Activity pages incorrectly return no results when the previously selected activity filter doesn't exist for the current activity context

[chriskeeble]

WP version 3.3.2
BP 1.5.5

The message: 'Sorry, there was no activity found. Please try a different filter.' is displayed if these steps are followed:

1. View the main Activity page
2. Change the filter to one which doesn't exist on the single Group activities page, i.e. one of: Posts, Comments, New Groups, Friendships, New Members
3. Navigate to a single Group and view activities.

Expected behaviour:

• Last used activity filter doesn't exist, so use default filter ('Everything')

Actual behaviour:

• Everything filter is selected (by default) in the dropdown, but
• The previously selected filter is still being applied, resulting in incorrect results and (in most cases) the message being displayed:

'Sorry, there was no activity found. Please try a different filter.'

The root of the problem is that a single cookie is being stored for activity filtering ('bp-activity-filter') regardless of which page or context we are in.

Ideally, a separate filter value (and cookie) should be used for each context:

• Activity Page
• Group Activity
• Member Activity
• (others?)

bp-activity-filter

[DJPaul]

Yes, it's been like this since 1.2.

[boonebgorges]

I think the *real* ideal would be either:
(a) Store a separate cookie for *every* activity page (each separate member, each separate group, etc) - after all, the same logic you've laid out above could apply equally between members or groups; or
(b) Stop storing these cookies at all. I don't think that the user gets very much benefit out of it, and frankly, the entire bp_ajax_querystring() beast is one of the hardest parts of BP to extend/modify, and it's largely due to the cookie logic.

When it comes time to redo the theme, I'm in favor of (b), dropping it altogether.

[chriskeeble]

@boonebgorges - yes, I would also be in favour of (b), dropping it altogether for the reasons you state.

[lakrisgubben]

closing this as a duplicate of #4062 on which I've also added a patch that fixes the problem.