[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #6108: In admin, current widgets should show something more identifiable than the type of widget

[WordPress Trac]

#6108: In admin, current widgets should show something more identifiable than the
type of widget
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 Reporter:  mdawaffe        |       Owner:  anonymous                   
     Type:  defect          |      Status:  new                         
 Priority:  normal          |   Milestone:  2.5                         
Component:  Administration  |     Version:  2.5                         
 Severity:  normal          |    Keywords:  widgets has-patch 2nd-opnion
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 Currently, if you have multiple text widgets, you just see them listed as
 "Text", "Text", ... in the "Current Widgets" section.

 It'd be nice if the widgets instead were listed as "Text: foo", "Text:
 bar", ... where 'foo' and 'bar' are taken from the widget's title or
 content or something (for all widgets, not just text widgets).

 Attached are two patches.  Both output titles as "{widget_type}:
 {extracted_text}".  The first patch accomplishes this via JS, the second
 via PHP.

 ----

 JS Patch:

 Each widget in the "Current Widgets" section is scanned for visible text
 inputs and textareas.  If any are found, the first 22 text characters of
 the first input element found are used as the {extracted_text}.

 Pros: Not much code change.[[BR]]
 Cons: Not super robust.

 ----

 PHP Patch:

 The display of the "Current Widgets" section is switched to a hacked
 {{{dynamic_sidebar()}}} (similar in concept to the dashboard widgets
 code).  While displaying each widget control form, the on-blog widget
 itself is output_buffered and its title extracted for use as the
 {extracted_text}.

 The use of the {{{dynamic_sidebar}}} and output buffering is necessary
 because WP has no way of determining the title that will be displayed on-
 blog of some random widget; widget's neither store nor output their
 content in any standard way.

 Pros: More robust.  If a widget outputs a title on-blog, this code will
 catch it.[[BR]]
 Cons: A lot of code change, much of which is a bit hacky.

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Ticket URL: <http://trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6108>
WordPress Trac <http://trac.wordpress.org/>
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