Hello,

we have a website with bbpress and Buddypress. In some topics there are gaps in the counter menu_order, so that the pages are calculated incorrectly. For example, a topic with 80 replies has menu_order up to >90, so the reply links link to a page that doesn’t exist.

Is there a way to fix the menu_order? And why are there such gaps?

[@robin-w Moderator 10 months, 1 week ago]

Try dashboard,tools,forums,repair forums and run one at a time

[@bastizim Participant 10 months, 1 week ago]

Thanks for your reply, Robin. I have used the repair functions and the gaps are still there.

I have installed a local test system and a script, that iterates through the replies and fix the menu_order in wp_posts of every reply with a simple counter.

It works at the test system, but I’m not sure, if there could be any side effects.

[@robin-w Moderator 10 months, 1 week ago]

I’m away this week, but see no reason why that should not work

[@bastizim Participant 10 months ago]

Thank you, I will try that.

[@bastizim Participant 10 months ago]

I’ve just seen some replies that have the post_status spam and are responsible for gaps in some topics. The spam-marked replies are part of the menu_order.

For example:

ID post_status menu_order
1 publish 1
2 spam 2
3 publish 3
4 spam 4

and so on…
Any idea about that?

[@robin-w Moderator 10 months ago]

Yes that would be a good explanation , let me test

[@robin-w Moderator 10 months ago]

A copy of your script would be useful

[@bastizim Participant 10 months ago]

Yes, of course. Here is my script. I thought about setting menu_order for spam posts to “0” before the loop.

<?php

require_once('wp-load.php');

function repair_menu_order_gaps()
{
    global $wpdb;

    $posts = $wpdb->get_results("
        SELECT ID FROM $wpdb->posts
        WHERE post_type = 'topic' AND post_status = 'publish'
        ORDER BY ID ASC
    ");
    

    $topic_counter = 1;
    $unterschiede = 0;

    foreach ($posts as $post) {

        $poid = $post->ID;

        $replies  = $wpdb->get_results("
        SELECT menu_order, ID FROM $wpdb->posts
        WHERE post_type = 'reply' AND post_status = 'publish' AND post_parent=$post->ID ORDER BY menu_order ASC");
        
        $order=0;
        $counter = 0;

        $ids = array();
        $menu_orders = array();
        foreach ($replies as $reply) {
            $counter++;
            $order=$reply->menu_order;
            $ids[] = $reply->ID;
            $menu_orders[] = $reply->menu_order;   
        }

        if($counter!=$order) {
            echo "Abweichung gefunden in Post $poid: Counter $counter , Order = $order </br/>";
            $unterschiede++;

            $counter_rep = 0;
            foreach ($ids as $id) {
	        $order=$menu_orders[$counter_rep];
                $counter_rep++;
                

                echo "Neue Nummer für $id: $counter_rep (Alt: $order)<br/>";
                
                // Set new menu_order
                $wpdb->update(
                    $wpdb->posts,
                    array('menu_order' => $counter_rep),
                    array('ID' => $id)
                );
            

            }
        } 

        $topic_counter++;
    }