Bulk Edit Blogroll Categories

Creates option on links-manager.php to mass update link categories.

Additionally, there are some minor fixes which I fixed. wp-admin/admin-functions.php calls wp_update_link - a function that does not exist and wp-admin/link.php does not single quote the linkcheck member of the $_POST array - bad style at best, possible breakage at worse.

If upgrade is screwing up category associations, upgrade needs to be fixed. wp_update_link() exists in admin-db.php, yes?

I'm not overly fond of most bulk editing UI except in comment moderation where it is really needed. Seems like a marginal, tweaker feature that is best in a plugin. Given that links now support multiple categories, having bulk reassignment to one category seems even less generally useful. Or perhaps I'm out of touch with how compulsive people are about re-categorizing their links in bulk. People get crazy about taxonomy and stats. ;-)

Replying to ryan:

If upgrade is screwing up category associations, upgrade needs to be fixed. wp_update_link() exists in admin-db.php, yes?

Yep, you're right. My grep wasn't finding it for some reason, but then again, I could just be dimwitted or in a period of caffeine-shortage. Either way, you're right.

I'm not overly fond of most bulk editing UI except in comment moderation where it is really needed. Seems like a marginal, tweaker feature that is best in a plugin. Given that links now support multiple categories, having bulk reassignment to one category seems even less generally useful. Or perhaps I'm out of touch with how compulsive people are about re-categorizing their links in bulk. People get crazy about taxonomy and stats. ;-)

If you give users the ability to have multiple blogrolls, and that is what you're doing by assigning categories to links, then IMHO you need to provide a way to do things in bulk - whether it's on upgrade (in which case upgrade.php DOES need to be fixed) or later down the road when the blogroll from 5 different areas of blogging gets so unwieldy that they have to reorg.

Since moving to WP 2.1, I have had at least a dozen people looking for help because they have 150+ blogroll links (thanks to some OPML import) and there was no category association. Having to do this manually was really a no-go as it was time consuming.

Giving a bulk move functionality is not that much bloat and it gives plenty of people a way out should they need it - for either of the two situations I just mentioned - and I'm sure there's more.

I'm jus' sayin'. ;)

If making this a plugin, can I get a hook to be able to modify the links manager? Or am I missing that too? :-)

Finally... ;-)

For my closing arguments before I let the jury deliberate, this is no different in practice to the functionality that is currently on the Users page that allows users to be promoted/demoted en masse.

I'm done now... :)

+1 for bulk editing. Right now it is very tedious and slow to change a number of links. This UI change doesn't take up much room and it makes the category screen consistent with the user screen. It already had the delete button, adding the Radio buttons from the user screen standardizes the UI. I'd actually change the label on the button to match the user screen's button too. A feature I'd add to this would be sorting by (primary)category. That would really help this screen. Right now, you can't look at the links as they appear your site. Sorting by category would solve that problem.

Consistent rules about how to handle a link in multiple categories would have to be considered.

Replying to BrianLayman:

+1 for bulk editing. Right now it is very tedious and slow to change a number of links. This UI change doesn't take up much room and it makes the category screen consistent with the user screen. It already had the delete button, adding the Radio buttons from the user screen standardizes the UI. I'd actually change the label on the button to match the user screen's button too.

Thanks, I'll rediff and resubmit. Maybe I'll add a screenshot for visual help.

A feature I'd add to this would be sorting by (primary)category. That would really help this screen. Right now, you can't look at the links as they appear your site. Sorting by category would solve that problem.

Good idea but outside of the scope of this ticket, right? Certainly a mod to the Manage Categories screen though.

Consistent rules about how to handle a link in multiple categories would have to be considered.

What are your thoughts. I can't really think of a fluid way to do this without a lot of bloat. I think the lowest common denominator we need to meet between the camp that says I'd like to move my blogroll or portions of it en masse and the camp that says lets give links multiple categories is simply being able to assign a category en masse. Anything after one category is on the user to handle manually. Those are my thoughts.

submit button labellin, some element changes, general cleanup.

sceenshot of new functionality.

Re-diff with cleanup attached along with a screenshot.

I've never been fond of the bulk UI on the users page. I'd prefer separate buttons for each action:

[Delete checked links >>>]  [Move checked links to category >>>] < My New Cat >

Or something like that. Regardless, that we have bulk UI on the users page and that a bulk category move option would be handy for imported blogrolls are well taken.

So, which do you prefer, radiobox + button, or separate buttons?

Generally, I think radio buttons is simpler and cleaner. We avoid possible support issues related similar to "Do I have to hit Save, Save and Continue Editing, or Publish?"

In other words, from a usability perspective, I think one form should have one submit button.

But that's just me.

+1 for the general idea, but bumping to 2.4.

Closing because the issues I brought up have been addressed in the Admin UI redesign in 2.5