Taxonomy picker on User edit saves mysteriously

[robertandrews]

Describe the bug

When a taxonomy_multicheck_hierarchical is added to 'object_types' => array('user'), the value may be saved... somewhere... but not apparently in wp_usermeta as expected.

I cannot find any trace of the value getting saved in the database, though possibly it is settling as an wp_options transient, not sure.

When the value is unchecked and the User is re-saved, the value stays checked on reload.

Overall very odd behaviour.

If User cannot simply take a taxonomy field, what is the correct procedure for both saving and retrieving values?

Steps to reproduce

Register a metabox, add a taxonomy field to user.

CMB2 Field Registration Code:

<?php

add_action('cmb2_init', 'context_register_user_metabox');

function context_register_user_metabox()
{

    // Metabox: User Profile
    $cmb = new_cmb2_box(array(
        'id' => 'user_edit',
        'title' => __('User Profile Metabox', 'cmb2'), // Doesn't output for user boxes
        'object_types' => array('user'), // Tells CMB2 to use user_meta vs post_meta
        // 'show_names' => true,
        // 'new_user_section' => 'add-new-user', // where form will show on new user page. 'add-existing-user' is only other valid option.
        'context' => 'normal',
        'priority' => 'high',
    ));

    // Field: Company taxonomy
    $cmb->add_field(array(
        'name' => 'User Company',
        'id' => 'company',
        'type' => 'taxonomy_multicheck_hierarchical',
        'taxonomy' => 'company',
    ));

}
?>

Your Environment

WordPress 6.2, MAMP, macOS, PHP 7.4.33.

Additional context

Add any other context about the problem here.

[tw2113]

The taxonomy_* field types are meant to replace the taxonomy term metaboxes for posts. They're not meant to be used generically-ish to associate taxonomy terms to things.

You'd want to make use of https://github.com/CMB2/CMB2/wiki/Field-Types#multicheck-and-multicheck_inline and https://github.com/CMB2/CMB2/wiki/Field-Parameters#options_cb to fetch the terms in the taxonomy, and return your array with that.

[robertandrews]

Thanks for the pointer.
So, this seems to work...

$cmb->add_field(array(
        'name' => 'Company',
        'id' => 'company',
        'type' => 'multicheck',
        'options_cb' => 'cmb_company_terms',
        'select_all_button' => false,
    ));

function cmb_company_terms($field)
{

    // Get all "company" terms into an associative array
    // Get all terms of the 'company' taxonomy
    $terms = get_terms(array(
        'taxonomy' => 'company',
        'hide_empty' => false,
        'fields' => 'id=>name',
    ));

    return $terms;
}

What do you think?
It's just lacking the hierarchicality of the taxonomy, which taxonomy_multicheck_hierarchical does have.

In ACF, I think it just figures out where to put the data, wherever I might put a taxonomy selector, so I think that's why I hope this would happen here.

--

By the way, unlike for user, I seem to have had some success in setting a taxonomy_multicheck_hierarchical on a taxonomy, so as to allow a term to set a relationship with a term from another taxonomy. When I say "success", I mean this does set the meta in wp_termmeta. Could you flag-up if you see any issues with this?

++

Presumably, checkbox also acceptsoptions_cb? And maybe checkbox saves data plainly, inside of an array?

[tw2113]

Majority of the fields all have the items listed at https://github.com/CMB2/CMB2/wiki/Field-Parameters as available. So, yes, checkbox should as well.

Regarding flags, kind of a case of it's working in a way that you could work with, why not. I would need to trace my way through the core code to come up with any sort of answer of how/why it works.