[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #24612: Permalink conflict: image attachment page and post when permalink setting is /%postname%/

[WordPress Trac]

#24612: Permalink conflict: image attachment page and post when permalink setting
is /%postname%/
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 Reporter:  augustas                    |       Owner:
     Type:  defect (bug)                |      Status:  reopened
 Priority:  normal                      |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Permalinks                  |     Version:  3.3
 Severity:  normal                      |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch needs-unit-tests  |     Focuses:
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Comment (by dmchale):

 Thanks for that workaround @SergeyBirukov it worked perfectly on one of my
 client sites. (the latest patch did not. I tried to update query.php with
 the code changes in that patch manually, just to see if it was viable, but
 it seems the fact that the code did not set `queried_object_id` or
 `is_single` was causing problems)

 Unfortunately, this issue has bitten me TWICE in the past 2 weeks at my
 day job, after 3 years of never having knowingly run into it before. I
 think a good part of the trouble stems from our SEO department wanting to
 ensure that all of our file names are now "search engine friendly" and as
 such have been trying to name documents and images more intelligently now
 on our client sites. Due to this, they HAPPEN to be naming some
 images/files the same as other objects within the system and it's causing
 issues when all of a sudden a section of the website "disappears" and site
 visitors are redirected to a PDF file rather than the content they were
 supposed to be served.

 I did a bit of testing at home on my VVV setup tonight, and documented
 some of my steps and my findings as I went. I would love to help talk
 through a workaround that could be implemented in core, if possible. Since
 I don't have any history with how/why things were made getting to this
 point, I'm not sure why some design decisions were made. I did go through
 all of the tickets referenced by this ticket though, so I have at least
 read up a good deal on some others' issues with dealing with the same
 thing.

 My notes are below..... apologies for length, I tried to be thorough.

 start with clean install of trunk
 set permalinks to /%post-name%/

 created "Permalink" PAGE (system gave it a slug of /permalink/)
 created "Permalink" POST (system gave it a slug of /permalink/)
         Already have a conflict. Why can POSTS create a shared slug as
 PAGES?
 uploaded permalink.pdf (system gave it a slug of /permalink-2/)
  - Side note, the "permalink" shown at the top of the page still shows the
 native /attachment_id=N format, which obviously does not match my
 permalink setting. Is this by design, or something that should be
 addressed? It's misleading at best.

 View /permalink/, system displays the PAGE content
 Edit PAGE, update permalink to /permalink-page/

 Refresh /permalink/, system now displays the POST content
  - While a PAGE and POST existed with the name conflict, the PAGE always
 "won"
 Edit POST, update permalink to /permalink-post/

 Refresh /permalink/, WP now redirects to /permalink-post/

 Upload permalink-post.pdf (system gave it a slug of /permalink-post-2/)
 No conflict!

         <Conclusion: you cannot create a slug conflict by uploading media
 files after an existing post type "owns" the slug> ..... Challenge: Is
 this true for all post types, CPTs included, or only pages/posts? Need to
 test.

 Upload permalink-file.pdf (system gave it a slug of /permalink-file/)
 Create POST called "permalink file" (system gave it a slug of /permalink-
 file/)
 Viewed /permalink-file/, system shows the media page with a link to
 download the PDF

         <Conclusion: you CAN create a post that will cause a naming
 conflict with a pre-existing media library item (as well as PAGE)>

 Deleted "permalink file" POST, removed it from trash

 Create PAGE called "permalink file" (system gave it a slug of /permalink-
 file-2/)
 No conflicts!

         <Conclusion: Add New Page behavior respects `attachment` post
 types, while Add New Post does not>

 Takeaways....

 - It is currently impossible to create a naming conflict between
 pages/attachments. No matter which you create first, the second one will
 pick a unique slug.

 - `Add/Edit Post` should be updated to mimic `Add New Page` functionality,
 at least in regards to preventing naming conflicts with `attachment` post
 types.

 - Permalinks/slugs have been demoted in the media library to the point of
 obvious confusion.
 - - The current behavior of the system to use the slug as a permalink, but
 never SAYS this is the case. This seems to be a massive UI failure.
 - - Slug editing is disabled from Screen Options by default, which makes
 things even more challenging to troubleshoot in this scenario

 - Would suggest that "Permalinks" on the media edit page be updated to
 behave the same way pages/posts do, so the slug can be modified in place
 at the end of the url.
 - - The screen could also CONTINUE to show the permanent link to the
 /?attachment_id=N url as well below, which would remain unchangeable.

 - Bottom line, my belief is that the post/page/attachment post types
 should all respect each other out of the box and never create naming
 conflicts with each other. The matter of whether this is done ONLY when WP
 is set to /%post-name%/ setting, or always, can easily be a talking point.
 If naming conflicts were created because of/during the changing of the
 permalink setting, that's something a site admin could/would/(should?)
 have to address at that time. That job could even be plugin territory, an
 opportunity for someone to write a tool that would address that for
 people.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/24612#comment:8>
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