Menu item "description" is not applied to title attribute of menu tab links

This bug has remained through Drupal 7 and i believe Drupal 8, but i haven't tested the latest.

Adding this line to theme_menu_local_task() fixes it:

  $link['localized_options']['attributes'] = array('title' => $link['description']);

... as does overriding theme_menu_local_task() with a theme function that adds in that line, which is my fix for a Drupal 7 site, but moving this issue to Drupal 8 as a reminder to follow up with a patch.

Or perhaps someone can get to that before me? Tagging as novice.

I may be misunderstanding the issue. In Drupal 7, I was able to override the menu tab title and description for the node/%node/edit tab. The description is appearing.

<?php
function menu_override_menu_alter(&$items) {
	//Makes the node/nid/edit link have the title "TESTING" and also the description "TESTING description"
	$items['node/%node/edit']['title'] = 'TESTING';
	$items['node/%node/edit']['description'] = 'TESTING description';
}?>

Is there a better way to test that the problem is still present?

This bug still appears to be present in Drupal 8. I directly edited node_menu() and modified node/%node/edit:

  $items['node/%node/edit'] = array(
    'title' => 'Edit',
    'description' => 'Edit this node!',
    'page callback' => 'node_page_edit',
    'page arguments' => array(1),
    'access callback' => 'node_access',
    'access arguments' => array('update', 1),
    'weight' => 0,
    'type' => MENU_LOCAL_TASK,
    'context' => MENU_CONTEXT_PAGE | MENU_CONTEXT_INLINE,
    'file' => 'node.pages.inc',
  );

The description attribute is not outputted in the local menu task link.

The fix from comment #5 does work. I'll roll a patch if I can't find a better way to achieve this!

Patch attached.

The only change I made was to add check_plain() to the $link['description'] variable-- I don't think that it has been sanitized given that $link['title'] had not been sanitized in the same function.

I confirmed that the bug still existed by adding a description to the node/%node/edit menu item in node.module:

 'description' => 'Edit this node',

View a node as an admin, and inspect the Edit tab: without the fix from #9, there is no title attribute on the link. This patch is a good start, but we will need a test case.

+++ b/core/includes/menu.incundefined
@@ -1643,6 +1643,7 @@ function theme_menu_link(array $variables) {
   $link_text = $link['title'];
+  $link['localized_options']['attributes'] = array('title' => check_plain($link['description']));
 
   if (!empty($variables['element']['#active'])) {
     // Add text to indicate active tab for non-visual users.
-- 
1.7.5.4

This should check if $link['description'] is empty before setting the attributes, so we don't wind up with empty title="" attributes on links.

Also, this should probably only set the title attribute ($link['localized_options']['attributes']['title'] = …) in case there are other values in the attributes array when it gets to this point.

@brockboland

Good points. I'll roll another patch.

New patch with changes mentioned in #10

updating status.

Nice! I tested the patch with the above procedure of adding description to '/node/%node/edit'.

I made a minor adjustment since the line exceeds 80 characters.

Tested the patch for programmatically created page with menu descriptions. It works. Edit node link shows the description added by patch.

Thanks for working on this issue! As noted above, there is no need to add a line break after check_plain( and as also noted. this needs a test. The test is likely very small: please add a description to an existing local task in menu_test.module and assert its presence where appropriate. When you are doing so please keep indentation proper -- I am noting this because the current patch got it wrong in node.module -- as also noted already this change does not belong to this issue.

@chx What would be the best way to write the test? I admit, I haven't tried my hand at writing Drupal tests yet-- shame on me.

I could modify the method addMenuLink() so that it accepts a 'desc' parameter:

function addMenuLink($plid = 0, $link = '<front>', $menu_name = 'navigation', $expanded = TRUE, $weight = '0', $desc = '')
    // View add menu link page.
    $this->drupalGet("admin/structure/menu/manage/$menu_name/add");
    $this->assertResponse(200);

    $title = '!link_' . $this->randomName(16);
    $edit = array(
      'link_path' => $link,
      'link_title' => $title,
      'description' => $desc,
      'enabled' => TRUE, // Use this to disable the menu and test.
      'expanded' => $expanded, // Setting this to true should test whether it works when we do the std_user tests.
      'parent' =>  $menu_name . ':' . $plid,
      'weight' => $weight,
    );

then add a menu link with a description...

$item1 = $this->addMenuLink(0, 'node/' . $node1->nid, $menu_name, NULL, NULL, 'description text');

then check it...

    $this->assertMenuLink($item1['mlid'], array('depth' => 1, 'has_children' => 1, 'p1' => $item1['mlid'], 'p2' => 0, 'description' => 'description text'));

Is this the right idea? Let me know if I'm off the mark. Otherwise, I'll write a patch for it and submit.

Thanks!

Tagging for tests.

@grasmash, please post a patch if you can :)

Writing a test for this.

Patch from #14 does not apply anymore, because the functions changed. Re-rolling patch.
Note: this patch was cancelled, see #24.

Test for checking the description got rendered as a title.
Note: this patch should fail.

Edit: see next comment.

Remade patch from #21. Patch from #14 added a description to the node module hook_menu for one of the local tasks for testing purposes. This is unnecessary. I added a local task description in menu_test.module instead (already in #22).

This patch includes both the patches from #22 and #24.
Note: this patch should pass.

@wadmiraal, To show that the test matches to the changes in this patch, can you make a second 'test-only ' patch as mentioned in https://drupal.org/contributor-tasks/write-tests at step 13.

EDIT: Never mind, now I see that this test-only patch was made in #22.

Never mind #26, I now see that this the-only patch was made in #22.

Ok, sorry. I'm a bit of n00b in this area. This issue got a bit messy. Let me clarify what has been done.

1. The patch in #14 does not apply to Drupal HEAD anymore. It was re-rolled in #21.
2. A (failing) regression test was added in #22.
3. The original patch in #14 contained an unnecessary modification that added a 'description' to the 'node/%node/edit' local task. This was for testing purposes, but is arbitrary (as it would make the edit local task the only one with a description).
   The re-rolled patch in #21 contains the same modification.
   A new patch was made #24 that removes this addition to the 'node/%node/edit' local task.
4. In #25, a final patch was made containing the patch from #22 (the regression test) AND the actual correction, remade in #24.

This interdiff contains all the modifications between the original patch in #14 and the patch in #25.

Update test to use t() for the local task description.

All looks good to me.
Below patch is #29 without the functional change and must fail. If it does, it is ready for RTBC.

patch rerolled.its seems patch is aquiring bigger space. need some review

talked to @miraj9093 in irc.
because the patch was so old, the reroll might have ended up adding back large chunks that were moved/deleted. (@miraj9093 noticed the patch size was way bigger)

before trying to manually redo the changes, we thought it might be good to try and make steps to reproduce https://drupal.org/contributor-tasks/add-steps-to-reproduce

and update the issue summary with those steps to reproduce. We might be able to do that by making a view that adds a menu item that is a local task/tab.

---
ps. to set to needs review, change the status drop down instead of adding the needs review tag (having a needs review tag is confusing, sorry that is there)
---
pps. also, unassigning @wadmiraal since it has been 5 months. ;) feel free to chime back in.

Have done steps to reproduced and seems it clearly having description in the title attribute.

1.) create a link(view) and give it a name with some short description.

2.) assosiate that link(view) with menu tab .

3.) using developer option inspect that element(menu tab)

3.) you can see the description with that title attribute.

I'm pretty sure the title is now being double-encoded. I have tested this in D7 and the call to check_plain is neither needed nor correct.

l() will be called, which eventually calls drupal_attributes, which runs all the attributes through check_plain (even if html=TRUE is set, as this applies only to the link's title).

The consequence of this is that a description containing a valid html entity, such as "Do Sally's work" will result in a menu tool tip with the apostrophe double-encoded.

EDIT: Note that the code proposed in #5 is correct (without the check_plain).

Also, this issue relates to local tasks. The same change should be made to local actions.

The summary is really outdated in terms of 8.x

IMHO, after 4 years with no activity and 9 years from its creation, this issue should be closed as "works as designed".

It is a fact that there is no support for description in local task entries in Drupal 8 and no plans for adding it. The default class for local task items, LocalTaskDefault, lacks a property or some method to get and set a description. As a result, themes do not provide support for the requested "tittle" attribute in local tasks.

I'm currently working in a web project oriented for blind people. I'm facing a lot of accessibility issues like this one. To imagine it, just try to work with the screen switched off. In particular, for the blind, there is no perceivable difference between a regular menu item and a local task item, since the main difference is their visually representation. Such context information must be added by visually hidden information, like the title attribute in links. The solution is to avoid the use of local tasks and replace it by a set of regular menus.

The local task system is not 100% accessible, and it is not mandatory that every single piece in software have to be, but it should be indicated in documentation as well as an accessible alternative for it.

Updated IS with steps to test. Still needs input on the preferred approach.