(), perhaps? Or rather, if ( ! is_main_query() ) wp_reset_query();

query_posts() is used all the time, and not particularly often does the page change so much that the Edit link is no longer out of place. (I would guess, anyway.)

Replying to nacin:

Would it make more sense to use $wp_the_query-> get_queried_object(), perhaps? Or rather, if ( ! is_main_query() ) wp_reset_query();

The first option seems less obtrusive. Done in 16798.2.patch​.

Sounds great. I now understand to use WP_Query and its the_post() method, and then restore with wp_reset_postdata(), but I still agree that modifying the query shouldn't affect the admin bar—so thanks for addressing it!

In [18844]:

Consult the main query when determining whether to show the edit menu in the admin bar. This insulates the admin bar from query_posts() queries made by themes and plugins. Props SergeyBiryukov. fixes #16798