settings_errors() wraps all notices in p and strong tags

[johnjamesjacoby]

I noticed today that settings_errors() wraps every notice in a set of <p> and <strong> tags.

This is undesirable for a few reasons:

• Notices should be allowed to use their own formatting (they already are everywhere)
• Many/most core notices that do not use settings_errors() are not strong, or use strong for emphasizing specific parts of a notice

As a result, almost every plugin is forced to reinvent their own approach for putting out admin notices. Core even does this in a bespoke way in almost every other admin page, resulting in a bunch of duplication and fragmentation of approaches.

(A quick grep of .php files in wp-admin with is-dismissible in them shows 75.)

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A few ideas:

• We could use wpautop() to wrap each notice to avoid duplicate <p> tags
• We could use KSES to only allow certain tags in a notice (not certain this is necessary)
• We could invent a new function for formatting admin area notices in places other than settings (which most plugins do already, so something they can use is preferable)

I can also imagine this issue being a smaller part of a larger admin_notices initiative, but figured I'd at least document this kvetch.

[sabernhardt]

wpautop() option

[sabernhardt]

44082.diff​ follows the proposed change of using wpautop, to see if the simplest method is good. I've done a quick test so far, but I haven't tried to break it.

I also thought of adding another parameter to the function ($formatted = false) to keep the current markup by default.

#38734 already reported how core is not using the Settings API (and my search of the current trunk found 89 is-dismissible notices in wp-admin).

[ozgursar]

MU Plugin for testing various cases

[ozgursar]

Patch Testing Report

Patch Tested: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/attachment/ticket/44082/44082.diff

Environment

• WordPress: 7.0-alpha-61215-src
• PHP: 8.2.29
• Server: nginx/1.29.4
• Database: mysqli (Server: 8.4.7 / Client: mysqlnd 8.2.29)
• Browser: Chrome 144.0.0.0
• OS: macOS
• Theme: Twenty Twenty-One 2.7
• MU Plugins:
  • test-settings-errors.php
• Plugins:
  • Test Reports 1.2.1

Steps taken

Created a plugin to demonstrate various cases

1. Download https://core.trac.wordpress.org/attachment/ticket/44082/test-settings-errors.php.zip and install as mu plugin
2. Navigate to Settings > Test Settings Errors
3. View error messages and their generated source codes
4. Apply patch
5. View error messages and their generated source codes again
6. ✅ Patch is solving the problem.

Expected result

• We are expecting wpautop to fix formatting inconsistencies and avoid duplication of p tags.

Screenshots/Screencast with results

Before:

After: