A lot has been going on since our last blog post. Besides many improvements and fruitful discussions in the XML Sitemaps feature project, the proposed schedule for WordPress 5.5 has been published.

The first betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. is currently slated for July 7, which still gives us a bit of time to finish work on our project. We’re getting close to a state where we feel comfortable publishing a merge proposal for inclusion in WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. as part of the 5.5 releaseRelease A release is the distribution of the final version of an application. A software release may be either public or private and generally constitutes the initial or new generation of a new or upgraded application. A release is preceded by the distribution of alpha and then beta versions of the software..

This post aims to give an overview of the things currently in progress, and the items that should be discussed in the upcoming meeting on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

Updates

• Custom elements in sitemap (#151)
  The pull request proposing a simple APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. still needs some documentation, but overall ready for review.
• PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 Warning on PHP < 7.3 (#186)
  A pull request has been opened to fix this edge case. Ready for review.
• Filters for individual sitemap entries (#191)
  Freshly proposed over the weekend, this PR makes it easier to modify sitemap data while having access to the necessary post/term/user objects for context. Ready for review.
• FilterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. to modify WP_Query arguments (#183)
  Feedback from initial code review still needs to be incorporated.
• Removing core_ prefixes from code (#182)
  Still some feedback that needs to be incorporated. Tests are currently not passing. Otherwise very close.
• Custom elements in stylesheet (#152)
  PR #163 is still work in progress. The feeling last time was that it might be too complex for core, and perhaps better off as a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party.
  If the pre-existing stylesheet is deemed to not satisfy the needs, we could also omit the stylesheet completely if wanted.
• Merge proposal post
  We started with an early draft for this, and will share the draft post with the broader group once we feel more comfortable with it.
• Core patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing.
  Not yet in progress, as there are some bigger outstanding PRs needed for this. We’ll likely start with a first proof-of-concept PR that can then serve as the basis for discussion.

Agenda: May 26th

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 26th at 16.00 CEST.

Items on the agenda so far:

• Going through items from updates above
• Open floor

Want to add anything to the above? Please leave a comment here or reach out on Slack.

This meeting is held in the #core-sitemaps channel. To join the meeting, you’ll need an account on the Making WordPress Slack.

#agenda, #feature-plugins, #feature-projects, #xml-sitemaps

It’s been a while since the last blog post about the XML Sitemaps feature project. Today I’d like to summarize the developments since last month, and also post the agenda for our upcoming meeting.

Updates

• Version 3.0 (#181)
  A pull request has been opened to add the change log for our next releaseRelease A release is the distribution of the final version of an application. A software release may be either public or private and generally constitutes the initial or new generation of a new or upgraded application. A release is preceded by the distribution of alpha and then beta versions of the software., which includes a good amount of improvements over the last version. The goal is for this to be one of the last releases before we put our efforts into a merge proposal.
  Most notable changes: important refactorings, rewrite rule fixes, removal of lastmod.
• Custom elements in sitemap (#151)
  There is no consensus yet about what the APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. for adding custom elements (beyond lastmod or priority) could look like, especially when dealing with custom namespaces.
• Custom elements in stylesheet (#152)
  There is still an open PR that tries to makemake A collection of P2 blogs at make.wordpress.org, which are the home to a number of contributor groups, including core development (make/core, formerly "wpdevel"), the UI working group (make/ui), translators (make/polyglots), the theme reviewers (make/themes), resources for plugin authors (make/plugins), and the accessibility working group (make/accessibility). the XSLT stylesheet more dynamic so it automatically displays sitemap elements added by plugins. That means there’s some overlap with the issue mentioned above.
  Interesting side affect: the PR proposes a new esc_xml() function that might be worth looking into.
• Road towards WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. (#164)
  We’re full steam ahead on improving the source code so it better aligns with WordPress core standards, as well as getting feedback from various core teams on the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party (i.e. polyglots, accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility), docs). Also, there is now a TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. to reference! See #50117.

Agenda: May 12th

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 12th at 16.00 CEST.

Items on the agenda so far:

• Version 3.0 (#181)
• Custom elements
• Stylesheets
• Currently open issues and pull requests. Including:
  • Removing trailing slashes on URLs (#134)
  • Sanitizing object subtypes for use in URLs (#166)
  • Adding filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. for WP_Query args (#131) (needs owner)
• Current roadmap status
• Open floor

Want to add anything to the above? Please leave a comment here or reach out on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

This meeting is held in the #core-sitemaps channel. To join the meeting, you’ll need an account on the Making WordPress Slack.

#agenda, #feature-plugins, #feature-projects, #xml-sitemaps