Hide category selection when no posts are available

[CoenJacobs]

Just an idea that popped up while testing #21015. The months dropdown gets hidden when there are no posts available, so why not hide the category dropdown list too?

Might be a bit confusing though, when certain elements are not showing when you first start using the screens that these elements are used. But showing something that does not do what it looks like is even more confusing, I think.

[nofearinc]

Related to this, the ​get_terms function returns only taxonomy terms with some posts inside unless hide_empty is assigned a true value.

[CoenJacobs]

Replying to nofearinc:

Related to this, the ​get_terms function returns only taxonomy terms with some posts inside unless hide_empty is assigned a true value.

No, not related. This is on the edit.php screen, where there is also a category selection element. This does not hide when there are no posts but shows categories regardless of having posts.

[nofearinc]

Seems like the problem has been taken care of in ​revision 21806

[CoenJacobs]

Replying to nofearinc:

Seems like the problem has been taken care of in ​revision 21806

No, it is not that. Sorry about not being clearer, but I mean the category select box right above the list of posts on the edit.php screen. See attached screenshot.

[CoenJacobs]

The select box that I'm referring to

[egower]

I see where you're referring to.

This is my first attempt at a Wordpress patch, so I apologize in advance if any information I have submitted is in the wrong workflow order. Patch added.

[CoenJacobs]

Revised patch, tested against current trunk

[CoenJacobs]

Revised the patch, made sure the conditional only takes away the category dropdown instead of the whole element including the do_action( 'restrict_manage_posts' ); action.

[helen]

In what situation would this actually not show, given that a post more or less has to have a category? If you have no posts at all?

[CoenJacobs]

Replying to helen:

In what situation would this actually not show, given that a post more or less has to have a category? If you have no posts at all?

Exactly, when there are only auto drafts and no posts that will be shown on that page (but the conditional to show the category selection element will still see the auto drafts).

[seanchayes]

I ensured I had only an auto-draft post (or posts), made sure my All Posts view was saying "No posts found." and tested before and after applying the patch.

Without the patch the "View all categories" dropdown displayed and when I clicked on it and chose "Uncategorized" I still saw the "No posts found." screen.

I applied the patch and the "View all categories" dropdown" no longer displayed and again I still saw the "No posts found." screen.

[swissspidy]

Patch still applies and works without problems.

On my install I had 4 trashed posts and no other posts. Without the patch categories of trashed posts were shown, with the patch applied the category dropdown is hidden as expected.

I think we should get this into 4.4.

[wonderboymusic]

In 34076:

List Tables: don't render "extra tablenav" if there are no posts. This includes Bulk Actions, Dates Dropdown, Category Dropdowns, Pagination.

Also ensure that the Months dropdown, when it is shown, shows months from the proper set of posts.

Props egower, CoenJacobs, MikeHansenMe, mehulkaklotar.
Fixes #33824, #21015, #21856.