id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc
19040	get_posts() expects invalid 'orderby' arguments + suggestion	abrcam		"The `get_children()` or `get_posts()` template functions which call the `WP_query::get_posts()` method expect wrong parameters, for example, `date`. The actual column is called `post_date` but line 2320 of `wp-includes/query.php` is:
{{{
			$allowed_keys = array('author', 'date', 'title', 'modified', 'menu_order', 'parent', 'ID', 'rand', 'comment_count');
}}}

and further down at line 2329 there is:
{{{
			$orderby_array = array();
			foreach ( explode( ' ', $q['orderby'] ) as $i => $orderby ) {
				// Only allow certain values for safety
				if ( ! in_array($orderby, $allowed_keys) )
					continue;
}}}

The same goes for `author`, `title`, `modified`, etc. Some of them are correct though: `ID`, `menu_order`, `comment_count`.

If `get_posts()` is called without specifying any `orderby` argument, then it works fine since the default is correct in line 2314:
{{{
		if ( empty($q['orderby']) ) {
			$orderby = ""$wpdb->posts.post_date "" . $q['order'];
}}}

but if the `orderby` argument is specified and if it includes `post_date` or other correct column names, then they are ignored, e.g.:
{{{
	$images = get_children(array(
		'post_type' => 'attachment',
		'post_mime_type' => 'image',
		'post_parent' => get_the_ID(),
		'orderby' => 'menu_order post_date',
		'order' => 'ASC',
		), ARRAY_A);
}}}

will result in a query that is missing `post_date` since it gets ignored by line 2332, and yields unexpected results. The resulting wrong query at line 2623 is:

{{{
"" SELECT   wp_posts.* FROM wp_posts  WHERE 1=1  AND wp_posts.post_parent = 172  AND (post_mime_type LIKE 'image/%')  AND wp_posts.post_type = 'attachment' AND (wp_posts.post_status <> 'trash' AND wp_posts.post_status <> 'auto-draft')  ORDER BY menu_order ASC ""
}}}

Note the missing `post_date` at the end.


'''Fix'''

Rename `date` to `post_date` in line 2320.


'''Suggestion'''

Allow passing different `order` values for different `orderby` columns, e.g. `ORDER BY post_date ASC, menu_order ASC`. Right now, the same `order` is applied to all `orderby` columns.

This can be easily implemented without breaking backward compatibility, by explode()'ing the `order` string using spaces so that the user can use, e.g.:
{{{
	$images = get_children(array(
		'orderby' => 'menu_order post_date',
		'order' => 'ASC DESC',
		), ARRAY_A);
}}}

in which `ASC` applies to `menu_order` and `DESC` to `post_date`.

Cheers,
Bogdan."	defect (bug)	closed	normal		Query	3.2.1	normal	invalid	close reporter-feedback