Creating custom widget instance validation is weird due to controller type mismatch

[MellenIO]

Summary (*)

See this line of code:

https://github.com/magento/magento2/blob/2.4-develop/app/code/Magento/Widget/Controller/Adminhtml/Widget/Instance/Validate.php#L22

The function \Magento\Widget\Model\Widget\Instance::validate() is type hinted to return either a \Magento\Framework\Phrase or a bool
https://github.com/magento/magento2/blob/2.4-develop/app/code/Magento/Widget/Model/Widget/Instance.php#L294

This means the is_string check is going to fail. This further means that, unless you type cast the phrase to a string, you will not ever get a constructive error message out of the widget validation controller.
This isn't a huge issue for the most part with Magento core because of the frontend validation but for those creating custom widget validation rules it will break.

Examples (*)

$firstResult = __('Test message');
if ($firstResult !== true && is_string($firstResult)) {
    echo 'We have an error!';
}

Does not output anything.

Proposed solution

I think the easiest solution is just to change the validation controller line to the following:

if ($result !== true && (is_string($result) || ($result instanceof \Magento\Framework\Phrase)) {
// ...

On Magento sites with custom validation rules we've gotten around this by adding an afterValidate plugin to \Magento\Widget\Model\Widget\Instance which type casts the result to string (and returns a string for subsequent errors, rather than a phrase).

[m2-assistant]

Hi @MellenIO. Thank you for your report.
To help us process this issue please make sure that you provided the following information:

• Summary of the issue
• Information on your environment
• Steps to reproduce
• Expected and actual results

Please make sure that the issue is reproducible on the vanilla Magento instance following Steps to reproduce. To deploy vanilla Magento instance on our environment, please, add a comment to the issue:

@magento give me 2.4-develop instance - upcoming 2.4.x release

For more details, please, review the Magento Contributor Assistant documentation.

@MellenIO do you confirm that you were able to reproduce the issue on vanilla Magento instance following steps to reproduce?

• yes
• no

---

• Join Magento Community Engineering Slack and ask your questions in #github channel.

[m2-assistant]

Hi @engcom-Echo. Thank you for working on this issue.
In order to make sure that issue has enough information and ready for development, please read and check the following instruction: 👇

• 1. Verify that issue has all the required information. (Preconditions, Steps to reproduce, Expected result, Actual result).

  Details

  If the issue has a valid description, the label Issue: Format is valid will be added to the issue automatically. Please, edit issue description if needed, until label Issue: Format is valid appears.

• 2. Verify that issue has a meaningful description and provides enough information to reproduce the issue. If the report is valid, add Issue: Clear Description label to the issue by yourself.

• 3. Add Component: XXXXX label(s) to the ticket, indicating the components it may be related to.

• 4. Verify that the issue is reproducible on 2.4-develop branch

  Details

  - Add the comment @magento give me 2.4-develop instance to deploy test instance on Magento infrastructure.
  - If the issue is reproducible on 2.4-develop branch, please, add the label Reproduced on 2.4.x.
  - If the issue is not reproducible, add your comment that issue is not reproducible and close the issue and stop verification process here!

• 5. Add label Issue: Confirmed once verification is complete.

• 6. Make sure that automatic system confirms that report has been added to the backlog.

[magento-engcom-team]

✅ Confirmed by @engcom-Echo
Thank you for verifying the issue. Based on the provided information internal tickets MC-33880 were created

Issue Available: @engcom-Echo, You will be automatically unassigned. Contributors/Maintainers can claim this issue to continue. To reclaim and continue work, reassign the ticket to yourself.