New Wordpress Sitemap Plugin v2.0.5
After a period of quiet I have released a new version of our plugin. Initially this was version 2.0.4 but following a critical bug 2.0.5 was released to hot fix this issue. In hindsight, this should have been 2.1.0 due to the number of code changes.
Sorry to those who were impacted by this issue. It slipped the net during testing and is part of the reason for this blog.
In this new version much of the work was focused on updating coding standards and conventions required by Wordpress as recently their enforcement has become more aggressive with threats to close the plugin.
The short back story is that I started this plugin for a website I was running and decided in the spirit of open source to make it available. Over time it has grown in popularity and we now have over 100,000 websites using it.
Version 2.x of the plugin saw a major overhaul of the code to improve how it worked from its rather hacky 1.x days and in this more recent version we have been improving code quality.
What’s changed in 2.0.5?
While there were not really any new features, a lot of underlying code was updated which is what lead to the code breaking.
New : Set an empty sitemap file to disable a given map
Fix : Index file showing news feed twice
Fix : Archive provider rendered sitemap regardless of setting
Fix : Erroneous variables producing debug warnings in archive provider.
Fix : Adopted Wordpress sanitize and escape filtering functions
Fix : Moved to using enqueue scripts instead of inline scripts
Fix: Addressed a problem with the stable tag label.
Fix : Removed google analytics
Fix : Remove the latest archive from XML index.
Are we going to be deleted 😔?
The plugin is at risk of being deleted by Wordpress. Despite being open source they are expecting plugins to operate more like businesses, requiring plugin publishers to adopt more of their standards in terms of coding, updating, releases, etc. and that requires resources.
As a side project that I released to the community, maintaining and supporting the plugin as its user base has grown has become increasingly challenging and at times I do not have the time, or skills to undertake what Wordpress are asking for.
Please help and contribute
I want to keep the project going, for it to be freely available, open source and supported by the community, so I am really relying on good will and generosity of the community to keep it alive. Please consider contributing to the project.
Contribution suggestions
Individuals with a small website
£5 (about $6.30 USD)
Contribute now
Small business and professional websites.
£10 (about $12.60 USD)
Contribute now
Commercial websites and services
£20 (about $25.20)
Larger websites, multiple websites, or use our plugin for professional services / consultancy.
Contribute now
Larger businesses and absolute legends
£50 and over.
If you are feeling particularly generous and legendary, or are one of the very large commercial websites that use our plugin.
Contribute now
- You can also support me at : buymeacoffee.com/xmlsitemaps
Thank you in advance for your support
Priorities for resources ….
The only way the plugin can continue is if the community gets behind it.
First and foremost it needs some funding to allow me to bring in the skills / resources to bring it up to speed and maintain it moving forward. In particular I would like to get a recognized 3rd party to review the code for new releases to help keep Wordpress happy. This will also hopefully give you confidence that the plugin is up to standard too.
Secondly, I will need to put more rigor around testing and releasing, so in the not too distant future I will be setting up an “early access”(or similar) programme with incentives and rewards for helping out, although obviously this will be subject to funding being successful.
Thirdly, improving the support resources and community around the plugin. I have tried to do this with reddit and telegram, but struggled and really it needs some time investing to get it right.
Forth, (and it probably should be first) I can buy my partner some flowers and make up for all the time I invest in “that X X sitemap thing” I’m always working on. 😂