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The objective is to ensure that when editing a post, the metabox that lists a hierarchical taxonomy doesn't reorder itself upon Update to put checked items on top.

Right now, edit-form-advanced.php calls add_meta_box(), passing a callback of post_categories_meta_box, which is defined in meta-boxes.php.

post_categories_meta_box() invokes wp_terms_checklist(), leaving the checked_ontop parameter undefined. wp_terms_checklist() defaults that parameter to true, which is the root cause of all this hooplah.

Nary a filter hook to be found anywhere along the chain until we back out and discover add_meta_boxes and add_meta_boxes_{$post_type}.

The only solution I was able to come up with myself was to hook onto one of these actions, globalize $wp_meta_boxes, and replace occurrences of the post_categories_meta_box callback with a callback of my own, where I completely duplicate all of post_categories_meta_box() and simply add the parameter 'checked_ontop' => false.

Works. But fugly. This seems ridiculous - is there no more elegant way to simply let your hierarchical taxonomies keep their order in metaboxes?

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2 Answers 2

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There's a plugin written specifically to fix this 'feature' of WordPress, it's called Category Checklist Tree. Despite the name, it works on custom taxonomies too.

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    Scribu's plugin, as Admirable as it is, does exactly the same thing: it duplicates the entire function, and then modifies the argument, As I described. I probably was not as clear in my original post as I should have been: the request was to find a more elegant way of achieving the objective, not for a plug-in that would help me do it, since I had already rolled my own code to accomplish that. But thanks for the link to this plug-in! There is a ton of good stuff in there: I always learn something new when I read through Scribu's code.
    – Tom Auger
    Commented Mar 21, 2012 at 23:36
  • Your way (and scribu's) is the way to do it. It's not fugly, it's just how it is. That's why the WP core uses its own API (ala add_meta_box): so you can replace its functionality with your own. The alternative is probably an even uglier javascript hack.
    – chrisguitarguy
    Commented Jul 6, 2012 at 1:09
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Nowadays there is a hook available for this problem: https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/wp_terms_checklist_args/

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