New get_orderby() method of class-wp-posts-list-table.class doesn't allow query orderby var to be an array

[szaqal21]

I've altered the default orderby of pages list table like so:

function my_pre_get_posts($query)
{
	if(!$query->is_main_query() && $query->query['post_type'] != 'page')
		return;
	
	$query->set('orderby', array('menu_order' => 'asc', 'title' => 'desc'));
}


add_action('pre_get_posts', 'my_pre_get_posts');

and I get a PHP Notice caused by strtolower() in get_orderby() method which tries to lower an array in my case.

It worked fine up to 4.3.x.

[swissspidy]

Probably the same reason as in #34473

[szaqal21]

Replying to swissspidy:

Probably the same reason as in #34473

I've did a quick test and removed:

...
else {
	$orderby = 'date';
}
...

from wp_edit_posts_query() so orderby would be set as prior 4.4 and same notice is shown.

[bradyvercher]

I just ran into a similar issue today where WP_Posts_List_Table::get_orderby() method doesn't work when doing $wp_query->set( 'orderby', 'meta_value' ). The list is sorted correctly when clicking a column header the first time, but reversing the direction doesn't work since it looks like the orderby query var needs to match the column key here: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-list-table.php?rev=35489#L1112

[bordoni]

I've created a patch that will resolve the issue, but I'm not 100% sure that if that cover all the bases for the ordering on the Administration Table, on my testing there were no issues when you tried to overwrite the OrderBy.

The patch N0 above will work for both associative and numeric arrays on OrderBy

<?php

$query->set( 'orderby', array( 'menu_order', 'title' ) );
// OR
$query->set( 'orderby', array( 'menu_order' => 'asc', 'title' => 'desc' ) );

[Thomas Vitale]

I tested the 34479.0 patch and didn't find any issues when overwriting the OrderBy.
For testing I used several pages with different names and 'order' attributes. Both simple and nested pages are in the right order as defined by the my_pre_get_posts() function.

[wonderboymusic]

nice patch - but if the array is associative, then order was probably passed for the values, which your patch ignores

[bordoni]

@wonderboymusic on the get_order method I've set a conditional for if the array on orderby is associative, and then setting order as an array with the values. Unless I've mistaken what you said on comment N7, please let me know.

[wonderboymusic]

Reverted the method overrides in [35682]