An accessibility issue with the Publish metabox

[basbva]

Taking a closer look at the Publish metabox for posts I realise that it has what I would call a bug. Take a look at the image attached. It tells me a post is published, while it's still asking for confirmation to be published. This screen shows up when first a post is set to private -and so gets published privately- and next is set to public, without hitting the 'Publish' button.

The post is actually published privately, which should show up as it's status, as it normally does. It tells me though it's published (which impies it should be published publicly).

I stumbled upon this, while I was searching for a more intiutive solution for inexperienced posters on one of my sites to post privately. I found two threads in forums which adress this issue:

​https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-set-new-post-visibility-to-private-by-default?replies=14

​http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/118970/set-posts-of-a-custom-post-type-to-be-private-by-default

Neither of threads mention (or seem to be aware?) of this shortcoming, while both try to solve the same issue I'm having. I question whether this problem can be solved, while the Publish metabox has such shortcomings.

I hope that by fixing this little bug, it might actually be possible to create a more accessisble Publish metabox for guests on a site, maybe by a hack or plugin, but preferably within the WP core files.

[DrewAPicture]

Confirmed. Looks like maybe need to skip toggling the Publish button text if switching from a private published post to a publish one.

[DrewAPicture]

See ​http://cl.ly/image/3D3m3m3B2A1E for a reproduction screencast.

[basbva]

So the status tells us it's published after hitting 'ok' in the 'visibility' screen. The notification of the post being a draft and the option to safe it as such disappeares prematurely, right?

[SergeyBiryukov]

Related: #7745

[basbva]

I realise there is some inconsistency my initial post. To plead my case, I would like to state it isn't all the way clear what the publish metabox is telling us.

I would expect it to show us status and visibility of the post as is, untill I start editing those settings. As it does after publishing.

This isn't consistent from the moment we add a new post. Then we see the status and visibility as they will be the moment we have added a name to the post, as it becomes a draft. Strangely I also encountered another status that can show up after some testing. Which was the status: ' ', i.e. 'none'. See added images.

To emphasize the fact those mataboxes show either the current status of a post, or an option, should it not be clear in the first place what they're telling us, and does it not make more sense to show the status 'none' as we add a post and hide this status where it shows up now?

The 'none' status you currently see after changing the visibility settings from private to public, and after that opening the status window and cancelling it.

For newly invited edit 23 feb '15: 'not contibutors but authors', who aren't neccesariliy experienced with WP, I believe it's important to be clear how this publish box works. This starts with it being consistent.

[basbva]

meta-boxes.php / a private approach

[basbva]

I've added a draft of a custom workflow based on the assumption you want to discourage (not prohibit) authors to publish publicly without thinking.

To encourage them to post privately, use drafts and finally have their post reviewed before publishing. This is a work in progress, and I'm hoping to recreate the current default settings, with a number of additional adaption options so one can easily jump to other posting procedures. Let's say with incorporated setting options for private, public, password and pending post types, so others can easily figure this out for themselves. With each of those states of mind as a preferred approach.

I have to confess I'm impressed with what you can achieve within meta-boxes.php by only adding rules. It's equally unintuitive, unfortunately. Changing those rules is certainly what you don't want to be spending your time with…

A draft for an alternative meta-boxes.php for WP 4.1.1 - a private posting approach - is attached to the original post (this is not an answer on how to move on from here, it is roughly what one hopes can be achieved by working with custum post status though).

[basbva]

I'm looking into this issue, without any experience with php though. Not to mention javascript or SVN. So this will take some time.

Related: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/12706

Probably it is interesting to respect the current publish metabox though, even as it can do with a patch. Keeping in mind backward compatibility.

To be more specific, in metaboxes.php the following code seems to cause the issue:
<option<?php selected( $post->post_status, 'private' ); ?> value='publish'><?php _e('Privately Published') ?></option>

[chriscct7]

This seems to be a legitimate pair of bugs with the classic editor.

Gutenberg implemented a custom flow for the publishing actions that avoids both of the issues about to be described.

Starting with a new, currently privately published post, setting the status of the post to be public immediately updates the UI to show it in a way suggesting the post is posted publicly. WordPress should not reflect in the text the changes until those changes are saved.

Issues displayed in video:

1. A privately published post when the visibility is changed to public, has the text updated to reflect that it is publicly published before it is saved.
2. When a privately published post has the visibility changed to public and the status chang dropdown active and clicks on Cancel, the status is changed to a null string.

Video: ​http://cloud.supportally.com/04c4b9feaa81

[SirLouen]

Reproduction Report

Description

✅ This report validates that the issue can be reproduced.

Environment

• WordPress: 6.9-alpha-60093-src
• PHP: 8.2.29
• Server: nginx/1.29.1
• Database: mysqli (Server: 8.4.6 / Client: mysqlnd 8.2.29)
• Browser: Chrome 140.0.0.0
• OS: Windows 10/11
• Theme: Twenty Sixteen 3.6
• MU Plugins: None activated
• Plugins:
  • Test Reports 1.2.0

Testing Instructions

1. Get the Classic Editor (this cannot be reproduced in Gutenberg)
2. Create a new post and set it to Private and publish it
3. Edit the post and set it to Public
4. 🐞 The Update button turns into Publish instead of remaining as Update

Actual Results

1. ✅ Error condition occurs (reproduced).

Additional Notes

Replying to basbva:

Taking a closer look at the Publish metabox for posts I realise that it has what I would call a bug. Take a look at the image attached. It tells me a post is published, while it's still asking for confirmation to be published. This screen shows up when first a post is set to private -and so gets published privately- and next is set to public, without hitting the 'Publish' button.

I can still reproduce this in the classic editor, not in Gutenberg. It looks like a pretty weak bug and can be effaced, as one could think that the transition from Private to public is a form of publishing.