[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #20285: Author meta fields aren't displaying correctly due to broken logic

[WordPress Trac]

#20285: Author meta fields aren't displaying correctly due to broken logic
--------------------------+-----------------------------
 Reporter:  FredWu        |      Owner:
     Type:  defect (bug)  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal        |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Users         |    Version:  3.3.1
 Severity:  major         |   Keywords:  has-patch
--------------------------+-----------------------------
 Some authors have missing meta data even though the data are in the
 database. For example, some authors' description/biography are empty when
 retrieving them from `the_author_meta('description')`, even though
 `$authordata->description` from the function shows the data correctly.

 This is caused by a bug in `wp-includes/author-template.php`, starting
 from line 99:

 {{{
 function get_the_author_meta($field = '', $user_id = false) {
         if ( ! $user_id )
                 global $authordata;
         else
                 $authordata = get_userdata( $user_id );

         var_dump($authordata);

         // Keys used as object vars cannot have dashes.
         $field = str_replace('-', '', $field);
         $field = strtolower($field);
         $user_field = "user_$field";

         if ( 'id' == $field )
                 $value = isset($authordata->ID) ? (int)$authordata->ID :
 0;
         elseif ( isset($authordata->$user_field) )
                 $value = $authordata->$user_field;
         else
                 $value = isset($authordata->$field) ? $authordata->$field
 : '';

         return apply_filters('get_the_author_' . $field, $value,
 $user_id);
 }
 }}}

 `elseif ( isset($authordata->$user_field) )` is the problem, because for
 some users this field is set, but is empty, so the system never gets
 through to the real 'description' field.

 I've attached a patch that fixes this.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/20285>
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