Escape characters introduced in Textarea Custom Field

[Anonymous]

Hey Franky,
I’m experiencing a strange OCCASIONAL introduction of escape characters in one of my custom fields of type Textarea. See below. The problem is that I cannot reliably re-produce it. It only happens once in a while, unfortunately.

Not sure, if this is related to the above issue or not, but I just reviewed the settings for this custom field, and there is a very strange entry under field condition – there is an empty group listed, see this screenshot -> https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqyHmqxK9rN_utF6LNlJnJY7awpBkA?e=tH1GTz
And when I try to remove it and save it I get a critical WordPress error. See also below.

I filed this under “Generic” because I’m not sure if this qualifies as a bug or if it is something else.
Thanks in advance!
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Currently, she published the book: \\\”Always have something to look forward to\\\” Quotes of the week.

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When seeking help with this issue, you may be asked for some of the following information:
WordPress version 5.9
Current theme: AT Congress 2022 – NOW / Divi Child Theme (version 1.0.0)
Current plugin: Events Made Easy (version 2.2.64)
PHP version 8.0.15

Error Details
=============
An error of type E_ERROR was caused in line 75 of the file /usr/www/users/nowaaa/wp-content/plugins/events-made-easy/eme_formfields.php. Error message: Uncaught TypeError: join(): Argument #2 ($array) must be of type ?array, string given in /usr/www/users/nowaaa/wp-content/plugins/events-made-easy/eme_formfields.php:75
Stack trace:
#0 /usr/www/users/nowaaa/wp-content/plugins/events-made-easy/eme_formfields.php(75): join()
#1 /usr/www/users/nowaaa/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(307): eme_formfields_page()
#2 /usr/www/users/nowaaa/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(331): WP_Hook->apply_filters()
#3 /usr/www/users/nowaaa/wp-includes/plugin.php(474): WP_Hook->do_action()
#4 /usr/www/users/nowaaa/wp-admin/admin.php(259): do_action()
#5 {main}
thrown

[Franky]

This is just a guess, but for the empty-group thing: can it be you had a group defined , assigned it as a condition and then removed that group?

[Franky]

To workaround the bug: assign an existing group, save it and then unassign the existing group and save it.
The bugfix:
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/2682012/

Edit: that fix is not complete, working on something better 🙂

[Anonymous]

That was quick – very cool, thank you!
I can’t quite remember if there’s been a “ghost” group, but it seems likely, like you suggested.

Nevertheless – the workaround did not entirely work, I still got the WP error when removing the temp group and leave the condition field empty.

With your preliminary bugfix, however, I was able to remove the field condition. So, all good for now.

What I didn’t quite get from your response – is the escape character issue also been dealt with in the bugfix? Or is this something else?

[Franky]

This fix goes on top of the first fix:
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/2682020/

[Franky]

The escape characters I can’t reproduce, so I can’t fix it either 🙂

[Anonymous]

New bugfix installed – all well now. Thanks!

And regarding the escape characters – that’S OK; thought as much, as it only occurs sometimes. Which is the worst kind to pin down. I’ll try to keep an eye on it, perhaps I’ll find a clue as to the circumstances when this happens. If so, I would come back with the info.
Otherwise, it’s rare enough, so that I can live with it…

[Author]

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