Wrapping Sections with add_settings_section

[griffinjt]

This is my first time reporting, so excuse my ignorance. I just wanted to see about enhancing the add_settings_section function.

As of now, individual sections are not wrapper in any sort of container, which makes no sense to semantic sense to me. Sections should/need to be styled differently, but as of now, you really don't have much control of that.

I propose something similar to the register_sidebar function, looking like this:

add_settings_section( $id, $title, $callback, $page, $args )

$args would accept 3 parameters: before_section, after_section, and section_class.

This way you can style each individual section with relative ease. Just a thought and enhancement to the Settings API.

Thomas

[nacin]

The goal of the settings API is to relieve the developer of any choices of markup and style. Ideally, the core UI styles should be used wherever possible. It also keeps us flexible -- As an example, we plan to kill the table markup in 3.3.

[griffinjt]

I understand. I just thought it would be nice for UI (e.g. jQuery accordion to keep everything on one page and manageable for lots of options)

[nacin]

If you need an accordion to keep your options visibly in check, then you probably have ​too many options :-)

[griffinjt]

Tushay. :)

[nacin]

This is something that might end up happening in #16413.

I think it would be fine to just have a wrapping div with an ID generated from the section ID.

[griffinjt]

Easy and functional. I'll look into that then :)

[scribu]

I like the idea of automatically adding an id attribute.

Closing as duplicate of #16413

[scribu]

On second thought, #16413 seems pretty messy.

Automatically wrapping sections in a div and adding id attributes to field rows is a piece of cake.

[griffinjt]

That would be perfect. Just something to differentiate between sections is all that is needed :)

[scribu]

I figured that a "settings-field" class isn't necessary, since you can target fields using .form-table tr

[nacin]

They may not remain tables for long.

[scribu]

Added settings-field class

[scribu]

Good point; updated patch.

[scribu]

If we make no progress on the settings api at all, we can at least do this and it will be a nice step forward.

[griffinjt]

Agreed. Simple and can let us have a little more control over appearances. :)

[ryan]

Punting enhancements from 3.3.

[DrewAPicture]

See comment:13 and 17851.2.diff​

[ross_ritchey]

Add new $args to add_settings_section. Update add_settings_section to include new $args in array. Add wrapper around printout in do_settings_section.

[ross_ritchey]

Just put a patch in. First-time patcher - not positive everything was done kosher.

Looking at the history - this looks like something that could be a good little enhancement. I kept backwards-compatibility while also pushing towards more logical handling. Not sure if there is a way to degrade the current add_settings_section arguments to a single $args array without breaking compatibility - but could be nice if there was.

[ross_ritchey]

Refresh of patch

[ross_ritchey]

Swinging back around to this patch and it looks like it needed a refresh as template.php changed a little in the intervening year.

This request still seems relevant -> just updated the patch to match the current template.php

[palmiak]

Refreshed template.php file

[rehanali]

Added patch

[costdev]

Patch #17851.patch refreshed against trunk, updated with coding standards, docblock updates, and the new, but unused, $section variable is now used.

[martin.krcho]

This is updated patch 17851.4.diff with added unit tests.

This PR improves the add_settings_section function to allow developers to pass extra HTML mark-up to be rendered before and after the settings section. Extra argument $args can now be passed to the function. It's an array that can contain the following items:

• before_section
• after_section
• section_class

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/17851

[audrasjb]

As per today's bug scrub, @costdev mentioned:

Multiple-assertion test methods in the PR will need a $message parameter added to each assertion (​Ref) -> "This parameter should always be used if more than one assertion is used in a test method."

Let's update the provided unit tests.
Self assigning for proper testing.

[martin.krcho]

I added the messages to each of the new assertions in commit ​df015d79b8120b1f0312568b41ce3dd0e1d62667. You can go ahead with testing the ticket properly, @audrasjb :)

[chaion07]

Thanks @griffinjt for reporting this. We reviewed this ticket during a recent bug-scurb session. Based on the feedback received from the team here's a summary:

1. The PR is ready for review
2. We need @audrasjb feedback on the PR and possibly a follow up message
3. Need more eyes on this

Cheers!

Props to @mukesh27 and @martinkrcho

[audrasjb]

Looks good to go on my side.
I was able to add extra HTML content before and after the settings section I created, and a class using the %s placeholder.

Let's go with this implementation, thanks everyone.

PS: @martinkrcho please don't remove the needs-dev-note keyword since it indicates that we need a developer note on make.wordpress.org/core for this change :)

[audrasjb]

In 54247:

Administration: Allow to wrap Settings sections with custom HTML content.

This changeset improves the add_settings_section() function to allow developers to pass extra HTML mark-up to be rendered before and after the settings section. Extra argument $args can now be passed to the function, and is an array that can contain the following items:

• before_section: HTML content to prepend to the section's HTML output. Receives the section's class name provided with the section_class argument via an optional %s placeholder. Default empty.
• after_section: HTML content to append to the section's HTML output. Default empty.
• section_class: The class name to use for the section. Used by before_section if a %s placeholder is present. Default empty.

The HTML passed using these extra arguments is escaped using wp_kses_post() just before rendering. This changeset also provides a set of unit tests for this new feature.

Props griffinjt, nacin, scribu, ross_ritchey, ryan, chriscct7, palmiak, rehanali, costdev, martinkrcho, chaion07, audrasjb, hellofromtonya.
Fixes #17851.

Committed in https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/54247

[martin.krcho]

Replying to audrasjb:

PS: @martinkrcho please don't remove the needs-dev-note keyword since it indicates that we need a developer note on make.wordpress.org/core for this change :)

I'll keep it in mind for next time. Thank you for committing the changes.

[peterwilsoncc]

@mukesh27 added to props via make/core per comment #33.