Potential improvement to bp-members-classes.php and add_backcompat()

[Judder]

We noticed that error messages generated by the Wordpress core, for example when usernames already exist, weren't being displayed but instead a generic message was being shown.

It appears that bp-members-classes.php -> add_backcompat() is not re-using the $errors sent from wp_insert_user() but is instead creating it's own $errors object.

		if ( is_wp_error( $user_id ) || empty( $user_id ) ) {
			$errors->add( 'registerfail', sprintf( __( '<strong>ERROR</strong>: Couldn&#8217;t register you. Please contact the <a href="mailto:%s">webmaster</a>.', 'buddypress' ), bp_get_option( 'admin_email' ) ) );
			return $errors;
		}

We have changed our version to re-use the $user_id object instead, which, in the case where wp_insert_user() fails, contains the Wordpress error object

Could we suggest that this is added (or similar) going forwards as it is handy to have the correct error messages from Wordpress core returned?

Our minor change is:

		if ( is_wp_error( $user_id ) || empty( $user_id ) ) {
            $errors = $user_id;
			//$errors->add( 'registerfail', sprintf( __( '<strong>ERROR</strong>: Couldn&#8217;t register you. Please contact the <a href="mailto:%s">webmaster</a>.', 'buddypress' ), bp_get_option( 'admin_email' ) ) );
			return $errors;
		}

Thanks

[Buddy Press 2.1.1]

[boonebgorges]

Yes, I think this is a good suggestion - no reason for us to change the default error message here.

[r-a-y]

Mamaduka - thanks for the patch, but what is suggested above is we use WP's native registration errors instead of creating our own, custom error message.

[boonebgorges]

Replying to r-a-y:

Mamaduka - thanks for the patch, but what is suggested above is we use WP's native registration errors instead of creating our own, custom error message.

I think that this is what the patch does. $user_id in this case is the WP_Error object created by WP. We're just returning it untouched.

[r-a-y]

I think that this is what the patch does.

Apologies! Brainfart. Carry on! :)

[djpaul]

In 9200:

Members: when validating user signup, if wp_insert_user returns a WP_Error object, use it.

Prior to this change, we were replacing WP's helpful error message with a rather generic and unhelpful BP error message.
Fixes #6007, props Mamaduka