I have tested this item successfully on 931d184

Test was successful, following the test instructions.

I have tested this item successfully on 931d184

Tested according to instruction. Results as expected.

However:

When publishing subcategory in list view, error message appears and subcategory remains unpublished.

When publishing subcategory in detail view, no error message appears and subcategory is published while category is not.

I confirm @crommie findings

Also, even modifying the code as the language string should not be of the type COM_CATEGORIES, I do not think this is the solution to this issue.

I guess the error should be checked and displayed through the category model.

I looked a bit further into this.
We can indeed use libraries/legacy/controller/admin.php to display the right message, but it is necessary to take into account that the error/exception is not only possible for category but also for any extension using nested.
In core this is the case for Menus and Tags.

I propose this:

diff --git a/administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_categories.ini b/administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_categories.ini
index f6b6659..08232e7 100644
--- a/administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_categories.ini
+++ b/administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_categories.ini
@@ -59,4 +59,6 @@
 COM_CATEGORIES_N_ITEMS_DELETED="%d categories successfully deleted."
 COM_CATEGORIES_N_ITEMS_DELETED_1="%d category successfully deleted."
+COM_CATEGORIES_N_ITEMS_FAILED_PUBLISHING="Failed publishing %d categories."
+COM_CATEGORIES_N_ITEMS_FAILED_PUBLISHING_1="Failed publishing %d category."
 COM_CATEGORIES_N_ITEMS_PUBLISHED="%d categories successfully published."
 COM_CATEGORIES_N_ITEMS_PUBLISHED_1="%d category successfully published."
diff --git a/administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_menus.ini b/administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_menus.ini
index 57eba66..64997f9 100644
--- a/administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_menus.ini
+++ b/administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_menus.ini
@@ -144,4 +144,6 @@
 COM_MENUS_N_ITEMS_DELETED="%d menu items successfully deleted."
 COM_MENUS_N_ITEMS_DELETED_1="%d menu item successfully deleted."
+COM_MENUS_N_ITEMS_FAILED_PUBLISHING="Failed publishing %d menu items."
+COM_MENUS_N_ITEMS_FAILED_PUBLISHING_1="Failed publishing %d menu item."
 COM_MENUS_N_ITEMS_PUBLISHED="%d menu items successfully published."
 COM_MENUS_N_ITEMS_PUBLISHED_1="%d menu item successfully published."
diff --git a/administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_tags.ini b/administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_tags.ini
index 281167c..015fb6e 100644
--- a/administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_tags.ini
+++ b/administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_tags.ini
@@ -106,4 +106,6 @@
 COM_TAGS_N_ITEMS_DELETED="%d tags successfully deleted."
 COM_TAGS_N_ITEMS_DELETED_1="%d tag successfully deleted."
+COM_TAGS_N_ITEMS_FAILED_PUBLISHING="Failed publishing %d tag."
+COM_TAGS_N_ITEMS_FAILED_PUBLISHING_1="Failed publishing %d tags."
 COM_TAGS_N_ITEMS_PUBLISHED="%d tags successfully published."
 COM_TAGS_N_ITEMS_PUBLISHED_1="%d tag successfully published."
diff --git a/libraries/legacy/controller/admin.php b/libraries/legacy/controller/admin.php
index 0aee760..015feee 100644
--- a/libraries/legacy/controller/admin.php
+++ b/libraries/legacy/controller/admin.php
@@ -209,7 +209,16 @@
                $model->publish($cid, $value);

+               $errors = $model->getErrors();
+
                if ($value == 1)
                {
-                   $ntext = $this->text_prefix . '_N_ITEMS_PUBLISHED';
+                   // Check is ancestor has lower state
+                   if (!empty($errors))
+                   {
+                       $ntext = $this->text_prefix . '_N_ITEMS_FAILED_PUBLISHING';
+                   }
+                   else
+                   {
+                       $ntext = $this->text_prefix . '_N_ITEMS_PUBLISHED';
+                   }
                }
                elseif ($value == 0)

This would work when using the list display and has the advantage of being able to customise the message per extension.

The exception is thrown line 991 of ~ROOT/libraries/joomla/table/nested.php

                if (!empty($rows))
                {
                    $e = new UnexpectedValueException(
                        sprintf('%s::publish(%s, %d, %d) ancestors have lower state.', get_class($this), $pks, $state, $userId)
                    );
                    $this->setError($e);

                    return false;
                }

If we want to prevent publishing the subcategory when we edit its details and throw a specific message, I guess this should be done in the save method for the category model (menu and tags too).

What do you think?

@brianteeman
Would the string values I proposed above fit OK in en-GB?

@infograf768 the strings need to follow the style guide. So they need a
period at the end
On 11 Oct 2015 9:29 am, "infograf768" notifications@github.com wrote:

@brianteeman https://github.com/brianteeman
Would the string values I proposed above fit OK in en-GB?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#8038 (comment).

@brianteeman
Already corrected above some time ago (see #8038)

To avoid using this string for any model error, I would even change to:

diff --git a/libraries/legacy/controller/admin.php b/libraries/legacy/controller/admin.php
index 0aee760..af79e44 100644
--- a/libraries/legacy/controller/admin.php
+++ b/libraries/legacy/controller/admin.php
@@ -209,7 +209,23 @@
                $model->publish($cid, $value);

+               $errors = $model->getErrors();
+
                if ($value == 1)
                {
-                   $ntext = $this->text_prefix . '_N_ITEMS_PUBLISHED';
+                   // Check is ancestor has lower state
+                   if (!empty($errors))
+                   {
+                       foreach ($errors as $error)
+                       {
+                           if (strpos($error, 'ancestors have lower state') !== false)
+                           {
+                               $ntext = $this->text_prefix . '_N_ITEMS_FAILED_PUBLISHING';
+                           }
+                       }
+                   }
+                   else
+                   {
+                       $ntext = $this->text_prefix . '_N_ITEMS_PUBLISHED';
+                   }
                }
                elseif ($value == 0)

I created a new PR to simplify testing. Please test #8065

Thank you for your additions, I haven't thought about that.
I am new to Joomla and this was my first PR, so thank you for your help!

@kathastaden
No p.

Please test though.