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Add JSON handling for search/replace in custom tables and nested JSON #226

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98e451b
Add JSON handling for search/replace in custom tables and nested JSON
ratneshjais Apr 9, 2026
791e445
Fix CI failures: update test expectations and add --all-tables-with-p…
ratneshjais Apr 9, 2026
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71 changes: 70 additions & 1 deletion features/search-replace.feature
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -292,7 +292,7 @@ Feature: Do global search/replace
When I run `wp search-replace 'http://example.com' 'http://newdomain.com' wp_posts --include-columns=post_content`
Then STDOUT should be a table containing rows:
| Table | Column | Replacements | Type |
| wp_posts | post_content | 1 | SQL |
| wp_posts | post_content | 1 | PHP |

When I run `wp post get {POST_ID} --field=post_content`
Then STDOUT should contain:
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1637,3 +1637,72 @@ Feature: Do global search/replace
"""
Table is read-only
"""

@require-mysql
Scenario: Search and replace handles JSON-encoded URLs in custom tables
Given a WP install
And I run `wp db query "CREATE TABLE wp_json_test ( id int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, meta TEXT, PRIMARY KEY (id) ) ENGINE=InnoDB;"`
And I run `wp db query "INSERT INTO wp_json_test (meta) VALUES ('{\"confirmations\":{\"1\":{\"url\":\"https:\\/\\/oldsite.com\\/confirmation-page\",\"type\":\"redirect\"}}}');"`

When I run `wp search-replace 'https://oldsite.com' 'https://newsite.com' wp_json_test --all-tables-with-prefix`
Then STDOUT should be a table containing rows:
| Table | Column | Replacements | Type |
| wp_json_test | meta | 1 | PHP |

When I run `wp db query "SELECT meta FROM wp_json_test WHERE id = 1" --skip-column-names`
Then STDOUT should contain:
"""
https:\/\/newsite.com\/confirmation-page
"""
And STDOUT should not contain:
"""
https:\/\/oldsite.com
"""

@require-mysql
Scenario: Search and replace handles nested JSON (JSON within serialized data)
Given a WP install
And a setup-nested-json.php file:
"""
<?php
$data = array(
'config' => json_encode( array(
'url' => 'https://oldsite.com/page',
'name' => 'Test',
) ),
);
update_option( 'nested_json_test', $data );
"""
And I run `wp eval-file setup-nested-json.php`

When I run `wp search-replace 'https://oldsite.com' 'https://newsite.com' wp_options --include-columns=option_value`
Then STDOUT should be a table containing rows:
| Table | Column | Replacements | Type |
| wp_options | option_value | 1 | PHP |

When I run `wp option get nested_json_test --format=json`
Then STDOUT should contain:
"""
newsite.com
"""
And STDOUT should not contain:
"""
oldsite.com
"""

@require-mysql
Scenario: Search and replace detects JSON columns for PHP mode automatically
Given a WP install
And I run `wp db query "CREATE TABLE wp_json_detect ( id int(11) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, data TEXT, PRIMARY KEY (id) ) ENGINE=InnoDB;"`
And I run `wp db query "INSERT INTO wp_json_detect (data) VALUES ('{\"site_url\":\"https:\\/\\/old.example.com\\/path\"}');"`

When I run `wp search-replace 'https://old.example.com' 'https://new.example.com' wp_json_detect --all-tables-with-prefix`
Then STDOUT should be a table containing rows:
| Table | Column | Replacements | Type |
| wp_json_detect | data | 1 | PHP |

When I run `wp db query "SELECT data FROM wp_json_detect WHERE id = 1" --skip-column-names`
Then STDOUT should contain:
"""
new.example.com
"""
8 changes: 8 additions & 0 deletions src/Search_Replace_Command.php
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -562,6 +562,14 @@ public function __invoke( $args, $assoc_args ) {
if ( false !== strpos( $wpdb->last_error, 'ERROR 1139' ) ) {
$serial_row = true;
}

// Also detect JSON objects/arrays so the PHP path can decode,
// recurse into, and re-encode them — handling nested escaped
// URLs that a simple SQL REPLACE cannot reach.
if ( null === $serial_row ) {
// phpcs:ignore WordPress.DB.PreparedSQL.InterpolatedNotPrepared -- escaped through self::esc_sql_ident
$serial_row = $wpdb->get_row( "SELECT * FROM $table_sql WHERE $col_sql REGEXP '^[\\\\[{]' LIMIT 1" );
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@gemini-code-assist gemini-code-assist bot Apr 9, 2026

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high

The regular expression ^[\\[{] appears to be malformed as it opens a character class [ but does not close it with a corresponding ]. This will likely result in a database error or fail to match any rows, preventing the automatic detection of JSON columns. A more reliable and readable approach for detecting strings starting with { or [ is to use an alternation.

						$serial_row = $wpdb->get_row( "SELECT * FROM $table_sql WHERE $col_sql REGEXP '^(\\\\[|{)' LIMIT 1" );

}
}

if ( $php_only || $this->regex || null !== $serial_row ) {
Expand Down
15 changes: 14 additions & 1 deletion src/WP_CLI/SearchReplacer.php
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Expand Up @@ -200,7 +200,20 @@ private function run_recursively( $data, $serialised, $recursion_level = 0, $vis
if ( $this->logging ) {
$old_data = $data;
}
if ( $this->regex ) {

// Try to decode as a JSON object or array and recurse into the
// decoded structure. This properly handles URLs stored inside
// JSON-encoded columns (e.g. Gravity Forms confirmations, block
// editor font data), including nested JSON where slashes are
// double-escaped.
$json_decoded = json_decode( $data, true );
if ( null !== $json_decoded && is_array( $json_decoded ) ) {
$json_decoded = $this->run_recursively( $json_decoded, false, $recursion_level + 1, $visited_data );
$json_result = json_encode( $json_decoded );
if ( false !== $json_result ) {
$data = $json_result;
}
} elseif ( $this->regex ) {
Comment on lines +204 to +216
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@gemini-code-assist gemini-code-assist bot Apr 9, 2026

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medium

Attempting to json_decode() every string in a column detected as JSON can lead to significant performance degradation, especially for large text fields like post_content. Since valid JSON objects and arrays must start with { or [, adding a quick character check before calling json_decode() will avoid unnecessary parsing for the majority of non-JSON strings.

				// Try to decode as a JSON object or array and recurse into the
				// decoded structure. This properly handles URLs stored inside
				// JSON-encoded columns (e.g. Gravity Forms confirmations, block
				// editor font data), including nested JSON where slashes are
				// double-escaped.
				if ( '' !== $data && ( '{' === $data[0] || '[' === $data[0] ) ) {
					$json_decoded = json_decode( $data, true );
					if ( null !== $json_decoded && is_array( $json_decoded ) ) {
						$json_decoded = $this->run_recursively( $json_decoded, false, $recursion_level + 1, $visited_data );
						$json_result  = json_encode( $json_decoded );
						if ( false !== $json_result ) {
							$data = $json_result;
						}
					}
				} elseif ( $this->regex ) {

$search_regex = $this->regex_delimiter;
$search_regex .= $this->from;
$search_regex .= $this->regex_delimiter;
Expand Down
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