widget save procedure is inconsistent with js on and off

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

I'm getting this awkward bug as I seek to debug a nav menu widget.

It's passing a variable length array to the update handler in order to fill it with items. The various field names are as follows:

name="' . $this->get_field_name('items') . '[type][]"

When saving using no js, everything works as expected. The js save procedure, however, is completely broken.

The $_POST sent to admin-ajax.php is the following:

array(11) {
  ["action"]=>
  string(11) "save-widget"
  ["savewidgets"]=>
  string(10) "5e80c3f1ef"
  ["sidebar"]=>
  string(11) "top_sidebar"
  ["widget-nav_menu"]=>
  array(1) {
    [3]=>
    array(3) {
      ["title"]=>
      string(6) "Browse"
      ["dropdown"]=>
      string(3) "url"
      ["items"]=>
      array(3) {
        ["label"]=>
        array(1) {
          [0]=>
          string(7) "Section"
        }
        ["type"]=>
        array(1) {
          [0]=>
          string(4) "page"
        }
        ["ref"]=>
        array(1) {
          [0]=>
          string(1) "8"
        }
      }
    }
  }
  ["widget-id"]=>
  string(10) "nav_menu-3"
  ["id_base"]=>
  string(8) "nav_menu"
  ["widget-width"]=>
  string(3) "330"
  ["widget-height"]=>
  string(3) "200"
  ["widget_number"]=>
  string(1) "3"
  ["multi_number"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["add_new"]=>
  string(0) ""
}

The data received without js, for the same data, is different:

array(11) {
  ["action"]=>
  string(11) "save-widget"
  ["savewidgets"]=>
  string(10) "5e80c3f1ef"
  ["sidebar"]=>
  string(11) "top_sidebar"
  ["widget-nav_menu"]=>
  array(1) {
    [3]=>
    array(3) {
      ["title"]=>
      string(6) "Browse"
      ["dropdown"]=>
      string(3) "url"
      ["items"]=>
      array(3) {
        ["label"]=>
        array(1) {
          [0]=>
          string(4) "Home",
          [1]=>
          string(7) "Section"
        }
        ["type"]=>
        array(1) {
          [0]=>
          string(4) "home",
          [1]=>
          string(4) "page"
        }
        ["ref"]=>
        array(1) {
          [0]=>
          string(4) "home",
          [1]=>
          string(1) "8"
        }
      }
    }
  }
  ["widget-id"]=>
  string(10) "nav_menu-3"
  ["id_base"]=>
  string(8) "nav_menu"
  ["widget-width"]=>
  string(3) "330"
  ["widget-height"]=>
  string(3) "200"
  ["widget_number"]=>
  string(1) "3"
  ["multi_number"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["add_new"]=>
  string(0) ""
}

Something clearly wrong is occurring over in widgets.js's save procedure, but my script-foo and jQuery-foo is a little too weak to fix it. Pointers (or a straight patch from Andrew) would be most welcome.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

further investigation leads me to the $.map() call in wpWidgets.save. It destroys the array, as revealed by:

		$.map(data, function(n,i){
			if ( n.name.match(/\[\]$/) )
				alert(n.name);
			a[n.name] = n.value;
		});

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

attached patch fixes the issue in all instances where an empty [] might be found in an input's name.

there might be other areas in the code base where such a fix may be necessary.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

please be so kind to get this into wp 2.8 asap. it's breaking a whole bunch of my plugins. :-|

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

see also #9695

[azaozz]

(In [11163]) Pass the form fields names as strings when saving widgets, fixes #9703

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

thanks!