Allow WP_List_Table ::get_bulk_items() to receive a nested array and output optgroups

[goldenapples]

I'm just putting this out there as a possible enhancement to the WP_List_Table... would like feedback as to whether anyone else would find it helpful. If so, I'm more than happy to write up a patch for this.

I think it may be useful to be able to pass a nested array to WP_List_Table::get_bulk_actions() and have it output the options within the subarray in an <optgroup>. My specific use case is in applying meta fields to a custom table. I would like to be able to define something like this in my get_bulk_items function:

function get_bulk_actions() {
	$actions = array(
		'delete' => 'Delete',
		'outofstock' => 'Mark out of stock',
		'applytags' => array(
			'label' => 'Apply tags to products',
			'actions' => array(
				'featured' => 'Featured',
				'sale' => 'On Sale'
				)
			)
		);
	return $actions;
}

and have the output look something like this:

<select name="action">
	<option value='-1' selected='selected'>Bulk Actions</option>

	<option value='delete'>Delete</option>
	<option value='outofstock'>Mark out of stock</option>
	<optgroup label="Apply tags to products">
		<option value='feature'>Featured</option>
		<option value='sale'>On sale</option>
	</optgroup>
</select>

A very minor feature, and possibly too fringe of a use case to bother with. But I've worked on a couple projects now where being able to specify markup like that would have made that screen more user-friendly. Any thoughts?

[scribu]

Well, officially, you're not even able to add new bulk actions. #16031

It's unlikely this will get any attention until the above is handled.

[goldenapples]

Ha! I didn't even see that ticket, and I was wondering why I had to manually trigger $this->process_bulk_actions() in order to get them to work. Thanks... I'll take a look at that ticket.

[mattkeys]

Going to play necromancer here a bit and submit a patch for this. I work with WP List Table often and I know many other developers use it in their plugins/themes (​despite the codex warning). Optgroup's would be a nice way to organize bulk actions.

The patch I submitted just checks if the current value from the existing bulk actions foreach is an array. If it is, the key becomes the optgroup label, and a new foreach is used to loop over the optgroup's children. Otherwise it proceeds as usual. I also modified a couple variable names to semantic reasons.

I would love to hear back from others about any unforeseen impacts that this change might have.

[valentinbora]

@goldenapples thank you for reporting this. I know it's been a (long) while, but this still sounds like a great addition.

Also, thank you @mattkeys for the patch. I'll check it out and get back with updates.

[valentinbora]

Happy to report that it works mighty fine onto [47289]. The patch applies cleanly and works. Here's a code sample:

<?php

add_filter( 'bulk_actions-edit-post', 'register_my_bulk_actions' );

function register_my_bulk_actions( $bulk_actions ) {
        $bulk_actions['Grouped actions'] = [
                'hello' => 'Hello',
                'world' => 'World'
        ];

        return $bulk_actions;
}

Looking forward to more feedback from others regarding the addition.

[valentinbora]

Screenshot with 19278.diff​ applied

[mattkeys]

Thanks for testing, excited to see this get some traction.

[davidbaumwald]

Nothing stops multiple people from working on the same ticket at the same time. But I'm removing the ticket owner to make it clear no one is actively working on this one(the current owner has not participated in a long period of time).

Also, with Beta 1 landing tomorrow, this ticket is being moved to Future Release. If any maintainer or committer feels the remainder of this ticket can be resolved in time, or wishes to assume ownership during a specific cycle, feel free to update the milestone accordingly.

Allow WP_List_Table::get_bulk_items to accept a nested array of actions, outputting them as optgroups.

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/19278

[davidbaumwald]

Refreshed the patch and tested to make sure this still works using code similar to https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/19278#comment:8. Screenshot to follow.

[davidbaumwald]

Test with PR #567 applied

[johnbillion]

@davidbaumwald I updated your PR with two improvements:

• Escape the attributes
• Update the documentation

I can think of several use cases for this feature. The change looks good to go.

[johnbillion]

In 49190:

Administration: Allow WP_List_Table::get_bulk_items() to receive a nested array in order to output optgroups.

The allowed format for bulk actions is now an associative array where each element represents either a top level option value and label, or an array representing an optgroup and its options.

For a standard option, the array element key is the field value and the array element value is the field label.

For an optgroup, the array element key is the label and the array element value is an associative array of options as above.

Props goldenapples, mattkeys, valentinbora, davidbaumwald

Fixes #19278

[SergeyBiryukov]

The test added in [49190] fails on Windows, because the heredoc syntax (<<<) uses platform-specific EOLs, however WP_List_Table::get_bulk_items() specifically uses \n.

19278.2.diff​ fixes the failure.

In the future, this would probably benefit from something like assertContainsIgnoreEOL(), similar to assertEqualsIgnoreEOL() added in [46612] / #31432.

However, since ​PHPUnit 7.5+ deprecates using assertContains() for strings and introduces assertStringContainsString() instead, let's skip adding a new method for now and just fix the test.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 49691:

Tests: Ignore EOL differences in WP_List_Table::get_bulk_items() test for optgroups.

This avoids a misleading failure due to Unix vs. Windows EOL style mismatches and allows the test to pass on Windows.

Follow-up to [46612], [49190].

See #19278.

[SergeyBiryukov]

Marking [49691] for backporting to the 5.6 branch after a second committer's review.

[desrosj]

[49691] looks good to backport to 5.6.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 49730:

Tests: Ignore EOL differences in WP_List_Table::get_bulk_items() test for optgroups.

This avoids a misleading failure due to Unix vs. Windows EOL style mismatches and allows the test to pass on Windows.

Follow-up to [46612], [49190].

Reviewed by desrosj, SergeyBiryukov.
Merges [49691] to the 5.6 branch.
Fixes #19278.