Add functions for required fields indicator and message

[sabernhardt]

Required fields should include a visual indicator, plus a legend when using a star or similar character for multiple fields.

Having a set of return and echo functions to create strings for both the indicator and a default explanation could help in some core implementations such as #38460, as well as with plugins and themes (if their minimum WordPress version includes these functions).

[sabernhardt]

basic concept

[sabernhardt]

The names of the functions could change; these are what I have for now:

get_required_field_indicator
the_required_field_indicator

get_required_field_message
the_required_field_message

Each of these functions has a $space_before argument to define whether the tag should have a space before it and which kind of space (someone may want non-breaking or similar).

I may have overused the escape functions, but the first patch is mainly for the concept.

[sabernhardt]

using a second argument to determine whether to echo each function instead of creating two more functions, plus including adjustments to comment template file

[sabernhardt]

Or these could be two functions, with the echo selection as a second parameter:

wp_required_field_indicator( $space_before = ' ', $echo = false )
wp_required_field_message( $space_before = ' ', $echo = false )

[sabernhardt]

The required-field-message class in these patches would be more generic than the comment-required-message class that's now in the comment template. (Or perhaps it could be wp-required-field-message if the function name is wp_required_field_message.)

[ryokuhi]

This ticket was reviewed today during the accessibility team's bug-scrub.
This ticket already has a patch, so we're milestoning it for 6.0.
The functions introduced with this ticket will probably be useful to solve other open tickets and in other parts of WordPress core: a starting point could be reviewing which required fields can benefit from these functions.
It still has to be decided if such a review should be done here or in a new ticket.

[sabernhardt]

updating comments form example after r52200

[sabernhardt]

If editing the front-end Comments form template is appropriate, some of these other existing cases in the admin might be good to update as well:

• New Site form
• get_media_item
• wp_media_insert_url_form
• get_compat_media_markup

[joedolson]

I think it absolutely makes sense to propagate these changes out right away, in every place possible.

I don't see any reason not to implement those changes directly in this patch, and propagate this right away. If there are examples of required indicators in the admin that use a different HTML/class pattern, then those probably need to be documented and handled as individual patches, but the ones that are exact matches are an easy replacement.

[sabernhardt]

using functions in comments template, the New Site form, and 3 media functions

[sabernhardt]

The spacing in 53494.4.patch​ should be identical to the existing markup in these functions, but each message has the wrapper span and each indicator has aria-hidden.

In wp_media_insert_url_form, the Alternative Text field has had a required (or aria-required) attribute since r8313, and the patch gives that label its missing indicator.

I made the changes to get_compat_media_markup, though I do not know to test that function.

[sabernhardt]

See #55717 about removing the aria-hidden attributes.

Also, should the $echo parameter name change to $display_message or $display (r53203, r53207)?

[audrasjb]

Self assigning for review and, hopefully, early commit.

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/54394

[audrasjb]

In the above PR I refreshed the patch against trunk, I updated @since mentions, I renamed $echo to $display.

[audrasjb]

@sabernhardt looks like unit test are not passing with the proposed patch :) See PR above.

Fixing WPCS and PHP compatibility errors found in #2819, plus correcting the $message variable name

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/54394

[sabernhardt]

Thanks for refreshing the patch and running the tests. The PR is more polished now.

[audrasjb]

Ah thank you for the new PR, looks even better than mine :-)

Closed in favor of ​https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/2821

[sabernhardt]

The current PR contains the ​translatable string proposed in #23870. That still might be filterable, yet these functions would not work well with the argument concept suggested there. Perhaps switching to an $args array in these functions would be more flexible.

function wp_required_field_indicator( $args = array() ) {
	$defaults = array(
		'space_before' => ' ',
		/* translators: Character to identify required form fields. */
		'glyph'        => __( '*' ),
		'display'      => false,
	);

	$args = wp_parse_args( $args, $defaults );

[joedolson]

Switching to an array argument would make it easier to add arguments in the future, should we need to, although I don't currently see a need for that.

[SergeyBiryukov]

I think a better location for these new functions would be in wp-includes/general-template.php, next to the checked(), selected(), disabled() and wp_readonly() helpers.

In this PR, the helper functions of ​PR 2821 are simplified and moved to general-template.php.

This also adds a space before the indicator glyph in get_media_item() and get_compat_media_markup() that was not there before, for consistency with the other functions.

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/54394

[sabernhardt]

In ​yesterday's Slack discussion, @markjaquith recommended removing the parameters.

[audrasjb]

Yes, the idea is to simplify the usage of this function by moving echoing management (add a space before or after the message, decide on whether to return or echo the message) to the place where the function is called (= in the template).

Closing in favor of #2982

[sabernhardt]

@audrasjb ​PR 2982 simplifies the functions without parameters. Did you have other changes to request?

[audrasjb]

@sabernhardt I added one last comment… what do you think?
I think we're pretty close to get this patch committed :)

[audrasjb]

As per today's bugscrub, markign this for commit.

[audrasjb]

In 53888:

General: Add required fields helper functions for better reusability.

This changeset introduces new wp_required_field_indicator() and wp_required_field_message() helper functions to generate reusable and consistent required field indicator and message. It also implements these functions in various admin screens.

Props sabernhardt, ryokuhi, joedolson, audrasjb, SergeyBiryukov.
Fixes #54394.

Committed in https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/53888

[audrasjb]

@sabernhardt now that it is committed, shouldn't we open a ticket to make $indicator and $message filterable?

Introduce 3 filters to the 2 new wp_required_field_*-functions.
https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/54394

[kebbet]

PR 3088 adds three filters, two for the markup and one for the indicator glyph, don't know if that actually is needed. Any thoughts?

[desrosj]

Reopening to make sure that ticket:54394#comment:52 is addressed. Though a new ticket is probably preferred.

[audrasjb]

Thank you for the patch @kebbet!
I think we can probably just provide one hook to filter the HTML content. In my opinion, wp_required_field_indicator and wp_required_field_message should be more than enough since wp_required_field_indicator allows developer to change the glyph.

Also, there's a typo in one filter name, I commented in the PR :)

[kebbet]

Replying to desrosj:

Reopening to make sure that ticket:54394#comment:52 is addressed. Though a new ticket is probably preferred.

Please close this ticket in favor for #56389.

[audrasjb]

Closing as #56389 was opened to introduce some hooks.

Should we have unit tests to ensure these filters are always fired? @audrasjb

Ah yes 👍

@SergeyBiryukov In ​80ffb13, the test class name was changed from TitleCase to camelCase. In ​Writing PHPUnit Tests - Test Classes, it says:

Test class names should reflect the filepath, with underscores replacing directory separators and TitleCase replacing camelCase. Thus, the class Tests_Comment_GetCommentClass(), which contains tests for the get_comment_class() function, is located in tests/comment/getCommentClass.php.

I understand this commit was made for consistency. Should the handbook, or the test suite, be updated?

[audrasjb]

In 54137:

Comments: Make wp_required_field_indicator() and wp_required_field_message() output filterable.

This changeset introduces two new hooks:

• wp_required_field_indicator allows developers to filter the HTML output of the wp_required_field_indicator() function.
• wp_required_field_message does the same for the wp_required_field_message() function.

The changeset also adds new phpunit tests for these filters.

Follow-up to [53888], [54136].

Props kebbet, audrasjb, sabernhardt, costdev, mukesh27.
Fixes #56389.
See #54394.

Committed in https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/54137

[sabernhardt]

Dev note:
​https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/10/functions-and-hooks-for-required-fields-in-wordpress-6-1/