Trash child notes when a top level note is trashed

[adamsilverstein]

Fixes WordPress/gutenberg#72862

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/64240

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Props adamsilverstein, desrosj, wildworks, mamaduka, karthickmurugan, jeffpaul, hanneslsm.

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[desrosj]

This looks like it will work well for trashing Notes, but only when the trash feature is enabled (setting EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS to a falsey value will bypass the trash and immediately delete comments and posts).

In that case, wp_delete_comment() is called very early in the function.

Instead of introducing a second function for this scenario, maybe making wp_trash_comment_children() function more generic. wp_handle_comment_children(), or something similar. Then if ( ! EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS ) { can be included to perform the desired action.

[t-hamano]

I think there are two areas for improvement in the wp_trash_comment_children() function:

• It doesn't delete nested comments. This isn't a problem at the moment, but the notes might support nested replies in the future.
• It doesn't indicate whether the process was successful or not. Perhaps it should return a boolean value indicating success or failure, similar to wp_trash_comment?

I haven't actually tested it, but it should be something like this:

/**
 * Delete all of a comment's descendants.
 *
 * @since 6.9.0
 *
 * @param int $comment_id The comment ID.
 * @return bool True on success, false on failure.
 */
function wp_trash_comment_descendants( $comment_id ) {
	$comment = get_comment( $comment_id );
	if ( ! $comment ) {
		return false;
	}

	$comments = $comment->get_children(
		array(
			'format' => 'flat',
			'status' => 'all',
		)
	);

	$success = true;
	foreach ( $descendants as $child ) {
		if ( ! wp_trash_comment( $child->comment_ID ) ) {
			$success = false;
		}
	}

	return $success;
}

[adamsilverstein]

Ah! I specifically excluded grandchildren because that's not possible currently with notes. Good idea though. We can add to make this more robust and usable for other comment types.

[t-hamano]

@adamsilverstein I've thought about it again, but since RC1 is about to be released, we probably can't add new functions right now. Instead of creating a new function, could we just move the logic into the existing wp_trash_comment function?

[adamsilverstein]

This looks like it will work well for trashing Notes, but only when the trash feature is enabled (setting EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS to a falsey value will bypass the trash and immediately delete comments and posts).

In that case, wp_delete_comment() is called very early in the function.

Instead of introducing a second function for this scenario, maybe making wp_trash_comment_children() function more generic. wp_handle_comment_children(), or something similar. Then if ( ! EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS ) { can be included to perform the desired action.

@desrosj added support for delete when EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS is 0 in f5c64ba

[adamsilverstein]

I think there are two areas for improvement in the wp_trash_comment_children() function:

@t-hamano I addressed this feedback in 4c0cc8a

[adamsilverstein]

I've thought about it again, but since RC1 is about to be released, we probably can't add new functions right now. Instead of creating a new function, could we just move the logic into the existing wp_trash_comment function?

Now I am calling the function twice that will be a bit messy. Is there a specific prohibition to adding functions in RC? Since we are addressing an issue with a major new feature for this release, we can still make this type of change?

That said, I am perfectly fine punting this change to a 6.9.1 release.

[t-hamano]

Strictly speaking, I think no new features can be added after Beta1. However, since the notes feature is new in 6.9, that rule will likely be a little more flexible.

That said, adding a new function comes with the responsibility of maintaining it indefinitely. Other issues related to the notes feature may arise in the future. Until those issues are resolved and the feature is stable, I prefer not to create any new functions if possible.

[adamsilverstein]

I've thought about it again, but since RC1 is about to be released, we probably can't add new functions right now. Instead of creating a new function, could we just move the logic into the existing wp_trash_comment function?

@t-hamano I have inlined the functionality in 5aa9e22 to avoid the new function. We can clean this up in a future release.

[adamsilverstein]

Added
Test that note and descendants are deleted when EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS is 0 - fc017d8
Test that all descendants including grandchildren are trashed dcb4fa3

These tests were removed.

[t-hamano]

I've actually tested this PR by monitoring the database, and everything seems to be working as expected. Let's consider removing the grandchild notes in the future.

@desrosj @Mamaduka, I think backport commits after RC require approval from two contributors. I would appreciate it if you could check this PR.

[adamsilverstein]

This pull request is missing a link to a Trac ticket. For a contribution to be considered, there must be a corresponding ticket in Trac.

I created a Trac ticket to cover this PR and linked in the description.

[desrosj]

Few follow up questions!

[adamsilverstein]

@desrosj Thanks for the feedback which I have addressed.