fix: Request taxonomies with view context for Author/Editor roles

[dcalhoun]

Description

Fix CMM-2398.

An Author or Contributor on an Atomic or self-hosted site got a blocking "Category refresh error" when opening the category picker in the post editor, and could not assign categories at all. Switching the user to Editor cleared it.

Root cause. TaxonomyRsApiRestClient.fetchTerms listed terms with listWithEditContext, i.e. GET /wp/v2/categories?context=edit. WP core gates that context on the taxonomy's edit_terms capability — manage_categories for category, manage_post_tags for post_tag — which Authors and Contributors do not hold, so the API answered 403 rest_forbidden_context. The client turned that into a generic error and the picker reported a refresh failure instead of listing the site's terms.

Listing terms is a read, and the view context returns every field this client maps (no term field is edit-only, and name/description are identical across contexts), so it now requests context=view.

Scope. The taxonomies_rest_api_migration flag is rolled out to 50% of users on 26.9+, so this affects Authors and Contributors on Atomic and self-hosted sites, for both categories and tags. The tags breakage was silent: TagsFragment ignores fetch errors, so tag suggestions simply came back empty.

Testing instructions

Note

Requires a test user set to Author on an Atomic site. The taxonomies_rest_api_migration feature flag must be enabled in the dev menu.

Note that SelectCategoriesActivity only fetches when its list is empty, so clear app storage or sign out and back in before each cold-cache run — a warm cache hides the bug.

Categories (the reported issue):

1. On trunk, as the Author, open a post → Post Settings → Categories.

• Verify the blocking "Category refresh error" appears and no categories are listed

2. Switch to this branch, clear app storage, sign in as the same Author, and repeat.

• Verify the category list loads
• Verify selecting categories persists back to the post

Tags (same fix, no cache clearing needed):

1. As the Author, open a post → Post Settings → Tags and type a letter.

• Verify existing tag suggestions appear (on trunk they are silently empty)

Refresh failure handling (unchanged from trunk):

1. With categories already loaded, use a proxy to fail */categories* with a 500, then pull to refresh.

• Verify the cached list stays on screen and a "Category refresh error" toast appears

Regressions:

1. As an Editor or Admin on the same Atomic site, open the category picker and create a category from the "+" menu.

• Verify the list loads and creation still works

2. Open Site Settings → Categories.

• Verify create, rename and delete still work¹

3. Repeat the category picker check on a WP.com Simple site and on a self-hosted site with an application password.

• Verify both still list categories

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01Y3eKPoHZwqK4AP3GQBSgEG

Footnotes

1. Deleting is broken: https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/WordPress-Android/issues/23293 ↩

[wpmobilebot]

📲 You can test the changes from this Pull Request in WordPress Android by scanning the QR code below to install the corresponding build.

	App Name	WordPress Android
	Build Type	Debug
	Version	pr23291-6fdfbfe
	Build Number	1498
	Application ID	org.wordpress.android.prealpha
	Commit	6fdfbfe
	Installation URL	10v12f7f51mbo

Automatticians: You can use our internal self-serve MC tool to give yourself access to those builds if needed.

[wpmobilebot]

📲 You can test the changes from this Pull Request in Jetpack Android by scanning the QR code below to install the corresponding build.

	App Name	Jetpack Android
	Build Type	Debug
	Version	pr23291-6fdfbfe
	Build Number	1498
	Application ID	com.jetpack.android.prealpha
	Commit	6fdfbfe
	Installation URL	5u3muj5a21mj0

Automatticians: You can use our internal self-serve MC tool to give yourself access to those builds if needed.

[codecov]

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 81.81818% with 6 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 37.93%. Comparing base (b8157ff) to head (6fdfbfe).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
...ork/rest/wpapi/taxonomy/TaxonomyRsApiRestClient.kt	81.81%	2 Missing and 4 partials ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@           Coverage Diff           @@
##            trunk   #23291   +/-   ##
=======================================
  Coverage   37.93%   37.93%           
=======================================
  Files        2352     2352           
  Lines      128925   128938   +13     
  Branches    17940    17948    +8     
=======================================
+ Hits        48907    48916    +9     
  Misses      76012    76012           
- Partials     4006     4010    +4     

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