[pfefferle]

Summary

insert_attachment() has always taken a third argument and never used it. Both of its callers pass something, and both were losing it.

media_sideload_url() gets the alt of a media value. default_file_handler() reads it off the request:

$desc = is_array( $val ) ? \mp_get( $val, 'alt', null ) : null;
$media_controller->media_sideload_url( $url, $post_id, $desc );

so a client that describes its photo has that description carried through two calls and then dropped. I noticed this while writing the test for the alt is optional fix in #330: there was nothing to assert on, because alt does not reach anything.

The media endpoint passes $request->get_param( 'name' ), which is a title rather than a description, and lost it the same way.

These are two different things sharing one argument, so they are now two arguments. $title sets post_title, after the EXIF title so that an explicit name wins, and before the filename fallback. $alt goes to _wp_attachment_image_alt, which is where WordPress looks for alternative text.

media_sideload_url()'s third parameter is renamed from $title to $alt and forwarded as alt. It is a public method, but the argument has been inert since it was written, so nothing can be relying on the old meaning.

The mf2_photo meta still holds a plain URL rather than the { value, alt } object. That seems right to me: the alt now lives on the attachment, which is the WordPress-native place to look it up, and changing the shape of that meta would break anything reading it today.

Tests

Six tests in class-test-media.php. Four fail without the change, two are guards that pass either way.

• A sideload stores the alt text
• A sideload strips tags from it, as core does when saving alt
• A sideload without alt stores no alt text (guard)
• The alt survives the whole way from a create request to the attachment, not just the last call
• An upload with name uses it as the attachment title
• An upload without name still falls back to the filename (guard)

serve_test_image() moves to Micropub_UnitTestCase so it is not written a third time. #334 added a copy in class-test-endpoint-media.php.

Test plan

• vendor/bin/phpunit in wp-env: 116 tests, the 11 failures and 2 errors are the pre-existing example.org ones
• Each new test checked against trunk
• composer lint
• CI green on 7.4, 8.3 and 8.5

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR ensures media metadata sent by Micropub clients is actually persisted: attachment alt text provided in media objects now reaches WordPress’ _wp_attachment_image_alt, and the media endpoint’s name parameter is used as the attachment title.

Changes:

• Extend Media_Controller::insert_attachment() to accept and save both a $title (to post_title) and an $alt (to _wp_attachment_image_alt), and repurpose media_sideload_url()’s third argument to mean alt text.
• Add/expand PHPUnit coverage to assert alt text storage (including tag stripping) and correct title behavior for uploads with/without name.
• Deduplicate test infrastructure by moving serve_test_image() into Micropub_UnitTestCase.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File	Description
includes/rest/class-media-controller.php	Persist attachment title and alt text during upload/sideload flows; rename/repurpose sideload parameter to represent alt text.
tests/phpunit/includes/class-micropub-unit-test-case.php	Move serve_test_image() helper to shared base test case for reuse.
tests/phpunit/tests/class-test-endpoint-media.php	Remove duplicated helper now provided by the base test case.
tests/phpunit/tests/class-test-media.php	Add tests covering alt persistence/tag stripping and upload title behavior driven by name.

Suppressed comments (2)

includes/rest/class-media-controller.php:423

• $alt is currently gated by a truthy check. In PHP, the string '0' is falsey, so a client-provided alt text of '0' would not be saved. Consider checking for null instead so all valid strings are stored when the parameter is provided.

		if ( $alt ) {
			\update_post_meta( $id, '_wp_attachment_image_alt', \wp_slash( \wp_strip_all_tags( $alt ) ) );
		}

includes/rest/class-media-controller.php:515

• When attachment_url_to_postid() finds an existing attachment, the function returns early after setting post_parent, and the new $alt parameter is ignored. That means clients still can't set alt text for already-sideloaded media (including attachments created before this fix). Consider applying $alt here too; to avoid overwriting an existing curated alt, only set it when the attachment currently has no alt.

		$id = \attachment_url_to_postid( $url );
		if ( $id ) {
			\wp_update_post(
				array(
					'ID'          => $id,

---

💡 Add a code-review agent skill or configure MCP servers for context-aware, tailored reviews. Learn more in the docs.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Suppressed comments (1)

includes/rest/class-media-controller.php:516

• When attachment_url_to_postid() finds an existing attachment, media_sideload_url() returns early without applying the provided alt text. If callers pass alt, it should be persisted for existing attachments too (at least when $alt !== null).

		if ( $id ) {
			\wp_update_post(
				array(
					'ID'          => $id,
					'post_parent' => $post_id,