Bug fix — Issue #1580: legacy Code Tracker list emitted PHP warnings and dropped pagination/label values

Symptom

The legacy Dashio Code Tracker list returned HTTP 200, but every populated render logged PHP 8.3 Error/Warning events. The page-length selector had no options and the delete icons had blank tooltips.

Entry point: http://localhost:8082/lib/codetrackers/codeTrackerView.php.

Reproduction before the fix

1. Authenticate as admin with Code Tracker management rights.
2. Open the entry point for test project 2.
3. Inspect the page-length selector, the two unlinked tracker rows' delete icons, and the events table.

Measured pre-fix result:

• Event IDs 2-4 reported the missing codeTrackerView config object, missing pagination, and missing length on null.
• Event IDs 5-6 reported Undefined array key "testproject_alt_delete", one for each unlinked tracker rendered.
• The page-length selector had zero options.
• Both delete tooltips were empty.

Root cause chain

1. gui/templates/dashio/codetrackers/codeTrackerView.tpl loads input_dimensions.conf through TLSmarty::display().
2. The template then read the pagination length through $tlCfg->gui->{$cfg_section}->pagination->length, but no codeTrackerView object exists in config.inc.php or the loaded input-dimensions file.
3. PHP therefore produced three chained warnings and assigned no page length.
4. Before the tracker loop, the template requested only $labels.alt_delete.
5. The delete icon read $labels.testproject_alt_delete, a different key that was never loaded, producing one missing-key warning for every unlinked tracker and an empty tooltip.

The codeTrackerView section does contain pagination_length = 20 in gui/templates/conf/input_dimensions.conf, so the value was already loaded correctly; only the access path was wrong.

Why it breaks now: the defect was latent in the Dashio theme introduced by commit 4fe583e2d094ebe692dac13fd4c384c2322036fa. PHP 8 converts the missing property and array-key diagnostics into Event Viewer warnings.

Blast radius: a template/config audit found the same invalid config-property pattern in codeTrackerView.tpl, issueTrackerView.tpl, and platformsView.tpl. Only the two contracts covered by #1580 were changed. The issueTrackerView.tpl sibling remains out of scope for this issue.

Fix approach

The template was corrected at the two bad consumers without changing the controller, configuration, database, or language bundles:

• gui/templates/dashio/codetrackers/codeTrackerView.tpl:26 now consumes the value already supplied by the Smarty configuration loader with {$ll = #pagination_length#}.
• gui/templates/dashio/codetrackers/codeTrackerView.tpl:77 now reads the already-requested generic label with {$labels.alt_delete}.

This mirrors the working legacy Code Tracker template and the established #pagination_length# idiom used by other Dashio screens.

Alternatives considered and rejected

• Add a fabricated $tlCfg->gui->codeTrackerView object: this duplicates configuration state and would hide the mismatch between the loaded Smarty configuration and the template access path.

  Superseded by #1591. This alternative was later adopted — but together with the real config block, not instead of it: config.inc.php now defines $tlCfg->gui->codeTrackerView->pagination and codeTrackerView.tpl:26 reads it again. Rationale: pagination_length is a bare scalar, so this screen rendered "lengthMenu": [ 20 ] (a page-size control with one unusable choice) instead of the 20/40/60/All menu of its sibling list screens, and leaving the two mechanisms in place kept the duplicate source of truth that this page warned about. Warnings stay fixed. See docs/Bugfix-Issue-1591-Missing-Pagination-Config-Empty-LengthMenu.md ("Relationship to #1580"). The passages below that describe {$ll = #pagination_length#} and the "configured option 20" therefore describe the state between #1580 and #1591.

• Use a Smarty default such as |default:20: a fallback could suppress the warning but would silently ignore configured values. The configured value must be consumed directly.
• Request testproject_alt_delete in addition to alt_delete: this would load another translation key and retain a screen-specific name. The generic key requested by this template is the correct one and is already available.
• Suppress warnings or alter global error reporting: this leaves the empty pagination value and tooltip behavior unchanged.
• Refactor sibling templates in the same commit: issue #1580 is limited to the reproduced Code Tracker contract; unrelated refactoring would enlarge the regression surface.

Verification

• Forced Smarty recompilation; the generated Code Tracker PHP passed php -l.
• Inspected the generated PHP: it reads _getConfigVariable(..., 'pagination_length') and labels['alt_delete'].
• Two cache-bypassing populated requests returned HTTP 200 and rendered all three tracker rows.
• The page-length select contained the configured option 20.
• Both unlinked rows had title="delete"; the linked row had no delete icon.
• An empty-list matrix removed and restored both tracker tables. The page returned HTTP 200 with its heading and Create button, no tracker rows, page control, or icons, and no new Error/Warning event.
• A Romanian-locale pass resolved alt_delete; expected level-32 localization fallback events were recorded, but the PHP Error/Warning delta was zero.
• A temporary global codetracker_view user received HTTP 200 with management controls hidden and no PHP Error/Warning event. A separate pre-existing DataTables column-contract error was isolated as issue #1582, not included in this fix.
• Event Viewer rendered with all ten network requests returning HTTP 200. Its summary was ERROR: 0, WARNING: 5; all five warnings were the retained pre-fix rows. The database query for id > 6 AND log_level IN (1,2) returned zero rows.
• Final fixture state: three trackers, exact project link (2,3), admin locale en_GB, and the temporary view-only user removed.
• Regression suite in tmp/TLU_Test_Cases.md: 7/7 PASS for issue #1580.

The fix intentionally produces no visual redesign, so a duplicate before/after image would not add evidence. The retained screenshot shows the corrected delete tooltip and the populated page-size control; the probative comparison is the measured DOM and Event Viewer delta documented above.

Files changed

• gui/templates/dashio/codetrackers/codeTrackerView.tpl — corrected config value and label key access.
• tmp/TLU_Test_Cases.md — issue #1580 regression suite and result.
• docs/screenshots/issue-1580-after.png — corrected-state evidence.
• CHANGELOG and this documentation mirror.

Result

The warning-producing PHP path is removed for manager and view-only Code Tracker list permissions. On the manager path, configured pagination and the delete label resolve correctly and empty-list behavior remains intact. On the view-only path, management controls stay hidden and no PHP warning is generated, but the separate DataTables column-contract defect still leaves its page-size control empty. That independent read-only defect is tracked as #1582; no new Error/Warning event is generated by this fix.