inline-edit-post.js looks up page author name incorrectly when author no longer has edit capabilities

[OllieJones]

6.1RC1 --- this isn't a regression from previous versions.

The inline edit feature on the the dashboard's All Pages panel doesn't work quite right. (It's fine on the All Posts panel.) The flaw crops up when Quick Editing a page for which the author no longer has edit privileges.

To reproduce: running logged in as Administrator or Editor:

• Create a user with the Author role, or some other role, but not Subscriber.
• Create (or choose an existing) page. On All Pages, with Quick Edit, set that new user as the author of that page.
• Edit that user to change the role to Subscriber.
• On All Pages, open Quick Edit for that page.
• Observe that the pulldown <select> menu for choosing the author incorrectly shows a blank label rather than the author's name.

It should show the (newly deauthorized) author's name. On the All Posts panel, it does show that name.

This problem shows up on even a fresh install without plugins and the default theme.

[OllieJones]

​Line 308:

$(':input[name="post_author"]', editRow).prepend('<option value="' + $('.post_author', rowData).text() + '">' + $('#' + t.type + '-' + id + ' .author').text() + '</option>');

should say

 ... $('#post-' + id + ' .author').text()  ...

instead, as those divs always have id="post-1234" even on the All Pages panel, not id="page-1234"

[sabernhardt]

Thanks for the report!

The option is still there with the user's ID as the value, but the text is empty.

Ref. Ticket https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/56819
Patch added.

[azaozz]

Patch makes sense but needs testing with custom post types.

[OllieJones]

I just checked the WooCommerce All Products panel in devtools. It has the same HTML structure, in this respect, as the All Posts and All Pages panels. The posts (whether they are user-visible posts, pages, or in this case products) are shown like this.

<tbody id='the-list'>
  <tr id="post-123" class="a whole mess of classes" data-id="123>
     lots of columns about wp_posts.ID 123
  </tr>
  <tr id="post-125" class="a whole mess of classes" data-id="125>
     lots of columns about wp_posts.ID 124
  </tr>
  <tr id="post-126" class="a whole mess of classes" data-id="126>
     lots of columns about wp_posts.ID 126
  </tr>
  more rows of data
</tbody> 

The code I propose to repair looks for id="page-123" or id="product-123" rather than id="post-123" on All Pages or All Products panels, when populating the author field. Testing with WooCommerce won't test the fix because its Quick Edit function doesn't present the label.inline-edit-author select dropdown for changing authors.

[costdev]

Test Report

Patch tested: ​PR 3469

Steps to Reproduce or Test

1. Create a new user with the Editor role.
2. Navigate to Pages > Add New and create a page.
3. Navigate to Pages > All pages.
4. Click Quick Edit for the new page.
5. Select the new Editor user as the Author of the page.
6. Navigate to Users > All Users.
7. Click Edit for the Editor user and change their role to Subscriber.
8. Navigate to Pages > All pages.
9. 🐞 Click Quick Edit for the new page.

Expected Results

When reproducing a bug:

• ❌ The Author <select> element should be blank.

When testing a patch to validate it works as expected:

• ✅ The Author <select> element should show the author's name.

Environment

• Server: Apache (Linux)
• WordPress: 6.2-alpha-54642-src
• Browser: Chrome 108.0.0.0
• OS: Windows 10
• Theme: Twenty Twenty-Three
• Plugins: None Activated.

Actual Results

When reproducing a bug/defect:

• ❌ Issue reproduced.

When testing the patch:

• ✅ Issue resolved with patch.

Notes

• I did test this with a custom post type as well. However, the original issue didn't occur.

[azaozz]

@OllieJones @costdev Thanks for testing!

Seems this bug is also present for hierarchical CPTs. The t.type is set to page there too, and the patch fixes it by hard-coding that to post.

[azaozz]

In 54936:

Quick edit: Fix cases where the author field is empty when the user no longer has edit capabilities.

Props: OllieJones, sabernhardt, iamjaydip, costdev.
Fixes: #56819.