[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #11515: Admin needs standardized way of handling error messages

[WordPress Trac]

#11515: Admin needs standardized way of handling error messages
----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  filosofo        |       Owner:                              
     Type:  defect (bug)    |      Status:  new                         
 Priority:  normal          |   Milestone:  3.0                         
Component:  Administration  |     Version:  3.0                         
 Severity:  normal          |    Keywords:  error-message admin-messages
----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
 If you try to upload a media item under Media > Add new without an uploads
 directory, you get the following vague error message:

 {{{
 Error saving media attachment.
 }}}

 If you try instead to upload from the post edit page, you get a much more
 helpful message:

 {{{
 Unable to create directory /path/wp-content/uploads. Is its parent
 directory writable by the server?
 }}}

 In each case, the root error is the same, but the second error message
 points the way to a solution.  Even if the user doesn't know herself what
 that message means, it's a message that provides the necessary information
 to someone else who does and is trying to help the user. The first message
 is completely useless, as it states only what we already know: something
 went wrong.

 The reason Media > Add new doesn't offer a helpful message is that the
 error is generated on one page request, and ''then'' the user is
 redirected to another page.

 We need a standard, cross-page-load way of conveying messages in admin.

 I've thought of a few possible ways of doing this:

  * Define and use a standardized set of error codes and associated error
 messages.  This is similar to what happens currently on many pages: the
 unhelpful "Error saving media attachment." appears when the message
 argument is set to "3."  What I'm suggesting would use a common set of
 message codes across the admin and be much more detailed.  So the above
 situation would instead produce a message like "Unable to create the
 uploads directory."
  * Save error messages to a cookie.  Unlike the previous method, this
 would allow messages to be made particular to their event.
  * Have some kind of user messaging stack.  New messages would be pushed
 into a user's stack (stored in usermeta) and popped off after a certain
 time, or when read, etc.  This has the advantage of lasting across
 sessions and browsers and being usable for other applications, such as PMs
 between users.

 What do you think?

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/11515>
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