[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #40073: WP_Comment_Query should support a comment type of "comment"

[WordPress Trac]

#40073: WP_Comment_Query should support a comment type of "comment"
-------------------------+-----------------------------
 Reporter:  rogerlos     |      Owner:
     Type:  enhancement  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Comments     |    Version:  trunk
 Severity:  normal       |   Keywords:
  Focuses:               |
-------------------------+-----------------------------
 Scenario: User is leveraging the `comment_type` field in their theme or a
 plugin, and desires all comments to have a type. They assign "regular"
 comments a `comment_type` of "comment" as that seems to make sense.

 If they then ask for those comments using `get_comments` or another
 function which leverages `WP_Comment_Query`:

 {{{
 $comments = get_comments( [
     'type' => 'comment',
 ] );
 }}}

 The returned list will not return any comments which have `comment_type`
 set to "comment", only those with no type at all.

 As this behavior (the swallowing of "comment" as a type entirely, rather
 than looking for `['','comment']`) is undocumented, perhaps
 `WP_Comment_Query` could be altered as such:

 {{{
 715   case 'comment':
 716   case 'comments':
 717     $comment_types[ $operator ][] = "''";
 ___     $comment_types[ $operator ][] = "'comment'";
 ___     $comment_types[ $operator ][] = "'comments'";
 718     break;
 719
 720   case 'pings':
 721     $comment_types[ $operator ][] = "'pingback'";
 722     $comment_types[ $operator ][] = "'trackback'";
 ___     $comment_types[ $operator ][] = "'pings'";
 723     break;
 }}}

 A sounder approach would probably be to allow a flag to be passed:

 {{{
 708   foreach ( $_raw_types as $type ) {
 ___      if ( empty( $this->query_vars['ignore_default_types'] ) ) {
 709         switch ( $type ) {
 ...
 729         }
 ___      } else {
 ___         $comment_types[ $operator ][] = $wpdb->prepare( '%s', $type );
 ___      }
 ...
 735   }
 }}}

 An alternative might be to throw an exception when setting `comment_type`
 to one of the default values using `wp_new_comment`, `wp_insert_comment`
 and similar functions.

 (I feel since there is no way to retrieve a comment when the type is one
 of these "reserved" words with standard WP functions, comments should
 probably not be able to be saved with a "reserved" type using standard
 functions if `WP_Comment_Query` is not altered.)

 At the very least, the documentation for comment "insert" functions should
 mention that there are reserved keywords on `comment_type`, note what they
 are, and that if you use one of them you will need to use the
 `comments_clauses` filter to allow them to be retrieved.

--
Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/40073>
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