[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #35431: Hierarchical comment queries do not work for interrupted hierarchies

[WordPress Trac]

#35431: Hierarchical comment queries do not work for interrupted hierarchies
--------------------------+-----------------------------
 Reporter:  boonebgorges  |      Owner:
     Type:  defect (bug)  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal        |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  General       |    Version:  4.4
 Severity:  normal        |   Keywords:  2nd-opinion
  Focuses:                |
--------------------------+-----------------------------
 Previously: #35192

 Since 4.4, `WP_Comment_Query` has supported a hierarchical method of
 querying for comments. Notably, the hierarchical strategy is used in the
 `comments_template()` chain. This strategy makes comment queries far more
 efficient than the previous technique of querying for all of a post's
 comments, and then letting `Walker_Comment` handle threading and
 pagination. See #8071.

 A side effect of the hierarchical query strategy is that the grandchild
 `C` of a comment `A` will not be returned if the intermediate comment `B`
 is not included in the query results for some reason (say,
 `comment__not_in=B`). This is a change in behavior from 4.3 and earlier,
 at least in the case of `comments_template()`. (Direct 'hierarchical'
 queries were not available before 4.4.)

 So the question is: Is this a bug? If I have a comment hierarchy like
 this:

 {{{
 A
 |--B
    |--C
 }}}

 and I query comments like this:

 {{{
 $q = new WP_Comment_Query( array(
     'hierarchical' => 'flat',
     'comment__not_in' => array( $b ),
 ) );
 }}}

 would you expect to get C? Perhaps not by default, but should there be a
 way to force interrupted hierarchies to be traversed?

 Feedback welcome.
 }}}

--
Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/35431>
WordPress Trac <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/>
WordPress publishing platform