Improve error messages for clarity #8177

Sukhendu2002 · 2025-01-23T06:59:59Z

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/43622

This Pull Request is for code review only. Please keep all other discussion in the Trac ticket. Do not merge this Pull Request. See GitHub Pull Requests for Code Review in the Core Handbook for more details.

github-actions · 2025-01-23T07:13:09Z

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github-actions · 2025-01-24T06:32:51Z

The following accounts have interacted with this PR and/or linked issues. I will continue to update these lists as activity occurs. You can also manually ask me to refresh this list by adding the props-bot label.

Core Committers: Use this line as a base for the props when committing in SVN:

Props sukhendu2002, joedolson.

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joedolson

Some structural changes, but also some things that could be more appropriate to the WordPress context.

joedolson · 2025-01-26T21:49:13Z

src/wp-admin/customize.php

@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@

 	if ( in_array( get_post_status( $changeset_post->ID ), array( 'publish', 'trash' ), true ) ) {
 		wp_die(
-			'<h1>' . __( 'Something went wrong.' ) . '</h1>' .
+			'<h1>' . __( 'An error occurred while saving your changeset. Please try again or start a new changeset.' ) . '</h1>' .


Keep headings short - no more than one sentence, then add additional context as paragraphs below.

The heading should probably be "An error occurred while saving your changeset."

joedolson · 2025-01-26T21:49:36Z

src/wp-admin/includes/class-custom-image-header.php

@@ -830,7 +830,7 @@ public function step_2() {

 		if ( ! current_theme_supports( 'custom-header', 'uploads' ) ) {
 			wp_die(
-				'<h1>' . __( 'Something went wrong.' ) . '</h1>' .
+				'<h1>' . __( 'An error occurred while processing your header image. Please ensure your theme supports custom headers and try again.' ) . '</h1>' .


As above, just use the first sentence as the heading, then add additional context in paragraphs below.

joedolson · 2025-01-26T21:49:58Z

src/wp-admin/includes/class-custom-image-header.php

@@ -1018,7 +1018,7 @@ public function step_3() {

 		if ( ! current_theme_supports( 'custom-header', 'uploads' ) ) {
 			wp_die(
-				'<h1>' . __( 'Something went wrong.' ) . '</h1>' .
+				'<h1>' . __( 'An error occurred while processing your header image. Please ensure your theme supports custom headers and try again.' ) . '</h1>' .


Same issue; use first sentence as heading, move second sentence to a paragraph below.

joedolson · 2025-01-26T21:51:08Z

src/wp-admin/includes/class-custom-image-header.php

@@ -1029,7 +1029,7 @@ public function step_3() {
 			&& ! current_theme_supports( 'custom-header', 'flex-width' )
 		) {
 			wp_die(
-				'<h1>' . __( 'Something went wrong.' ) . '</h1>' .
+				'<h1>' . __( 'An error occurred while processing your header image. Please ensure your theme supports custom headers and try again.' ) . '</h1>' .


Same issue; use first sentence as heading, move second sentence to a paragraph below.

joedolson · 2025-01-26T21:54:23Z

src/wp-admin/media-upload.php

@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 // Require an ID for the edit screen.
 if ( isset( $action ) && 'edit' === $action && ! $ID ) { // phpcs:ignore WordPress.NamingConventions.ValidVariableName
 	wp_die(
-		'<h1>' . __( 'Something went wrong.' ) . '</h1>' .
+		'<h1>' . __( 'An error occurred during the upload process. Please try again or contact support.' ) . '</h1>' .


There is no support to contact, and this error doesn't really give enough context for anybody to get a lot of value out of it by taking it to the support forums. I think eliminate 'or contact support', and move the additional sentence into the next paragraph.

joedolson · 2025-01-26T21:55:22Z

src/wp-admin/users.php

@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@
 			// If the user doesn't already belong to the blog, bail.
 			if ( is_multisite() && ! is_user_member_of_blog( $id ) ) {
 				wp_die(
-					'<h1>' . __( 'Something went wrong.' ) . '</h1>' .
+					'<h1>' . __( 'An unexpected error occurred. Please try again or contact support.' ) . '</h1>' .


Remove the second sentence here.

joedolson · 2025-01-26T21:56:32Z

src/wp-includes/class-wp-xmlrpc-server.php

@@ -5040,7 +5040,7 @@ public function blogger_getRecentPosts( $args ) {
 		$posts_list = wp_get_recent_posts( $query );

 		if ( ! $posts_list ) {
-			$this->error = new IXR_Error( 500, __( 'Either there are no posts, or something went wrong.' ) );
+			$this->error = new IXR_Error( 500, __( 'No posts found or an error occurred while retrieving posts. Please try again later.' ) );


I don't think "please try again later" is appropriate here; that implies that this is known to be a temporary error, and we don't actually know that at this stage.

joedolson · 2025-01-26T21:56:46Z

src/wp-includes/class-wp-xmlrpc-server.php

@@ -6523,7 +6523,7 @@ public function mt_getRecentPostTitles( $args ) {
 		$posts_list = wp_get_recent_posts( $query );

 		if ( ! $posts_list ) {
-			$this->error = new IXR_Error( 500, __( 'Either there are no posts, or something went wrong.' ) );
+			$this->error = new IXR_Error( 500, __( 'No posts found or an error occurred while retrieving posts. Please try again later.' ) );


Remove "Please try again later."

joedolson · 2025-01-26T21:57:33Z

src/wp-includes/script-loader.php

@@ -810,7 +810,7 @@ function wp_default_scripts( $scripts ) {
 		'wpAjax',
 		array(
 			'noPerm' => __( 'Sorry, you are not allowed to do that.' ),
-			'broken' => __( 'Something went wrong.' ),
+			'broken' => __( 'An unexpected error occurred while processing your request. Please try again later or contact support if the issue persists.' ),


Remove "or contact support if the issue persists."

joedolson · 2025-01-26T22:02:50Z

src/wp-includes/script-loader.php

@@ -1292,7 +1292,7 @@ function wp_default_scripts( $scripts ) {
 			'close'                   => __( 'Close' ),
 			'action'                  => __( 'Action' ),
 			'discardChanges'          => __( 'Discard changes' ),
-			'cheatin'                 => __( 'Something went wrong.' ),
+			'cheatin'                 => __( 'An unexpected error occurred. Please check your permissions and try again.' ),


Permissions are not the only situation that can trigger 'cheatin', so that should probably not be implied. It's mostly about invalid nonce values.

Improve error messages for clarity

6b41a54

joedolson self-requested a review January 23, 2025 21:55

Update more error messages

a41c014

Sukhendu2002 marked this pull request as ready for review January 24, 2025 06:32

joedolson requested changes Jan 26, 2025

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Update error messages to improve clarity

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Improve error messages for clarity #8177

Improve error messages for clarity #8177

Sukhendu2002 commented Jan 23, 2025

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github-actions bot commented Jan 24, 2025 •

edited

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Improve error messages for clarity #8177

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Improve error messages for clarity #8177

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Sukhendu2002 commented Jan 23, 2025

github-actions bot commented Jan 23, 2025

Test using WordPress Playground

Some things to be aware of

github-actions bot commented Jan 24, 2025 • edited Loading

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github-actions bot commented Jan 24, 2025 •

edited

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