[5.2] Increment alias not correct

[chmst]

Steps to reproduce the issue

An artilce has
tilte: August 2024
alias: august-2024

Save as copy
title: August 2024 (2)
alias: august-2025

Expected result

alias should be august-2024-2

Actual result

the last number is increased

System information (as much as possible)

Version 5.3-dev, but probably it is an old issue

Additional comments

[hoseingbh]

I've just back to Jomla.🤠

[reem-atalah]

Hi, If no one is working on this, I'll now

[joomdonation]

@reem-atalah Go ahead !

[reem-atalah]

Hi @chmst
When I entered Joomla 5.2 website, and tried to create an article with the same name(using save or save and exit, no save as copy button), I saw this error, then the solution is to make the article accept to be saved(as it can't be saved with same alias name), and increment the number, am I right?
Also, the title could be repeated with no error, and no increments, is this fine?

[Galcedion]

Hey, I've been digging around for a bit (still new to the Joomla codebase) and it appears that the incrementing is done with StringHelper::increment via the framework:
https://github.com/joomla-framework/string/blob/3.x-dev/src/StringHelper.php#L55
(loaded into prod at libraries/vendor/joomla/string/src/StringHelper.php)
The alias increments appear to use the 'dash' style. So the trailing number with a preceding dash will be incremented, if available.

Furthermore, while I understand @chmst issue with incrementing the year, I do believe the code is working as intended. There is no reasonable way to differentiate between e.g. years and incremental numbers (1 can be a year, too).
It would be possible to change the format of increments to another separator ("title-2024_2" instead of "title-2024-2"), but I believe this would be at least very confusing to users, as this function and behavior has been around since 1.3).

[mabdelaziz77]

Hi @chmst When I entered Joomla 5.2 website, and tried to create an article with the same name(using save or save and exit, no save as copy button), I saw this error, then the solution is to make the article accept to be saved(as it can't be saved with same alias name), and increment the number, am I right? Also, the title could be repeated with no error, and no increments, is this fine?

Hi @reem-atalah
Seems that you got this error because there is another article with the same alias but you may didn't see it because its status is Trashed.
Try to find it and permanently delete it then try to save and copy the article.

[reem-atalah]

Hi @mabdelaziz77 , thanks for your consultation, appreciated
Where can I find the Archive or Trash?

[alikon]

click filter options and select the wanted status

[reem-atalah]

@alikon great thank you

[chmst]

Thanks everyone for working on this issue.

@Galcedion
.. I do believe the code is working as intended. There is no reasonable way to differentiate between e.g. years and incremental numbers (1 can be a year, too)...

indeed - this is a tricky one. Otherwise I would have made a PR myself ;) .

Maybe you can parse the title and see if there is a bracket at the end which contains a number?