Media: Track the original attachment for edited images.

src/wp-includes/default-filters.php

@@ -692,6 +692,7 @@
 add_action( 'customize_controls_enqueue_scripts', 'wp_plupload_default_settings' );
 add_action( 'plugins_loaded', '_wp_add_additional_image_sizes', 0 );
 add_filter( 'plupload_default_settings', 'wp_show_heic_upload_error' );
+add_action( 'delete_attachment', '_wp_delete_original_attachment_id' );
 
 // Client-side media processing.
 add_action( 'admin_init', 'wp_set_client_side_media_processing_flag' );

src/wp-includes/post.php

@@ -8751,6 +8751,63 @@ function wp_get_original_image_url( $attachment_id ) {
 	return apply_filters( 'wp_get_original_image_url', $original_image_url, $attachment_id );
 }
 
+/**
+ * Retrieves the ID of the attachment an edited image originally came from.
+ *
+ * Editing an image through the `wp/v2/media/<id>/edit` REST endpoint does not change the
+ * image that was edited. It saves the result as a brand new attachment, so a site can end
+ * up with a chain of attachments: an upload, a crop of it, a crop of that crop, and so on.
+ *
+ * Every attachment created that way stores the ID of the attachment at the top of its chain,
+ * so this function can find the original in one lookup no matter how long the chain is.
+ *
+ * Attachments that were uploaded rather than created by editing have no chain of their own,
+ * and this returns the ID that was passed in. To tell the two cases apart, compare the
+ * result against that ID.
+ *
+ * @since 7.2.0
+ *
+ * @param int $attachment_id Attachment ID.
+ * @return int ID of the attachment the chain started from, or `$attachment_id` when the
+ *             attachment was not created by editing another one.
+ */
+function wp_get_original_attachment_id( $attachment_id ) {
+	$original_id = (int) get_post_meta( $attachment_id, '_wp_attachment_original_id', true );
+
+	return $original_id > 0 ? $original_id : (int) $attachment_id;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Clears the recorded original attachment ID from any attachment pointing at a deleted one.
+ *
+ * Without this, attachments created by editing the deleted image would keep pointing at an
+ * ID that no longer exists, and could later point at an unrelated attachment if WordPress
+ * reuses that ID.
+ *
+ * This only runs when an attachment is deleted for good. On sites where media goes to the
+ * trash first, attachments keep pointing at the trashed original until the trash is emptied.
+ *
+ * @since 7.2.0
+ *
+ * @access private
+ *
+ * @param int $post_id Attachment ID being deleted.
+ */
+function _wp_delete_original_attachment_id( $post_id ) {
+	$post_id = (int) $post_id;
+
+	if ( $post_id <= 0 ) {
+		return;
+	}
+
+	/*
+	 * Deletes the meta from every attachment recording this ID as its original. The meta key
+	 * is indexed, so this only scans the rows for attachments created by editing an image,
+	 * and it avoids searching the serialized attachment metadata for the ID.
+	 */
+	delete_metadata( 'post', 0, '_wp_attachment_original_id', $post_id, true );
+}
+
 /**
  * Filters callback which sets the status of an untrashed post to its previous status.
  *

src/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-attachments-controller.php

@@ -1356,6 +1356,18 @@ public function edit_media_item( $request ) {
 			'file'          => _wp_relative_upload_path( $image_file ),
 		);
 
+		/*
+		 * Record the attachment this chain of edits started from, so the original can be
+		 * found in one lookup from any image later in the chain. The new attachment inherits
+		 * the original recorded on the image being edited, or that image itself when it was
+		 * uploaded rather than edited.
+		 */
+		update_post_meta(
+			$new_attachment_id,
+			'_wp_attachment_original_id',
+			wp_get_original_attachment_id( $attachment_id )
+		);
+
 		/**
 		 * Filters the meta data for the new image created by editing an existing image.
 		 *
@@ -1509,6 +1521,29 @@ public function prepare_item_for_response( $item, $request ) {
 			$data['post'] = ! empty( $post->post_parent ) ? (int) $post->post_parent : null;
 		}
 
+		/*
+		 * Point an image created by editing another one back at the attachment its chain of
+		 * edits started from, so editors can offer a way to get back to the original. Just
+		 * the ID, like `featured_media`, with `0` meaning the image was not created by
+		 * editing another one: this describes a relationship to another attachment rather
+		 * than anything about this image's own file, so it sits alongside `post` rather than
+		 * inside `media_details`. The link added below lets clients fetch the original's URL
+		 * and dimensions with `_embed`.
+		 *
+		 * Only sent in the `edit` context: this is for people editing the image, and it would
+		 * otherwise tell visitors which images were made from which.
+		 *
+		 * The stored ID is trusted rather than checked against the original's file, because
+		 * deleting an attachment clears it from everything edited from it. A client that
+		 * follows a stale ID, such as one whose original is in the trash, simply gets no
+		 * record back.
+		 */
+		if ( in_array( 'original_attachment', $fields, true ) && 'edit' === $request['context'] ) {
+			$original_id = wp_get_original_attachment_id( $post->ID );
+
+			$data['original_attachment'] = $original_id !== (int) $post->ID ? $original_id : 0;
+		}
+
 		if ( in_array( 'source_url', $fields, true ) ) {
 			$data['source_url'] = wp_get_attachment_url( $post->ID );
 		}
@@ -1667,6 +1702,20 @@ public function prepare_item_for_response( $item, $request ) {
 			}
 		}
 
+		/*
+		 * Let clients fetch the original attachment in the same request with `_embed`,
+		 * the way `featured_media` is paired with its own link. Added here rather than in
+		 * `prepare_links()` because that method cannot see the request, and this belongs
+		 * in the `edit` context only, alongside the field itself.
+		 */
+		if ( ! empty( $data['original_attachment'] ) ) {
+			$response->add_link(
+				'https://api.w.org/original-attachment',
+				rest_url( rest_get_route_for_post( $data['original_attachment'] ) ),
+				array( 'embeddable' => true )
+			);
+		}
+
 		/**
 		 * Filters an attachment returned from the REST API.
 		 *
@@ -1805,6 +1854,13 @@ public function get_item_schema() {
 			'context'     => array( 'view', 'edit' ),
 		);
 
+		$schema['properties']['original_attachment'] = array(
+			'description' => __( 'The ID of the attachment this image was created from by editing, or 0 if it was not created by editing another image.' ),
+			'type'        => 'integer',
+			'context'     => array( 'edit' ),
+			'readonly'    => true,
+		);
+
 		$schema['properties']['source_url'] = array(
 			'description' => __( 'URL to the original attachment file.' ),
 			'type'        => 'string',