Remove deprecated contact methods

[butterflymedia]

AIM is dead (December 15, 2017), Yahoo Messenger will be shut down on July 17, 2018. I'm not sure about Google Talk, I think it's been retired a long time ago. In May 2013, Hangouts replaced Google Talk.

The way people are managing the contact methods nowadays is:

<?php
function cinnamon_extra_contact_info($contactmethods) {
    // Remove default contact methods
    unset($contactmethods['aim']);
    unset($contactmethods['yim']);
    unset($contactmethods['jabber']);

    // Add extra contact methods
    $contactmethods['facebook'] = 'Facebook';
    $contactmethods['twitter'] = 'Twitter';
    $contactmethods['googleplus'] = 'Google+';

    return $contactmethods;
}

add_filter('user_contactmethods', 'cinnamon_extra_contact_info');

All three of them need to be removed.

[birgire]

@butterflymedia wasn't this covered in #11541 and e.g. [23588] ?

[butterflymedia]

Replying to birgire:

@butterflymedia wasn't this covered in #11541 and e.g. [23588] ?

One of the tickets is 5 years old and the other one had no resolution. All IM networks are still in core in 2018, when none of them is relevant anymore.

[butterflymedia]

And what is [23588] doing? Why is it checking get_site_option('initial_db_version')? What is that version for?

[birgire]

Replying to butterflymedia:

And what is [23588] doing? Why is it checking get_site_option('initial_db_version')? What is that version for?

As I understand it:

$wp_db_version, defined in wp-includes/version.php, is the latest committed revision number from the WordPress Trac, for changes that matters to the database schema.

The initial_db_version option stores the value of $wp_db_version when the WordPress is installed.

So checking get_site_option('initial_db_version') < 23588 is to ensure backward compatibility, that only activates these deprecated user contacts, for installs made before the deprecated change was made when $wp_db_version was 23588.

ps: I hope I'm not misunderstanding the ticket, but I think it would be helpful to refer to the core code that should be removed. Thanks.

[Presskopp]

As far as I understand this I'd say we could at least empty out the function wp_get_user_contact_methods(), meaning to delete the complete if statement in user.php, Line 2210:

function wp_get_user_contact_methods( $user = null ) {
	$methods = array();
	if ( get_site_option( 'initial_db_version' ) < 23588 ) {
		$methods = array(
			'aim'    => __( 'AIM' ),
			'yim'    => __( 'Yahoo IM' ),
			'jabber' => __( 'Jabber / Google Talk' ),
		);
	}

[butterflymedia]

Replying to Presskopp:

As far as I understand this I'd say we could at least empty out the function wp_get_user_contact_methods(), meaning to delete the complete if statement in user.php, Line 2210:

function wp_get_user_contact_methods( $user = null ) {
	$methods = array();
	if ( get_site_option( 'initial_db_version' ) < 23588 ) {
		$methods = array(
			'aim'    => __( 'AIM' ),
			'yim'    => __( 'Yahoo IM' ),
			'jabber' => __( 'Jabber / Google Talk' ),
		);
	}

It's been a while since this ticket has been opened, but the general idea is to completely remove all references to aim, yim and jabber from the codebase.

[Presskopp]

That would mean to strip it also from get_the_author_meta(), as seen in author-template.php

(Valid values for the $field parameter)

That's all - nowhere else they are to find.

Removes all references to aim, yim and jabber from the codebase, as these services have shutdown long time ago...

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/44374

[yashjawale]

Attached PR to resolve this, Although I haven't touched content in src/wp-includes/deprecated.php as I was unsure if this should be changed

Let me know if there are any changes that need to be done
Thanks!

[SergeyBiryukov]

Replying to birgire:

So checking get_site_option('initial_db_version') < 23588 is to ensure backward compatibility, that only activates these deprecated user contacts, for installs made before the deprecated change was made when $wp_db_version was 23588.

Correct, this check means that those fields are no longer displayed in the UI for new installations as of WordPress 3.6, and are only displayed on older installations.

That said, I think it's now safe to remove them completely from the codebase.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 60644:

Users: Remove deprecated user contact methods.

The three default contact methods (AIM, Yahoo IM, Jabber) were removed for new installations in WordPress 3.6.

This commit removes the remaining references from the codebase, as the associated services were discontinued quite a while ago.

The user_contactmethods filter is available for adding or removing contact methods.

Follow-up to [23588], [25606].

Props butterflymedia, birgire, Presskopp, yashjawale, SergeyBiryukov.
Fixes #44374.