Stream doesn't detect programmatically created posts correctly

[dero]

Bug Report

The Posts connector uses the transition_post_status hook to detect posts being updated and created. It only considers the post being created when it transitions from auto-draft to anything else.

This is likely enough to capture posts being created in WordPress admin. However, calling wp_insert_post programmatically will assign a new status to posts created via other means. Those posts are then reported as updated.

More context: #1121 (comment)

Expected Behavior

Stream should report programmatically created posts as created.

[kidunot89]

@dero I don't know if I would consider this a bug, but a design choice. I'm pretty sure the logic here was also written with the belief that draft was the default post status. I also believe we can resolve this by changing this conditional here to something like this

elseif ( 'publish' === $new && in_array( $old, array( 'draft', 'new', true )  ) {...}

[dero]

I don't know if I would consider this a bug, but a design choice.

@kidunot89 I don't follow, what exactly is a design choice? Note: draft is not the same as auto-draft.

Let me explain why I consider this a bug.

The $action is either created or updated and, straightforwardly, those values should correspond to situations where a new post is created vs. when an existing post is updated. However, using wp_insert_post programmatically to create new post will incorrectly lead to Stream logging that a post has been updated.

The reason for the created condition in Stream is how WordPress creates new posts in the Admin. It will create an auto-draft post in the DB when "New Post" is clicked in the admin (see here and here).

However, posts created via other means will likely transition from status new to their final status directly. Stream doesn't account for the new status in the callback logic at all. I can imagine two design decisions being made here:

1. Do not log programmatically created posts.
2. Log programmatically created posts.

The first option would skip logging any posts that transition from the new status, the second option would set $action to created for posts created this way. Is this line of thought incorrect?

I also believe we can resolve this by changing this conditional here to something like this

That doesn't address the issue as it would still lead to $action being set to updated.

[dero]

Fixed by #1121 -- closing.