Magento bug: custom option values not showing in backend

It’s a little bit annoying that such a core feature is just broken in many versions of magento - the headings for the custom options chosen, whilst fully working on the cart; checkout and emails to the customer, only show the heading and no content on the backend order.

There are a couple of fixes : in app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/Block/Sales/Items/Column/Name.php there is no extending, so you can copy it to app/code/local/Mage/Adminhtml/Block/Sales/Items/Column/Name.php and add the following class method :

public function getFormattedOption($value) {
  $_remainder = '';
  $value = Mage::helper('core/string')->truncate($value, 55, '', $_remainder);
  $result = array(
    'value' => nl2br($value),
    'remainder' => nl2br($_remainder)
  );
  return $result;
}

and/or change the admin theme in app/design/adminhtml/default/default/template/sales/items/column/name.phtml around about line 44 from :

<?php $_option = $this->getFormattedOption($_option['value']); ?>

to

<?php if (!is_null($this->getFormattedOption($_option['value']))) {
    $_option = $this->getFormattedOption($_option['value']);
} ?>

Then the custom options chosen by customers will happily show in the backend.