Twenty Twelve: hide category and tag output in post meta if only 1 term

[lancewillett]

Props ryanimel and iandstewart for the report and idea for fix.

First patch attached.

[lancewillett]

Patch from ryanimel

[jkudish]

In 21479.2.patch, I've simplified and cleaned up the function in several ways:

• I don't think it helps anything to cache the function in a transient as get_categories calls get_terms which has caching built-in
• Renamed the function to 'twentytwelve_is_categorized_site' to be a bit more descriptive about what it does
• Renamed the variable $all_the_cool_cats to $non_empty_categories to be a bit more descriptive about it is
• Simplified the if statements

[iandstewart]

Modifying ryanimel's patch to flush out the cool cats when a user delete's categories too (and props to ryanimel for catching that right away)

[iandstewart]

jkudish FTW. Much simpler.

[lancewillett]

In [21444]:

Twenty Twelve: hide category and tag output in post meta if only 1 term. Props ryanimel, jkudish and fixes #21479.

[lancewillett]

In [21449]:

Twenty Twelve: check for empty variable for simpler logic, props jkudish. See #21479.

[lancewillett]

In [21489]:

Twenty Twelve: make twentytwelve_is_categorized_site() pluggable, see #21479.

[nacin]

This looks like it would be running extra queries on the frontend. We should be sure they are necessary.

[nacin]

! empty( $categories_list ) can simply be $categories_list. Also, count() is unnecessary when empty() is already there.

[lancewillett]

Replying to nacin:

! empty( $categories_list ) can simply be $categories_list.

Agreed.

Also, count() is unnecessary when empty() is already there.

The check is supposed to return false if only 1 category exists. So, the check should be count( $non_empty_categories ) < 2 instead, right?

[lancewillett]

Simpler check and correct logic for 0 or 1 category existing

[SergeyBiryukov]

We could use wp_count_terms(), which performs a faster query (SELECT COUNT(*) instead of requesting all the category data, 0.8ms vs. 4.0ms on my install).

21479.4.patch​ also simplifies the $tag_list check.

[obenland]

21479.5.diff​ builds on @SergeyBiryukov's patch, further simplifying the is_categorized() check.

[lancewillett]

Replying to SergeyBiryukov:

We could use wp_count_terms(), which performs a faster query (SELECT COUNT(*) instead of requesting all the category data, 0.8ms vs. 4.0ms on my install).

Nice. :)

[lancewillett]

Ryan and Ian — can you weigh in on why you think this UX improvement is worth adding extra queries to each page load?

Discussing today in #wordpress-dev IRC Nacin is voting to remove this and "just live with Uncategorized."

[lancewillett]

If no votes for why the UX is important for the default theme to hide "Uncategorized" from display, we'll revert and punt this to a better fix on the core side, meaning only 1 category and it's named Uncategorized will be the same as having 0 categories on the front end.

Better to fix it in core for all themes than just one theme here.

[iandstewart]

Replying to lancewillett:

can you weigh in on why you think this UX improvement is worth adding extra queries to each page load?

It doesn't make sense to display only 1 category if every post is in that category. One category is no categories, imo. I think it's confusing for new users and worse, just plain ugly if that category is uncategorized -- though I'd feel the same way no matter what that one category was named. It's also annoying for users using WordPress as a small CMS for brochure sites where they may not be using any categories at all. We do it with tags, we should do it with categories.

+1 for this being in core and available for every theme -- with a new template tag. Themes need to be able to make markup for category lists conditional on there actually being categories to theme.

[ryanimel]

Better in core than a theme, absolutely. It would be nice if the theme could have it in, just for the sake of working that way sooner, but I understand not wanting to add extra queries. +1 for core too.

[lancewillett]

In [21543]:

Twenty Twelve: remove twentytwelve_is_categorized_site() in favor of a theme-agnostic future core fix for this issue, see #21479.

Also simplify the logic for checking tag and categories, props SergeyBiryukov and obenland.

[lancewillett]

See #14901 for a possibly related discussion for hiding Uncategorized in front-end display.

Closing this as the solution should not be in the theme itself.