media_handle_sideload() is not returning right value

[acsnaterse]

The media_handle_sideload() is not return the right value. Just like the media_handle_upload you would expect the $id as integer return value, but it returns the URL string.

This is happening in the last lines of the function:

// Save the attachment metadata
$id = wp_insert_attachment($attachment, $file, $post_id);
	
if ( !is_wp_error($id) ) {
	wp_update_attachment_metadata( $id, wp_generate_attachment_metadata( $id, $file ) );
	return $url;
}
return $id;

Also where this function is used ( in media_sideload_image() ) it is expecting the ID as return value.

[joostdevalk]

Patch

[joostdevalk]

Attached patch fixes return and makes sure the single function in core that uses media_handle_sideload work properly again. Seriously, if you write this:

 // do the validation and storage stuff
$id = media_handle_sideload($file_array, $post_id, @$desc);
$src = $id;

You have to know you're doing something wrong, right? :)

[joostdevalk]

Same patch now with documentation fixed too

[scribu]

[16383]

[nacin]

This is an API change. Not convinced it is simply a bug fix.

[joostdevalk]

Well it is an API change: it returns $id instead of $url, where $url was the $fileurl that the function took as an input before, so it might change some things. The one instance where that return value was used in WP has been fixed with the same patch too, if you think that's not enough, let's see how we should approach this.

[scribu]

Indeed, if a plugin was using media_handle_sideload(), it would probably break.

Fortunately, it isn't a very well known function, so I think we can get away with fixing it before it becomes better known.

I'll do a grep on my local checkout of the plugins on WP.org later today.

[scribu]

Grepped through 4855 plugins and couldn't find a single call to media_handle_sideload.

This is the command I used:

grep --exclude-dir=.svn --include=*.php -r 'media_handle_sideload' .

[transom]

Thanks for the regression bug (grumble) but I will submit a enhancement for media_sideload_image shortly. This is handy function that is really handy for imports.