type being echoed to screen

It is because you have added the taxonomy filter with no terms at all. Try add terms of the taxonomy, and it will be gone.

Btw, the ‘or’ part is correct. It is a way to add a custom filter if someone want to add input type that other than ‘dropdwon, checkbox or radio button’.

Hi, thanks for the reply,

Maybe it will help to explain a little further. I’m showing this filter box on category pages, and I’m adding a filter (on uwpqsf_taxonomy_arg) to only show subcategories of the current category. So for example I’m adding “parent” => [100] to $args.

On category pages that have subcategories, it works fine. But some categories do not have subcategories, so on those pages, the word “checkbox” gets output to the screen.

Problem 1 is that in the output_formtaxo_fields function, if get_terms returns an empty array (and $type = ‘checkbox’) it doesn’t pass the $count > 0 check so it does not return actually continues and returns the custom addtax filter at the bottom of the method.

One solution would be to pull the return apply_filters outside of the $count > 0 if block and it would solve this issue.

Problem 2 is that if you count the # of parameters in the checkbox filter, there are 13 parameters and $type is the 3rd parameter:

return  apply_filters( 'uwpqsf_tax_field_checkbox', $html ,$type,$exc,$hide,$taxname,$taxlabel,$taxall,$opt,$c,$defaultclass,$formid,$divclass);

but if you look at the custom field filter, there are only 12 parameters and $type is the 2nd parameter.

return apply_filters( 'uwpqsf_addtax_field_'.$type.'', $type,$exc,$hide,$taxname,$taxlabel,$taxall,$opt,$c,$defaultclass,$formid,$divclass);

and in the wordpress documentation for the apply_filters function, the 2nd parameter gets returned and output to the screen, so in my case, if there are no subcategories, and $type = ‘checkbox’, the custom filter runs, passing $type as the second parameter which is why I’m getting “checkbox” on the screen.

Also, my point about the “or” statement is that it’s exactly the same as writing if(true) so it will always run, and I’m not sure that’s what you intend.

$types = ['dropdown', 'checkbox', 'radio', 'custom'];

foreach ($types as $type) {
	if($type != 'dropdown' or $type != 'checkbox' or $type != 'radio') {
		echo 'true';
	}
}

this will return truetruetruetrue

The counts must be present there. It is pointless to add the filter if there are no terms in the taxonomy as it will don’t have any input field in the filter.

Your problem is you have empty subcategories. If you don’t want to add the filter, you can always use hooks to customize it. eg, for checkbox:

add_filter('uwpqsf_tax_field_checkbox','exclude_empty_filter','',);
function exclude_empty_filter($html ,$type,$exc,$hide,$taxname,$taxlabel,$taxall,$opt,$c,$defaultclass,$formid,$divclass){
   $eid = explode(",", $exc);
   $args = array('hide_empty'=>$hide,'exclude'=>$eid );	//you can add your arguments here.
   $terms = get_terms($taxname,$taxoargs);
   $count = count($terms);
   if ( $count > 0 ){
       return $html; //return the html if have terms
   }
     return '';//return nothing if no terms.
}

As for the “or” statement “, just like I said. It is for user to adding custom filter hook that other than checkbox, radio button and dropdown. It has nothing to do with your problem here.

Hi, thanks for your reply. I appreciate your time looking into this.

I’m not suggesting removing the $count > 0. I understand why that’s there. But you say it is pointless to add the filter if there are no terms, but I would argue if I wanted to output something like “No subcategories found”, I could not because the filter would not run. But that is only a small point.

The main issue is that having empty subcategories should return nothing. But it does not. It returns the string “checkbox”

And the “or” statement actually does have a lot to do with my issue here. I understand why that custom filter is there. But what I’m saying is that if($type != ‘dropdown’ or $type != ‘checkbox’ or $type != ‘radio’) ALWAYS RETURNS TRUE. So in my case, $count = 0, none of the above return statements fire, so it arrives to this if statement and since again, please check the logic, it ALWAYS RETURNS TRUE, it returns the custom field filter even though my $type = ‘checkbox’.

that by itself is not the whole issue

I think the bigger issue is that in the custom field filter, apply_filter is missing $html as the 2nd parameter. There are only 12 parameters when the others have 13. The others have $type as the 3rd parameter but here $type as the 2nd parameter, which again, is my case is ‘checkbox’ and that is why the word “checkbox” is output to the screen when there are no subcategories.

I hope I am explaining myself well. Thanks again.

You have the point in the or statement. It was a mistake, but it won’t affects much if you using checkbox, dropdown or radio since this line won’t be executed , because it already returned in each of the type.

My point here, is that you can always use the filter hook that provided for to customize in order to fit your need. The plugin provides many filter hooks for customization. Eg,the ‘uwpqsf_tax_field_checkbox’ in my previous post.
Since you know coding, you can apply your own idea by using those filter hook.

This plugin is for general purpose use, the case of yours “No subcategories found” is rarely happens. In fact it is the first complaint I got.

I understand that every user has it own needs, the basic features that provided may not fit their needs. That’s where those customization hooks comes in handy.

I understand that getting no subcategories may be a bit of an edge case, but you say it won’t affect much because it already returns for each of the types, but in the case that $count = 0, it does not. Also, I cannot “always use the filter hook” (uwpqsf_tax_field_checkbox), because again, where $count = 0, it never gets called.

We could go on, but in the end it’s an edge case and a combination of things that result in “checkbox” getting output to the screen. I’ll post my work-around below just in case someone else finds themselves in a similar situation and may find it useful.

add_filter('uwpqsf_addtax_field_checkbox', 'uwpqsf_type_output_fix');
add_filter('uwpqsf_addtax_field_radio', 'uwpqsf_type_output_fix');
add_filter('uwpqsf_addtax_field_dropdown', 'uwpqsf_type_output_fix');
function uwpqsf_type_output_fix($html) {
    if (in_array($html, ['dropdown', 'checkbox', 'radio'])) return '';
    return $html;
}