Quicktabs with ajax load don't pass on context (eg: views, mini panels)

I ended up making a mini panels QuickContent

It seems all the ajax stuff is passed through as get arguments, so I stole the page_manager's context bits that I needed and serialized them across. (only the plugin and argument are needed to rebuild them on the other side)

  public function __construct($item) {
    parent::__construct($item);
    $this->settings['page_path'] = rawurlencode($_GET['q']);
    $contexts = array();
    if (module_exists('page_manager') && $current_page = page_manager_get_current_page()) {
      if (!empty($current_page['contexts'])) {
        foreach ($current_page['contexts'] as $context) {
          $contexts[] = array($context->plugin, $context->argument);
        }
      }
    }
    $this->settings['contexts'] = rawurlencode(serialize($contexts));
  }

then in the render() function

  public function render($hide_empty = FALSE, $args = array()) {
    // Non-ajax rendering of a mini panel.
    if ($this->rendered_content) {
      return $this->rendered_content;
    }
    $item = $this->settings;
    if (!empty($args)) {
      // The args have been passed in from an ajax request.
      // The first element of the args array is the qt_name, which we don't need
      // for this content type.
      array_shift($args);
      list($item['name'], $item['page_path'], $item['contexts']) = $args;
      if (!empty($item['page_path'])) {
        $item['page_path'] = rawurldecode($item['page_path']);
      }
      if (!empty($item['contexts'])) {
        $item['contexts'] = unserialize(rawurldecode($item['contexts']));
      }
    }

    $output = array();
    if (isset($item['name'])) {
      if (module_exists('panels_mini')) {
        if ($panel_mini = panels_mini_load($item['name'])) {
          // Add contexts to the mini panel.
          ctools_include('context');

          $contexts = array();
          if (module_exists('page_manager') && $current_page = page_manager_get_current_page()) {
            if (!empty($current_page['contexts'])) {
              $contexts = ctools_context_match_required_contexts($panel_mini->requiredcontexts, $current_page['contexts']);
            }
          }
          elseif (!empty($item['contexts'])) {
            $ajax_contexts = array();
            foreach ($item['contexts'] as $context) {
              list($plugin, $arg) = $context;
              $ajax_contexts[] = ctools_context_create($plugin, $arg);
            }
            $contexts = ctools_context_match_required_contexts($panel_mini->requiredcontexts, $ajax_contexts);
          }

          // Load up any contexts we might be using.
          $panel_mini->context = $panel_mini->display->context = ctools_context_load_contexts($panel_mini, FALSE, $contexts);
          $panel_mini->display->css_id = panels_mini_get_id($panel_mini->name);
          $panel_mini->display->owner = $panel_mini;
          // unique ID of this mini.
          $panel_mini->display->owner->id = $panel_mini->name;
          $content = panels_render_display($panel_mini->display);

          if (!empty($content)) {
            $output['#markup'] = $content;
          }
        }
      }
      elseif (!$hide_empty) {
        $output['#markup'] = t('Mini Panels module is not enabled, cannot display content.');
      }
    }
    $this->rendered_content = $output;
    return $output;
  }

Not totally sure if that is the right way to go about fixing this problem of passing context around but it does work.

Here is the full plugin.

// In file: MODULE.module
/**
 * Implements hook_quicktabs_contents().
 */
function MODULE_quicktabs_contents() {
  $path = drupal_get_path('module', 'MODULE') . '/plugins';
  $info['panels_mini'] = array(
    'path' => $path,
    'handler' => array(
      'file' => 'QuickMiniPanelsContent.inc',
      'class' => 'QuickMiniPanelsContent',
    ),
    'dependencies' => array('panels_mini'),
  );

  return $info;
}

// In file: plugins/QuickMiniPanelsContent.inc
/**
 * Class for tab content of type "panels_mini" - this is for rendering a mini
 * panel as tab content.
 */
class QuickMiniPanelsContent extends QuickContent {

  public static function getType() {
    return 'panels_mini';
  }

  public function optionsForm($delta, $qt) {
    $tab = $this->settings;
    $form = array();

    $mini_panels = array();
    foreach (panels_mini_load_all() as $mini) {
      $mini_panels[$mini->name] = $mini->admin_title;
    }
    $keys = array_keys($mini_panels);

    $selected_mini_panel = (isset($tab['name']) ? $tab['name'] : (isset($keys[0]) ? $keys[0] : ''));
    $form['panels_mini']['name'] = array(
      '#type' => 'select',
      '#options' => $mini_panels,
      '#default_value' => $selected_mini_panel,
      '#title' => t('Select a mini panel'),
    );

    return $form;
  }

  public function __construct($item) {
    parent::__construct($item);
    $this->settings['page_path'] = rawurlencode($_GET['q']);
    $contexts = array();
    if (module_exists('page_manager') && $current_page = page_manager_get_current_page()) {
      if (!empty($current_page['contexts'])) {
        foreach ($current_page['contexts'] as $context) {
          $contexts[] = array($context->plugin, $context->argument);
        }
      }
    }
    $this->settings['contexts'] = rawurlencode(serialize($contexts));
  }

  public function render($hide_empty = FALSE, $args = array()) {
    // Non-ajax rendering of a mini panel.
    if ($this->rendered_content) {
      return $this->rendered_content;
    }
    $item = $this->settings;
    if (!empty($args)) {
      // The args have been passed in from an ajax request.
      // The first element of the args array is the qt_name, which we don't need
      // for this content type.
      array_shift($args);
      list($item['name'], $item['page_path'], $item['contexts']) = $args;
      if (!empty($item['page_path'])) {
        $item['page_path'] = rawurldecode($item['page_path']);
      }
      if (!empty($item['contexts'])) {
        $item['contexts'] = unserialize(rawurldecode($item['contexts']));
      }
    }

    $output = array();
    if (isset($item['name'])) {
      if (module_exists('panels_mini')) {
        if ($panel_mini = panels_mini_load($item['name'])) {
          // Add contexts to the mini panel.
          ctools_include('context');

          $contexts = array();
          if (module_exists('page_manager') && $current_page = page_manager_get_current_page()) {
            if (!empty($current_page['contexts'])) {
              $contexts = ctools_context_match_required_contexts($panel_mini->requiredcontexts, $current_page['contexts']);
            }
          }
          elseif (!empty($item['contexts'])) {
            $ajax_contexts = array();
            foreach ($item['contexts'] as $context) {
              list($plugin, $arg) = $context;
              $ajax_contexts[] = ctools_context_create($plugin, $arg);
            }
            $contexts = ctools_context_match_required_contexts($panel_mini->requiredcontexts, $ajax_contexts);
          }

          // Load up any contexts we might be using.
          $panel_mini->context = $panel_mini->display->context = ctools_context_load_contexts($panel_mini, FALSE, $contexts);
          $panel_mini->display->css_id = panels_mini_get_id($panel_mini->name);
          $panel_mini->display->owner = $panel_mini;
          // unique ID of this mini.
          $panel_mini->display->owner->id = $panel_mini->name;
          $content = panels_render_display($panel_mini->display);

          if (!empty($content)) {
            $output['#markup'] = $content;
          }
        }
      }
      elseif (!$hide_empty) {
        $output['#markup'] = t('Mini Panels module is not enabled, cannot display content.');
      }
    }
    $this->rendered_content = $output;
    return $output;
  }

  public function getAjaxKeys() {
    return array('name', 'page_path', 'contexts');
  }

  public function getUniqueKeys() {
    return array('name');
  }
}

No patch, still active.

the code almost works. but I have optional contexts for my mini-panels which means that this code throws WSOD

Uploading a patch with #8
made changes to include optional required contexts for mini-panels
can't set the contexts from the ui

I used git diff but it did not pick up the added file.

I added the file, QuickMiniPanelsContent.inc.txt. Change to QuickMiniPanelsContent.inc and place in sites/all/quicktabs/plugins.

if you can share how to do a recursive git diff to pick up an added file I would appreciate it.

I'm experiencing similar issue, but the above patch seems very specific to panels, whereas the issue is in general context id is not reconciled. To be clear, I have a view-block with a context filter set to get context id from url. By itself, the block renders on a node view page ok. Inside quicktabs with ajax loading enabled ti does not render. I have played around with removing various block dynamics (pager, filters, php, sorts, etc.), but it seems ajax-loading is the issue.

D 7.41 (!yikes)

I also need this to work beyond just a Panels fix.

I'm using it in a block that appears on a node's main content region.

Each Quicktab instance shows a Views Block containing a different list of node titles with Flag links (via the Flag module). One of those blocks is set to ONLY show flagged content. But it only appears after refreshing the page, which defeats the point of Ajax. I need the items to appear via Ajax in the flagged-only block when they're flagged in the other referenced blocks in the other Quicktabs.