Rework Follower Structure

[pfefferle]

Rework follower structure to enable reuse of the pattern for the following mechanism.

This is the first major change to the follower structure, enabling the unified storage of "Remote Actors" — such as followers, followings, and mentioned actors. The first step is to migrate all generic functionality to the Actors collection and use the Followers collection solely to map an actor to a local user.

The next steps will be (further PRs):

• Deprecate the Follower model in favor of the generic Actor model
• Establish class structure for Followings
• Add an internal API for managing Followings

Proposed changes:

• Move Actor handling to the Actors collection to enable a unified structure for followers and followings
• Avoid transforming post-type objects into Actor objects for internal operations to reduce resource usage and simplify handling
• Update tests

Other information:

• Have you written new tests for your changes, if applicable?

Testing instructions:

• No user facing changes
• See tests

Changelog entry

• Automatically create a changelog entry from the details below.

Changelog Entry Details

Significance

• Patch
• Minor
• Major

Type

• Added - for new features
• Changed - for changes in existing functionality
• Deprecated - for soon-to-be removed features
• Removed - for now removed features
• Fixed - for any bug fixes
• Security - in case of vulnerabilities

Message

Reworked follower structure to simplify handling and enable reuse for following mechanism.

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

Reworks the follower structure to rely on a unified Actor model rather than a distinct Follower model, simplifying internal handling and enabling reuse for extending functionality (e.g., followings).

• Migrates functionality from Followers to Actors and refactors tests accordingly.
• Updates and deprecates legacy methods to streamline actor/remote object management.
• Adjusts utility functions and scheduler methods to support the new data model.

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 17 out of 17 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
tests/includes/model/class-test-follower.php	Updates tests to use Actors instead of Followers and simplifies error handling.
tests/includes/handler/class-test-update.php	Refactors actor update tests to expect Actor objects and new retrieval methods.
tests/includes/handler/class-test-move.php	Replaces legacy Follower functions with Actors ones for moving actors between profiles.
includes/model/class-follower.php	Updates Follower methods to delegate saving and error management to the Actors class.
includes/collection/class-followers.php	Deprecates certain methods in favor of their Actor counterparts and adjusts meta usage.
includes/collection/class-actors.php	Introduces new methods for adding, updating, and retrieving remote Actor objects.
includes/class-scheduler.php	Renames and updates scheduler methods to work with imported actors rather than followers.
others (functions, migration, blocks, etc.)	Minor updates to remove Followers references and ensure consistency with the new Actor model.