Tag Archives: sitemaps

Pascal Birchler 7:46 pm on July 22, 2020
Tags: , , sitemaps,   

New XML Sitemaps Functionality in WordPress 5.5

In WordPress 5.5, a new feature is being introduced that adds basic, extensibleExtensible This is the ability to add additional functionality to the code. Plugins extend the WordPress core software. XML sitemaps functionality into WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..

While web crawlers are able to discover pages from links within the site and from other sites, sitemaps supplement this approach by allowing crawlers to quickly and comprehensively identify all URLs included in the sitemap and learn other signals about those URLs using the associated metadata.

For more background information on this new feature, check out the merge announcement, or the corresponding 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. #50117.

Merge Announcement: Extensible Core Sitemaps

This article explains in detail the various ways in which this new feature can be customized by developers. For example, if you are developing 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 with some similar functionality, this post will show you how you can integrate it with the core’s new sitemaps feature.

Key Takeways

With version 5.5., WordPress will expose a sitemap index at /wp-sitemap.xml. This is the main XML file that contains the listing of all the sitemap pages exposed by a WordPress site.

The sitemap index can hold a maximum of 50000 sitemaps, and a single sitemap can hold a (filterable) maximum of 2000 entries.

By default, sitemaps are created for all public and publicly queryable post types and taxonomies, as well as for author archives and of course the homepage of the site.

The robots.txt file exposed by WordPress will reference the sitemap index so that i can be easily discovered by search engines.

Technical Requirements

Rendering sitemaps on the frontend requires the SimpleXML PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher extension. If this extension is not available, an error message will be displayed instead of the sitemap. The HTTPHTTP HTTP is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. status code 501 (“Not implemented”) will be sent accordingly.

Configuring Sitemaps Behavior

Adding Custom Sitemaps

WordPress provides sitemaps for built-in content types like pages and author archives out of the box. If you are developing a plugin that adds custom features beyond those standard ones, or just want to include some custom URLs on your site, it might make sense to add a custom sitemap provider.

To do so, all you need to do is create a custom PHP class that extends the abstract WP_Sitemaps_Provider class in core. Then, you can use the wp_register_sitemap_provider() function to register it. Here’s an example:

add_filter(
	'init',
	function() {
		$provider = new Awesome_Plugin_Sitemaps_Provider();
		wp_register_sitemap_provider( 'awesome-plugin', $provider );
	}
);

The provider will be responsible for getting all sitemaps and sitemap entries, as well as determining pagination.

Removing Certain Sitemaps

There are three existing sitemaps providers for WordPress object types like posts, taxonomies, and users. If you want to remove one of them, let’s say the “users” provider, you can leverage the wp_sitemaps_add_provider 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 do so. Here’s an example:

add_filter(
	'wp_sitemaps_add_provider',
	function( $provider, $name ) {
		if ( 'users' === $name ) {
			return false;
		}

		return $provider;
	},
	10,
	2
);

If instead you want to disable sitemap generation for a specific post type or taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies., use the wp_sitemaps_post_types or wp_sitemaps_taxonomies filter, respectively.

Example: Disabling sitemaps for the page post type

add_filter(
	'wp_sitemaps_post_types',
	function( $post_types ) {
		unset( $post_types['page'] );
		return $post_types;
	}
);

Example: Disabling sitemaps for the post_tag taxonomy

add_filter(
	'wp_sitemaps_taxonomies',
	function( $taxonomies ) {
		unset( $taxonomies['post_tag'] );
		return $taxonomies;
	}
);

Adding Additional Tags to Sitemap Entries

The sitemaps protocol specifies a certain set of supported attributes for sitemap entries. Of those, only the URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org (loc) tagtag A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) is required. All others (e.g. changefreq and priority) are optional tags in the sitemaps protocol and not typically consumed by search engines, which is why WordPress only lists the URL itself. Developers can still add those tags if they really want to.

You can use the wp_sitemaps_posts_entry / wp_sitemaps_users_entry / wp_sitemaps_taxonomies_entry filters to add additional tags like changefreq, priority, or lastmod to single items in the sitemap.

Example: Adding the last modified date for posts

add_filter(
    'wp_sitemaps_posts_entry',
    function( $entry, $post ) {
        $entry['lastmod'] = gmdate( DATE_W3C, strtotime( $post->post_modified_gmt );
        return $entry;
    },
    10,
    2
);

Similarly, you can use the wp_sitemaps_index_entry filter to add lastmod on the sitemap index. Note: the sitemaps protocal does not support on the sitemap index.

Trying to add any unsupported tags will result in a _doing_it_wrong notice.

Excluding a Single Post from the Sitemap

If you are developing a plugin that allows setting specific posts or pages to noindex, it’s a good idea to exclude those from the sitemap too.

The wp_sitemaps_posts_query_args filter can be used to exclude specific posts from the sitemap. Here’s an example:

add_filter(
	'wp_sitemaps_posts_query_args',
	function( $args, $post_type ) {
		if ( 'post' !== $post_type ) {
			return $args;
		}

		$args['post__not_in'] = isset( $args['post__not_in'] ) ? $args['post__not_in'] : array();
		$args['post__not_in'][] = 123; // 123 is the ID of the post to exclude.
		return $args;
	},
	10,
	2
);

Disabling Sitemaps Functionality Completely

If you update the Site Visibility settings in WordPress adminadmin (and super admin) to discourage search engines from indexing your site, sitemaps will be disabled. You can use the wp_sitemaps_enabled filter to override the default behavior.

Here’s an example of how to disable sitemaps completely, no matter what:

add_filter( 'wp_sitemaps_enabled', '__return_false' );

Note: Doing that will not remove the rewrite rules used for the sitemaps, as they are needed in order to send appropriate responses when sitemaps are disabled.

Want to know whether sitemaps are currently enabled or not? Use wp_sitemaps_get_server()->sitemaps_enabled().

Image/Video/News Sitemaps

WordPress currently implements and supports the core sitemaps format as defined on sitemaps.org. Sitemap extensions like image, video, and news sitemaps are not covered by this feature, as these are usually only useful for a small number of websites. In future versions of WordPress, filters and hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same. may be added to enable adding such functionality. For now this will still be left to plugins to implement.

New Classes and Functions

As of this writing, this is the full list of new classes and functions introduced with this feature.

Functions:

  • wp_sitemaps_get_server – Retrieves the current Sitemaps server instance.
  • wp_get_sitemap_providers – Gets an array of sitemap providers.
  • wp_register_sitemap_provider – Registers a new sitemap provider.
  • wp_sitemaps_get_max_urls – Gets the maximum number of URLs for a sitemap.

Classes:

  • WP_Sitemaps – Main class responsible for setting up rewrites and registering all providers.
  • WP_Sitemaps_Index – Builds the sitemap index page that lists the links to all of the sitemaps.
  • WP_Sitemaps_Provider – Base class for other sitemap providers to extend and contains shared functionality.
  • WP_Sitemaps_Registry – Handles registering sitemap providers.
  • WP_Sitemaps_Renderer – Responsible for rendering Sitemaps data to XML in accordance with sitemap protocol.
  • WP_Sitemaps_Stylesheet – This class provides the XSL stylesheets to style all sitemaps.
  • WP_Sitemaps_Posts – Builds the sitemaps for the ‘post’ object type and its sub types (custom post types).
  • WP_Sitemaps_Taxonomies – Builds the sitemaps for the ‘taxonomy’ object type and its sub types (custom taxonomies).
  • WP_Sitemaps_Users – Builds the sitemaps for the ‘user’ object type.

Available Hooks and Filters

As of this writing, this is the full list of available hooks and filters.

General:

  • wp_sitemaps_enabled – Filters whether XML Sitemaps are enabled or not.
  • wp_sitemaps_max_urls – Filters the maximum number of URLs displayed on a sitemap.
  • wp_sitemaps_init – Fires when initializing sitemaps.
  • wp_sitemaps_index_entry – Filters the sitemap entry for the sitemap index.

Providers:

  • wp_sitemaps_add_provider – Filters the sitemap provider before it is added.
  • wp_sitemaps_post_types – Filters the list of post types to include in the sitemaps.
  • wp_sitemaps_posts_entry – Filters the sitemap entry for an individual post.
  • wp_sitemaps_posts_show_on_front_entry – Filters the sitemap entry for the home page when the ‘show_on_front’ option equals ‘posts’.
  • wp_sitemaps_posts_query_args – Filters the query arguments for post type sitemap queries.
  • wp_sitemaps_posts_pre_url_list – Filters the posts URL list before it is generated (short-circuit).
  • wp_sitemaps_posts_pre_max_num_pages – Filters the max number of pages before it is generated (short-circuit).
  • wp_sitemaps_taxonomies – Filters the list of taxonomies to include in the sitemaps.
  • wp_sitemaps_taxonomies_entry – Filters the sitemap entry for an individual term.
  • wp_sitemaps_taxonomies_query_args – Filters the query arguments for taxonomy terms sitemap queries.
  • wp_sitemaps_taxonomies_pre_url_list – Filters the taxonomies URL list before it is generated (short-circuit).
  • wp_sitemaps_taxonomies_pre_max_num_pages – Filters the max number of pages before it is generated (short-circuit).
  • wp_sitemaps_users_entry – Filters the sitemap entry for an individual user.
  • wp_sitemaps_users_query_args – Filters the query arguments for user sitemap queries.
  • wp_sitemaps_users_pre_url_list – Filters the users URL list before it is generated (short-circuit).
  • wp_sitemaps_users_pre_max_num_pages – Filters the max number of pages before it is generated (short-circuit).

Stylesheets:

  • wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_css – Filters the CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. for the sitemap stylesheet.
  • wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_url – Filters the URL for the sitemap stylesheet.
  • wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_content – Filters the content of the sitemap stylesheet.
  • wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_index_url – Filters the URL for the sitemap index stylesheet.
  • wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_index_content – Filters the content of the sitemap index stylesheet.

#5-5, #dev-notes, #sitemaps, #xml-sitemaps

Pascal Birchler 2:30 pm on July 21, 2020
Tags: , , sitemaps,   

New esc_xml() function in WordPress 5.5

As part of the development for the new XML Sitemaps feature in WordPress 5.5, a new esc_xml() function has been added to coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. that filters a string cleaned and escaped for output in XML. This joins the existing set of functions like esc_html() and esc_js().

While all contents in XML sitemaps are already escaped using this new function, existing code in WordPress core can be updated to leverage it in future releases.

wp_kses_normalize_entities() has been updated accordingly to support this, and now can distinguish between HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. and XML context.

Note: l10nL10n Localization, or the act of translating code into one's own language. Also see internationalization. Often written with an uppercase L so it is not confused with the capital letter i or the numeral 1. WordPress has a capable and dynamic group of polyglots who take WordPress to more than 70 different locales. helpers like esc_xml__() and esc_xml_e() are being proposed separately in #50551, and are not part of this release.

#5-5, #dev-notes, #sitemaps, #xml-sitemaps

Pascal Birchler 7:19 pm on June 10, 2020
Tags: , , , , sitemaps,   

Merge Announcement: Extensible Core Sitemaps

This proposal seeks to integrate basic, extensibleExtensible This is the ability to add additional functionality to the code. Plugins extend the WordPress core software. XML sitemaps functionality into WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..

While web crawlers are able to discover pages from links within the site and from other sites, sitemaps supplement this approach by allowing crawlers to quickly and comprehensively identify all URLs included in the sitemap and learn other signals about those URLs using the associated metadata.

Purpose & Goals

Sitemaps help WordPress sites become more discoverable by providing search engines with a map of content that should be indexed. The Sitemaps protocol is a URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org inclusion protocol and complements robots.txt, a URL exclusion protocol.

A Sitemap is an XML file that lists the URLs for a site. Sitemaps can optionally include information about each URL: when it was last updated, how often it changes, and how important it is in relation to other URLs of the site. This allows search engines to crawl the site more effectively and to discover every public URL the site has made available. 

This core sitemaps feature aims to provide the base required functionality for the Sitemaps protocol for core WordPress objects, then enables developers to extend this functionality with a robust and consistent set of filters. For example, developers can control which object types (posts, taxonomies, authors) or object subtypes (post types, taxonomies) are included, exclude specific entries, or extend sitemaps to add optional fields. See below for the full list.

Project Background

The idea of adding sitemaps to core was originally proposed in June 2019.  Since then, development has been ongoing in GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/, and weekly meetings in the #core-sitemaps channel started this year to push development forward. Several versions of the feature plugin have been released on the WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ 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 repository, with the latest 0.4.1 representing the state that is considered ready to merge into core. The team is currently working on preparing the final patch to include on the Trac ticket.

Implementation Details

XML Sitemaps will be enabled by default making the following object types indexable:

  • Homepage
  • Posts page
  • Core post types (i.e. pages and posts)
  • Custom post types
  • Core taxonomies (i.e. tags and categories)
  • Custom taxonomies
  • Author archives

Additionally, the robots.txt file exposed by WordPress will reference the sitemap index.

A crucial feature of the sitemap plugin is the sitemap index. This is the main XML file that contains the listing of all the sitemap pages exposed by a WordPress site. By default, the plugin creates a sitemap index at /wp-sitemap.xml which includes sitemaps for all supported content, separated into groups by type. Each sitemap file contains a maximum of 2,000 URLs per sitemap, when that threshold is reached a new sitemap file is added.

By default, sitemaps are created for all public post types and taxonomies, as well as for author archives. Several filters exist to tweak this behavior, for example to include or exclude certain entries. Also, there are plenty of available hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same. for plugins to integrate with this feature if they want to, or to disable it completely if they wish to roll their own version.

Contributors and Feedback

The following people have contributed to this project in some form or another:

Adrian McShane, @afragen, @adamsilverstein, @casiepa, @flixos90, @garrett-eclipse, @joemcgill, @kburgoine, @kraftbj, @milana_cap, @pacifika, @pbiron, @pfefferle, Ruxandra Gradina, @swissspidy, @szepeviktor, @tangrufus, @tweetythierry

With special thanks to the docs, polyglots, and security teams for their thorough reviews.

Available Hooks and Filters

Check out the feature plugin page for a full list of filters and also a few usage examples.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I disable sitemaps?

If you update the WordPress settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site, sitemaps will be disabled. Alternatively, use the wp_sitemaps_is_enabled 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., or use remove_action( 'init', 'wp_sitemaps_get_server' ); to disable initialization of any sitemap functionality.

How can I disable sitemaps for a certain object type or exclude a certain item?

Using the filters referred to above – check out the feature plugin page for examples.

Does this support lastmod, changefreq, or priority attributes for sitemaps?

By default, no. Those are optional fields in the sitemaps protocol and not typically consumed by search engines. Developers can still add those fields if they want to using the filters referred to above.

lastmod in particular has not been implemented due to the added complexity of calculating the last modified dates for all object types and sitemaps with reasonable performance. For a common website with less frequent updates, lastmod does not offer additional benefits. For sites that are updated very frequently and want to use lastmod, it is recommended to use a plugin to add this functionality.

What about image/video/news sitemaps?

These sitemap extensions were declared a non-goal when the project was initially proposed, and as such are not covered by this feature. In future versions of WordPress, filters and hooks may be added to enable plugins to add such functionality.

Are there any UIUI User interface controls to exclude posts or pages from sitemaps?

No. User-facing changes were declared a non-goal when the project was initially proposed, since simply omitting a given post from a sitemap is not a guarantee that it won’t get crawled or indexed by search engines. In the spirit of “Decisions, not options”, any logic to exclude posts from sitemaps is better handled by dedicated plugins (i.e. SEO plugins). Plugins that implement a UI for relevant areas can use the new filters to enforce their settings, for example to only query content that has not been flagged with a “noindex” option.

Are there any privacy implications of listing users in sitemaps?

The sitemaps only surface the site’s author archives, and do not include any information that isn’t already publicly available on a site.

Are there any performance implications by adding this feature?

The addition of this feature does not impact regular website visitors, but only users who access the sitemap directly. Benchmarks during development of this feature showed that sitemap generation is generally very fast even for sites with thousands of posts. Thus, no additional caching for sitemaps was put in place.

If you want to optimize the sitemap generation, for example by optimizing queries or even short-circuiting any database queries, use the filters mentioned above.

What about sites with existing sitemap plugins?

Many sites already have a plugin active that implements sitemaps. For most of them, that will no longer be necessary, as the feature in WordPress core suffices. However, there is no harm in keeping them. The core sitemaps feature was built in a robust and easily extensible way. If for some reason two sitemaps are exposed on a website (one by core, one by a plugin), this does not result in any negative consequences for the site’s discoverability.

#5-5, #feature-plugins, #feature-projects, #merge-proposals, #sitemaps, #xml-sitemaps

Pascal Birchler 12:25 pm on June 9, 2020
Tags: , , , sitemaps,   

XML Sitemaps Meeting: June 9th, 2020

Since the last blog post about the XML feature project we have seen many fruitful discussions and great progress towards WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. inclusion.

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

  • Version 0.4.0
    This release was published last week in an effort to add the last remaining features before
  • Merge proposal post
    Work continued on the draft, and contributors will be pinged for review before publishing.
  • 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.
    A pull request has been started on GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ that aims to serve as the basis for this.

Agenda: June 9th

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 9h at 16.00 CEST.

Items on the agenda so far:

  • 0.4.1 release
  • Core patch
  • 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, #sitemaps, #xml-sitemaps

Pascal Birchler 12:51 pm on May 26, 2020
Tags: , , , sitemaps,   

XML Sitemaps Meeting: May 26th, 2020

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 release.

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 or higher 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, #sitemaps, #xml-sitemaps

Pascal Birchler 1:12 pm on May 12, 2020
Tags: , , , sitemaps,   

XML Sitemaps Meeting: May 12th, 2020

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 release, 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 make 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, #sitemaps, #xml-sitemaps

Pascal Birchler 1:21 pm on April 14, 2020
Tags: , , , sitemaps,   

XML Sitemaps Meeting: April 14th, 2020

Meeting Recap: April 7th

For reference, check out the previous blogblog (versus network, site) post from April 7th:

XML Sitemaps Meeting: April 7th, 2020

What we’ve discussed last week:

  • 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 Conflicts (#146)
    We reached the conclusion that such conflicts are actually a non-issue. Plugins are expected to override the default sitemap functionality. For consistency reasons, we keep the wp- prefix.
  • Last modified date (#145)
    There is one open question on the PR to keep lastmod for object types that support it out of the box (i.e. posts).
    Current status: needs reviews.
  • Rewrite Rules (#147)
    A change was proposed to improve the way rewrite rules are registered for sitemaps. This would avoid having to flush rewrite rules when custom providers are added.
    Current status: needs contributors / reviews.
  • Roadmap
    WordPress 5.5 is ought to be released in August. We settled on the following roadmap for sitemaps:
    • Fix remaining big issues – April
    • Refactor code to be closer to WP coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. standards, add safeguards so nothing breaks after merge – April
    • Publish Merge proposal – May
  • Extensibility
    It was suggested to add a 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 the <urlset> element’s attributes so that plugins could easily add namespaced elements to a sitemap (e.g. for image sitemaps).

Agenda: April 14th

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 14th at 16.00 CET.

Items on the agenda so far:

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, #sitemaps, #xml-sitemaps

Pascal Birchler 9:30 am on April 7, 2020
Tags: , , , sitemaps,   

XML Sitemaps Meeting: April 7th, 2020

Meeting Recap: March 24th & 31st

For reference, check out the previous blogblog (versus network, site) post from March 24th:

XML Sitemaps Meeting: March 24th, 2020

Things that have been discussed in the last two meetings:

  • 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 Conflicts (#146)
    We discussed the rewrite rules conflicts that might currently happen with certain plugins. A consensus hasn’t been reached so far, but it could actually be declared a non-issue: if plugin A overrides the default sitemap functionality, that might be intended behavior.
    Current status: needs decision.
  • Rewrite Rules (#147)
    A change was proposed to improve the way rewrite rules are registered for sitemaps. This would avoid having to flush rewrite rules when custom providers are added.
    Current status: needs contributors.
  • Last modified date (#145)
    The PR to remove all traces of lastmod has been updated to include documentation.
    Current status: needs reviews.
  • Filterable query args
    #137 has been closed in anticipation of an improved solution to 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. query arguments.
    Current status: needs PR.
  • Private sites (#138)
    Current status: PR needs some work
  • Roadmap
    WordPress 5.5 is ought to be released in August. We need to continue working on the feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins. so we have something merge-able in May or June. The tentative roadmap would be:
    • Fix remaining big issues – April
    • Refactor code to be closer to WP coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. standards, add safeguards so nothing breaks after merge – April
    • Publish Merge proposal – May

Agenda: April 7th

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 6th at 16.00 CET.

Today’s agenda is rather straightforward so far:

  • Plugin conflicts
  • Last modified date (#145)
  • Road towards WordPress 5.5
  • Currently open issues and pull requests
  • 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, #sitemaps, #xml-sitemaps

Pascal Birchler 11:05 am on March 24, 2020
Tags: , , , sitemaps,   

XML Sitemaps Meeting: March 24th, 2020

In case you were looking for an blogblog (versus network, site) post about the XML Sitemaps feature project last week, worry no more. Work 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 is progressing smoothly and steadily, we just didn’t publish an agenda post last week. That means it is time for a double update today!

Meeting Recap: March 10th & 17th

For reference, check my previous blog post from March 10th:

XML Sitemaps Meeting: March 10th, 2020

A lot has happened since then. Here’s the summary, not necessarily in the right order:

  • SimpleXML dependency
    We received great feedback from a variety of big hosting providers, all saying that this PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher extension is widely available and we can rely on it safely.
    Current status: no action needed.
  • Rewrite rule conflictconflict A conflict occurs when a patch changes code that was modified after the patch was created. These patches are considered stale, and will require a refresh of the changes before it can be applied, or the conflicts will need to be resolved. with plugins
    As we realized that the new /wp-sitemap.xml URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org format clashes with big existing plugins, we decided to look into alternate names for both the rewrite rules as well as the query params. See GitHub issue for details.
    Current status: needs contributors.
  • Rewrite rule issues with custom providers
    It was reported that adding custom sitemap providers might require flushing rewrite rules. Ideally, that shouldn’t be needed.
    Current status: needs decision.
  • Last modified date (lastmod)
    We decided to continue with the proposed PR to remove lastmod from sitemaps (at least for now), but need to make sure there is appropriate documentation. It’s something that can always be added back if needed.
    Current status: has PR, needs documentation.
  • Query Filters
    Valuable feedback emerged from testing, which led to the decision to close the existing PR to make query instances filterable in favor of a simpler approach. In its place, we should make the query arguments filterable, and also add filters to short-circuit queries.
    Current status: needs contributors.

Please let me know in the comments if I got something wrong in this summary!

Agenda: March 24th

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 24 at 16.00 CET.

Today’s agenda is rather straightforward so far:

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, #sitemaps, #xml-sitemaps

Pascal Birchler 10:37 am on March 10, 2020
Tags: , , , sitemaps,   

XML Sitemaps Meeting: March 10th, 2020

A lot has happened since last week’s meeting for the XML Sitemaps feature project. Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ve discussed & did, as well as a brief agenda for today’s meeting.

Meeting Recap: March 3rd

For reference, please check out last week’s agenda post:

XML Sitemaps Meeting: March 3rd, 2020

The tl;dr of our discussion:

  • Disabling sitemaps for private sites
    Mentioned the currently open PR and how it could be used to kill two birds with one stone by making that process filterable; thus making it easier for plugins to disable the sitemaps feature.
    Current status: needs tests
  • Prefixing sitemap URLs
    The main PR for this change has been merged, a new issue has been opened for @kraftbj to handle 404 requests.
  • SimpleXML dependency
    We went over potential alternatives to this extension, but ultimately settled on sticking with the status quo as initial feedback indicated a rather wide availability of SimpleXML. We then discussed how we should gracefully handle the unavailability of said extension and decided on using wp_die to output a nicely formatted error message in XML with HTTPHTTP HTTP is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. status 501 (“Not implemented”).
    Current status: merged!
  • @joemcgill proposed looking into how to best transition the code base to something more in line with WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. Something that we can discuss in a future meeting, once 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 is more stable.
  • Added @pbiron, @kraftbj, and @pfefferle as new contributors to the GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ repository. 🎉

Agenda: March 10th

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 10 at 16.00 CET.

PSA: Unfortunately I won’t be able to lead today’s meeting, but thankfully @tweetythierry stepped up to help out with this.

Today’s agenda is rather straightforward so far:

  • Released version 0.2.0 of the plugin (changelog)
  • Plugin compatibility with new URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org structure
    Yoast SEO’s rewrite rules seem to clash with ours
  • SimpleXML dependency: blogblog (versus network, site) post on make/hosting (@pbiron)
  • Currently open issues and pull requests
  • 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, #sitemaps, #xml-sitemaps