Duplicate Posts and Sorting Issues with ReOrder Posts within Categories Plugin

I have also tried using the ‘Reset the order’ function, but it didn’t resolve the issue.

difficult to say. The plugin is working just fine and has had no major changes in a while, so I doubt the changes you noticed are due to the plugin. I suspect a change in the post meta data management, either from another plugin or your theme.

Can you run the plugin on a test server with a different theme ? If the issue persists, disable each plugin one by one to see if the issue goes away.

Hello,

First of all, thank you for your prompt response.

I’ve taken your suggestion and moved the entire site to a different test server. After doing so, I switched to a new theme, where only the custom post type “contact” and the taxonomy “contact_department” remain, both of which demonstrate the issue. I’ve also deactivated all other plugins, except for “ReOrder Posts within Categories”. Following these steps, I attempted to reset the order once again, but the original issue persists – sorting doesn’t work, and some items appear duplicated in the grid.

Would it be possible for me to provide you with access to the test server’s admin and FTP so you can take a closer look yourself? If yes, where can I send the credentials securely?

It’s worth noting that our client utilizes this functionality for multiple CPTs across numerous categories on the live site. They have already set a specific order which is crucial for their operations. We need to ensure that the current ordering setup remains unaffected while resolving this issue.

Would it be possible for me to provide you with access to the test server’s admin and FTP so you can take a closer look yourself? If yes, where can I send the credentials securely?

you reach out to me on “vrata at syllogic dot in”

Hello,

I’ve taken a more detailed look at the issue and have done some debugging on my end. I’ve come across a few things that I’d like to discuss further and would appreciate your input on.

Firstly, I noticed that in the file class-reorder-post-within-categories-admin.php, the variable $end_submitted is hard-coded to the value 20. What’s the reason for this specific value? I couldn’t find any logic in the code that calculates this value based on the actual number of posts. As a result, in the template reorder-post-within-categories-admin-display.php, the input with the name “post_end” always stores a value of 20.

Moreover, every time I try to change the order of posts, the $ranking array increases its count by the value in $end_submitted. Is this the intended behavior? If so, could you please explain the rationale behind it? I tried changing the $end_submitted value to 30 and noticed that the $ranking array indeed increased by 30 items after attempting to reorder, but the post order remained unchanged. I have attached a screenshot for reference.

Thank you for your reply.

Firstly, I noticed that in the file class-reorder-post-within-categories-admin.php, the variable $end_submitted is hard-coded to the value 20. What’s the reason for this specific value?

that’s just the initial value, the js front-end will actually increase the number of sortable posts using ajax and depending on the size of the post table grid. For more info please see FAQ #8.

Moreover, every time I try to change the order of posts, the $ranking array increases its count by the value in $end_submitted. Is this the intended behavior?

no that’s odd. reordering the posts by drag & drop shouldn’t change the number of posts being displayed. If that is the case then there is a js error on your page. Do you have any reported in your console?

Dear Aurovrata,

I’ve continued investigating the issue and have discovered a significant cause related to language translations.

Problem Source: The issue arises from the use of the esc_attr_e() function in the line: reorder-post-within-categories\admin\partials\reorder-post-within-categories-admin-display.php:91

<input id="post-type" type="hidden" name="post-type" value="<?php esc_attr_e( $post_type_detail->name ); ?>">

This function translates my post type name “contact” into “kontakt” in Czech, as defined in WordPress translations.

Consequence: When this translated name is passed as a parameter to the _save_order function, $ranked_rows invariably returns empty. Consequently, new entries are continually added to the postmeta table during each order change, leading to duplication instead of replacing existing values.

Could you suggest a solution, preferably as a plugin update, to address this translation issue? It appears that modifying the plugin’s code directly might be the only way to resolve this.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

Dear Pavel,

This function translates my post type name “contact” into “kontakt” in Czech, as defined in WordPress translations.

oh no! This is a terrible blunder from my side. In a hurry to pass the new WP plugin coding stds I messed up on the use of escaping functions. Thank you for your patience in debugging this. I am releasing v2.14.4 with the fix right away.

Thank you so much for your prompt response and for releasing the update.

I am pleased to inform you that I have already updated the plugin on our website, and it appears that everything is now functioning correctly. The issue with the duplicated postmeta entries seems to be resolved, and the post ordering is working as expected.

Wonderful, that’s good to hear. If you find any other bugs or want to discuss the code, it might be easier to do on the GitHub repo