5.1.0 – Profound

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Updated

The lover of wisdom, then, far surpasses the lover of gain. — Plato

Release highlights

  • This update brings a new color scheme that’s easier on your eyes. You’ll love it tomorrow.
  • The canonical URL is now tracked in real-time when editing any page or term.
  • You can now block AI trainers and SEO analysis crawlers from using your content.
  • We added a warning for image types that aren’t compatible with most social platforms.
  • You can now set a canonical and redirect URL for the homepage.

Profound

After the monumental v5.0 “Apex” update, we’re proud to present TSF v5.1 “Profound.” It’s a less impactful update, bringing only 150 improvements, but every single one aims to make TSF even more user-friendly. Meticulously crafted, unlike anything, this update is yet another testament to our dedication to making WordPress SEO bearable.

Canonical URL Notation Tracker

The canonical URL is a critical part of SEO, but WordPress doesn’t convey what it becomes when editing the page, only after saving it. Now, you can see it in real-time as a placeholder, depending on your site’s permalink settings.

This tracker is accurate. Still, we plan to make it more sophisticated in future updates. It won’t reflect category changes in Quick Edit because we must still add a primary term selector there, and it’s disabled when a multilingual plugin is active, as those modify the URL structure in a non-standard way.

New robots.txt generator

We’ve replaced the existing robots.txt writer with a priority-based generator. We’ve already added the ability to add your sitemap’s location, block AI trainers, block SEO analysis crawlers, and limit access to the admin area. You can append, remove, and modify generator sections using filter the_seo_framework_robots_txt_sections.

Clear your cache

We’ve significantly updated the plugin’s CSS and JavaScript files. If you find issues with the interface, you may need to flush your browser caches. Check out our KB article to learn more.

Support the development

We hope you’ll love this update as much as we do. Please consider supporting us by posting a fantastic review, get a license, or do your friends and colleagues a favor by installing TSF for them.

Detailed log

But surely it is obvious to everyone that all the endeavor of the part by which we learn is ever towards knowledge of the truth of things. — Plato

> View code changes.
> View closed issues.

For everyone

  • Upgraded: Now uses TSF database version 5100.
    • Four new options will be registered to THE_SEO_FRAMEWORK_SITE_OPTIONS (autodescription-site-settings): robotstxt_block_ai, robotstxt_block_seo, homepage_canonical, and homepage_redirect.
  • Added:
    • Canonical URL:
      • We introduce our bespoke Canonical URL Notation Tracker, allowing TSF to dynamically update the example canonical URL when editing a page or term, either via their edit screens, or via Quick Edit.
        • It listens to many changes of the editor that could influence the URL, depending on your site’s permalink settings.
          • Among these, are %year%, %monthnum%, %day%, %hour%, %minute%, %second%, %post_id%, %postname%, %category%, and %author%.
            • %pagename% is treated as %postname% internally. You should never make this part of the permalink structure, anyway.
          • It also works for custom post types and taxonomies, such as those created by WooCommerce and bbPress.
          • This system dynamically fetches page ancestor, author, and term slugs as needed. These are then cached in the browser. This dynamic fetching may appear as a delay in writing the canonical URL when making changes.
          • Please note that you should never use %pagename% in your permalink structure. %postname% gets transformed to %pagename% automatically when needed.
        • This feature is disabled when you have a multilingual plugin active on your site. These plugins modify the URL structure in a non-standard way, and we cannot anticipate that from the admin area yet. We’d rather give you the URL WordPress provided that isn’t up-to-date but behaves predictably than one that’s inaccurate.
    • Compatibility:
      • For WPML Multilingual Plugin, the following fields are automatically registered with their String Translation tool under domain admin_texts_autodescription-site-settings. Please note that these are only shown when they have a value inputted via the SEO Settings page:
        • Homepage: title, description, social image URL, Open Graph title and description, Twitter title and description.
          • Identifyable by name [autodescription-site-settings]homepage_*.
        • Post Type Archive: title, description, social image URL, canonical URL, redirect URL, Open Graph title and description, Twitter title and description.
          • Identifyable by name [autodescription-site-settings][pta][<post_type_name>]*.
    • Homepage settings:
      • You can now specify a canonical URL for the homepage.
        • If the homepage is a page, this will take precedence over the page’s metadata canonical URL.
      • You can now specify a redirect URL for the homepage.
        • If the homepage is a page, this will take precedence over the page’s metadata redirect URL.
    • Images:
      • You’ll now be informed when an image type isn’t compatible with most social platforms. This is displayed next to the image preview icon.
        • Also, the preview icon no longer shows when the image cannot be loaded. You’ll now see an error message instead.
        • The following types will emit a warning, for not all social media platforms are compatible: .webp, .heic.
        • The following types will emit an error, for these are stripped by TSF from output: .apng, .bmp, .ico, .cur, .svg, .tif, and .tiff.
    • Robots.txt:
      • You can now block crawlers used for AI language model training and SEO analysis from using your content via the “Robots Settings.”
  • Improved:
    • Accessibility:
      • Description, title, and canonical URL input placeholders now blur on focus with Quick Edit.
      • Floating title parts (e.g., Protected: or your site title) have been offset by half a character on overflow, so that their text won’t stick to your input.
      • Floating title parts now also disappear when there are fewer than 1.33 characters are visible, so that they won’t overlap your input.
      • The Block Editor on WP 6.7 proposes a new layout for their select fields, which we’ve opted in for with the Primary Term selection.
      • The canonical URL input field’s placeholder now blurs on focus (Quick Edit, Post Edit, Term Edit, SEO Settings).
      • The canonical URL placeholder is now populated for Quick Edit.
        • Please note that it doesn’t respond to category changes, because we still need to find a good way to implement primary term selection here. So, it assumes the category selection as it was when the Quick Edit was opened. For more details, see issue 512.
      • The SEO Bar symbols have a tad more contrast now due to a darker text shadow, improving legibility (primarily for a yellow item).
    • Administration:
      • If the primary term is set to a term that no longer exists, the Primary Term will now default to what WordPress would pick, instead of no term at all.
        • The parent-term tree will also automatically update when a term gets deleted.
      • References to X and Twitter Card are more distinctive now.
      • The plugin now better conveys where to modify the homepage’s title “additions.”
      • The Quick Edit default indexing state now updates to the post password status or private status accordingly.
    • Compatibility:
      • We added basic compatibility for the Bricks theme:
        • Templates are no longer supported for SEO or included in the sitemap unless the “Public templates” option is enabled at “Bricks > Settings > Templates > My templates.”
        • Template Bundles and Template Tags are no longer supported for SEO; they weren’t meant to be public anyway.
        • When we detect a page is a Bricks template, the SEO Bar clarifies why no description can be generated.
          • Bricks’s data appears readable without excessive parsing, so we may revisit this and enable description generation in the future. See issue 677.
    • Performance:
      • Fading in and out animations of TSF’s UI are now much easier on your device, because we handle them via our bespoke fader now.
      • Reduced the admin stylesheet payload by implementing modern logical declarations.
      • Reduced the sitemap stylesheet size by also implementing modern logical declarations for that.
    • Stability:
      • If a settings listeners fails for any reason, other listeners may still continue. Leaving you with a semi-broken interface, instead of completely broken. For example, if the code uses an unexpected value for the Homepage title input, only its character counters will be borked, but you can still upload an image for social sharing.
        • This works for the Settings, Post Edit, Term Edit, and List Edit pages.
        • This is a targeted fail-safe and won’t work everywhere all the time.
  • Changed:
    • Administration:
      • By default, the “Social Meta Settings” meta box is now placed above the “Homepage Settings,” instead of below the “Post Type Archive Settings” (or below the “Homepage Settings” if that’s not available).
      • The Primary Term selector for the Classic Editor has been rewritten for accessibility, performance, and accuracy. We didn’t spend time modernizing this before because we thought Classic Editor would’ve been phased out.
        • Note that the Primary Term selector is no longer a button, but a dropdown selection field, placed dynamically beneath the term selection checkboxes. This mimics the behavior we have for the Block Editor, simultaneously resolving some z-fighting issues we had with some languages for the tooltip placement.
      • The “Robots Meta Settings” are now called “Robots Settings” because we added a tab for AI blocking via Robots.txt (when available).
      • The “Robots” meta settings for the homepage is now called “Visibility” settings, because it now also includes Canonical URL and Redirect URL input fields.
    • User interface:
      • After saving a page in the Block Editor, the SEO Bar (if displayed) fades in much quicker now.
      • The image selection button and preview icon animations are now twice as fast.
      • The input placeholder blurring animation is now twice as fast.
      • The SEO meta box tab labels are now inline when there’s enough space.
      • WordPress 5.7 brought us a new higher contrast color palette. We found our color scheme matching their colors well, but now think it better to implement those colors into TSF. Notably, you’ll find that the SEO Bar is darker and easier on the eyes. The pixel and character counters appear more vigorous.
        • We didn’t copy WordPress’s colors one-to-one. At times, we found the yellow too dull, and made it more vibrant.
  • Fixed:
    • Awesome Motive’s All in One SEO Pack plugin outputs a notice urging to deactivate other SEO plugins, but without clarifying which SEO plugin emits this notice or telling which plugins get deactivated. So, we now hide this deceptive notice.
    • Resolved a long-standing regression where WordPress 5.3 changed the checkbox mark from a colorable item to an immutable image, so it was no longer green or red colored for The SEO Framework’s default and warned settings, respectively. Thanks to this fix, Firefox is now also fully supported (it doesn’t natively support checkbox colors), although it might be more demanding of your device to render the checkboxes.
      • It took so long because we needed esoteric CSS that glitches when its container animates, namely, mix-blend-mode. We found a workaround with some trial and error.
    • Resolved a regression from WordPress 6.6 where a CSS identifier disappeared. We used this identifier to apply styling for the sidebar. We now use a different, more specific identifier that’s in all WordPress versions we support; from .edit-post-sidebar, now #edit-post\:document.
    • Resolved a regression where the post-saving sequence wasn’t properly debounced, causing multiple save-state requests for TSF’s meta box that affected the Block Editor’s performance performance and caused the SEO settings UI to flicker.
    • Resolved a typo causing the description placeholders to not blur on focus on the SEO Settings page when using Firefox.
    • Resolved an issue where a double-click would yield an unchanged save state on the SEO Settings page by disabling the submit button after the initial click for 3 seconds.
    • Resolved an issue where comment pagination queries were only ignored after the main query when the Full Site Editor was present; now, they’re always ignored.
    • Resolved an issue where horizontal scrolling bars would appear when the inputted title is wider than the screen when measured from the container.
    • Resolved an issue where resetting the settings twice in a row would result in an “unknown error.” Now, you get a “No SEO settings were changed” message instead.
    • Resolved an issue where the “Are you sure?” notice wasn’t emitted when leaving the page without saving after the Primary Term is changed on Classic Editor.
    • Resolved an issue where the Classic Editor’s Primary Term selection label’s cursor wasn’t a pointer in WP 6.5 and later.
    • Resolved an issue where the counter AJAX spinner wasn’t offset by 3 pixels from the character counter’s loader text. It’s now also changed to 0.5 character widths.
    • Resolved an issue where the floating title parts didn’t align properly when dealing with subpixel alignment.
    • Resolved an issue where the floating title parts repositioned or (un)trimmed only when passing the 782px screen width boundary, while they ought to be recalculated with every screen size change.
    • Resolved an issue where the floating title prefix (e.g., Private:) didn’t trim when the site title was removed.
    • Resolved an issue with Polylang where the list column fields would reorder sporadically.
    • When setting ‘0′ as a password via quick-edit, WordPress actually doesn’t consider it a valid password. So, TSF now won’t reflect this via its quick-edit interface either.
      • We already considered this behavior for the Classic and Block editor.
  • Notes:
    • WordPress 6.0 is now required, from 5.9. This allowed us to drop legacy Gutenberg support.
      • Since WordPress doesn’t adhere to Semantic Versioning (SemVer), this is such a minor bump that we didn’t bother highlighting it.

For translators

  • Added:
    • New sentences have been added.
  • Updated:
    • POT translation file.
    • As always, various sentences have been updated for clarity.

For developers

  • PHP API notes:
    • Added:
      • Method tsf()->data()->post()->get_post_parents() is now available.
      • Method tsf()->data()->term()->get_term_parents() is now available.
      • Method tsf()->data()->user()->get_userdata() is now available. It’s an alias of WordPress’s get_userdata(), but with proper memoization for improved performance.
      • Method tsf()->description()->excerpt()->get_excerpt() is now available. It’s an alias of get_post_excerpt(), which is marked for deprecation due to being mislabeled.
      • Method tsf()->format()->arrays()->array_diff_assoc_recursive() is now available. It’s the first of its kind that supports more than two array inputs.
      • Method tsf()->image()->generate_custom_image_details_from_args() is now public.
      • Method tsf()->image()->generate_custom_image_details_from_query() is now public.
      • Method tsf()->robots()->utils()->get_blocked_user_agents() is now available.
      • Method tsf()->uri()->utils()->get_url_permastruct() is now available.
    • Changed:
      • The_SEO_Framework\Admin\Settings\Layout\Form::get_image_uploader_form() (tsf()->admin()->layout()->form()->get_image_uploader_form()) now also outputs a warning icon placeholder.
      • The_SEO_Framework\Data\Filter\Sanitize::qubit() (tsf()->filter()->sanitize()->qubit()) now considers .3333 (off by .00003) the turnover point for the negative side, instead of -0.3333999…999 (off by .00006).
      • The_SEO_Framework\Data\Plugin\PTA::get_meta() (tsf()->data()->plugin()->pta()->get_meta()):
        1. Now returns the default meta if the PTA isn’t supported.
        2. Now registers meta_memo for automated refreshes (for Multisite blog switching cache flushes).
      • The_SEO_Framework\Data\Plugin::update_option() (tsf()->data()->plugin()->update_option()) no longer considers headlessness. The headless filters are ought to stay in place throughout the request, affecting get_option().
      • The_SEO_Framework\Data\Plugin\Post::get_meta() (tsf()->data()->plugin()->post()->get_meta()) now returns the default meta if the post type isn’t supported.
      • The_SEO_Framework\Data\Plugin\Post::get_primary_term() (tsf()->data()->plugin()->post()->get_primary_term()) now returns a valid primary term if the selected one is gone.
      • The_SEO_Framework\Data\Plugin\Term::get_meta() (tsf()->data()->plugin()->term()->get_meta()) now returns the default meta if the term’s taxonomy isn’t supported.
      • The_SEO_Framework\Data\Plugin\User::get_meta() (tsf()->data()->plugin()->user()->get_meta()) now returns the default meta if the user ID is empty.
      • The_SEO_Framework\Data\Post::uses_non_html_page_builder() (tsf()->data()->post()->uses_non_html_page_builder()) now detects Bricks.
      • The_SEO_Framework\RobotsTXT\Main::get_robots_txt() (tsf()->robotstxt()->main()->get_robots_txt()):
        1. Refactored to output the directives via a priority system.
        2. Now supports blocking AI language model trainers and SEO analysis tools.
      • The_SEO_Framework\RobotsTXT\Utils::get_robots_txt_url() (tsf()->robotstxt()->utils()->get_robots_txt_url()) now memoizes the return value.
      • The_SEO_Framework\Traits\Property_Refresher::register_automated_refresh() no longer relies on “has_run” checks but immediately registers the refresh.
    • Removed:
      • Vestigal pool tsf()->data()->plugin()->home() is now gone, its object was provisioned but never published.
        • It may come back one day, but we have no plans for that just yet.
    • Fixed:
      • Pool tsf()->admin() is now prepared correctly for deprecated calls
        • And so is its subpool tsf()->admin()->layout().
      • Resolved an issue where tsf()->filter()->escape()->xml_uri() would emit a PHP deprecation notice when a query parameter was present in the URL on PHP 8.1 and later.
      • Resolved an issue where the deprecated method tsf()->og_locale() didn’t return the meta tag and gave a warning instead.
      • The schema.org/WebPage type reference is resetted now when regenerated.
      • tsf()->fetch_locale() is now properly deprecated and returns its original value.
        • Its first parameter has been removed and now always uses the current locale.
        • Use tsf()->open_graph()->get_locale() instead.
      • tsf()->schema()->entities now report the correct class names.
      • When switching blogs on multisite, all data memoization for TSF’s options and site cache now actually flush via trait The_SEO_Framework\Traits\Property_Refresher.
        • Due to a name change of properties during development, this was accidentally disabled.
        • This did work as intended for default options.
        • This feature resolves edge-cases we have yet to encounter, but it could affect post filtering when fetching data from a different blog inside a network.
        • We also added PTA, Post, Term, and User settings to the refresher, which were previously omitted for performance reasons, which we’ve now mitigated.
  • JavaScript API notes:
    • Added:
      • tsfMedia.l10n now has property warning, which is a map of image types that aren’t compatible with some or most social platforms, and some explanatory translations.
      • tsfPost.l10n.nonces.edit_post is now available. It’s indexed by post ID, unlike tsf.l10n.nonces.edit_posts, which is a general capability check.
      • tsfPost.l10n.params now has properties id and isBlockEditor. They should be used instead of the namesake properties in tsfPostL10n.states, but we still need to find a good way to deprecate these.
      • tsfTerm.l10n.nonces.edit_term is now available. It’s indexed by term ID.
      • tsfTerm.l10n.params now has properties id and taxonomy.
      • tsfTerm.taxonomy is now available.
      • JS Event tsf-updated-block-editor-${type} is now available.
        • Types include: title, link, slug, parent, date, author, content, excerpt, and visibility.
          • slug, parent, date, and author are new types.
      • JS Event tsf-updated-block-editor is now available.
      • JS Event tsf-updated-primary-term is now available.
      • JS file authorslugs.js (window.tsfAuthorlugs) is now available and loaded with post.js and le.js; it handles author selections to update the canonical URLs accordingly. It has a caching system to prevent repeated lookups. The initial lookup is done via PHP, and they’re only done when the permalink structure requires it (%author%).
      • JS file postslugs.js (window.tsfPostSlugs) is now available and loaded with post.js and le.js; it handles post parent selections to update the canonical URLs accordingly. It has a caching system to prevent repeated lookups. The initial lookup is done via PHP, and they’re only done when the permalink structure requires it (%postname%).
      • JS file termslugs.js (window.tsfTermSlugs) is now available and loaded with post.js, term.js, and le.js; it handles term selections to update the canonical URLs accordingly. It has an advanced caching system to prevent repeated lookups. The initial lookup is done via PHP, and they’re only done when the permalink structure requests it it (%category%, %product_cat%, etc.).
      • JS file ui.js (window.tsfUI) is now available and considered “common”; it handles notices and contains two public methods: fadeIn, fadeOut, and traceAnimation.
      • JS file utils.js (window.tsfUtils) is now available and considered “common”; it contains two public methods: debounce and delay.
      • jQuery Event tsf-updated-gutenberg-${type} now also respond to 'slug' type changes.
        • But this event is deprecated. Use the JS Event tsf-updated-block-editor-${type} instead.
      • tsfPT.l10n.i18n now has the property selectPrimary, while all others have gone.
        • This is now equal to tsfPTGB.l10n.i18n.
    • Improved:
      • JS Events tsf-updated-block-editor and tsf-updated-block-editor-${type} now respond to 'slug' type changes.
      • Removed redundant lookups and processing in quick-edit by testing if we’re editing a post or taxonomy.
      • Updating the Post’s password in the Classic Editor no longer triggers 3 updates sequentially.
    • Changed:
      • tsf.selectByValue() now also tries to select by label, which is tried together with the content.
      • We now use functions instead of constant-arrow-functions in our JS code. This makes imlpementing utilities, such as debouncers, easier, thanks to function hoisting.
        • With that, for all affected functions, we removed @function JSDoc annotation, since that’s now redundant.
    • Deprecated:
      • tsf.ampHTMLtoText() is now deprecated, with no alternative available. But you probably want to use tsf.decodeEntities() instead.
      • tsfAys.getChangedState() is now deprecated. Use tsfAys.areSettingsChanged() instead.
      • jQuery event tsf-updated-gutenberg-${type} is now deprecated. Use JS Event tsf-updated-block-editor-${type} instead.
  • Option notes:
    • Of option autodescription-site-settings (constant THE_SEO_FRAMEWORK_SITE_OPTIONS, pool tsf()->data()->plugin(), or legacy API tsf()->get_options()):
      • Added index robotstxt_block_ai. Default 0.
      • Added index robotstxt_block_seo. Default 0.
      • Added index homepage_redirect. Default empty string.
      • Added index homepage_canonical. Default empty string.
    • We’re now stipulant about the autoloading status of every option by setting update_option()‘s third parameter. This is because WordPress 6.6 makes up its own mind on the autoloading state based on arbitrary and untested values. Although that shouldn’t affect TSF’s options directly, one could filter it so it could become our problem. The distinct annotation of always autoloading (and toggling that when the plugin (de)activates) will ensure TSF always performs as intended.
  • Action notes:
    • Changed:
      • the_seo_framework_flex_tab_content, now uses 'args' instead of 'params' for its first parameter’s indexes.
        • I didn’t deprecate this because I don’t think anyone uses it.
      • We changed the callback priority of manage_edit-{$taxonomy}_columns from 1 to 10, so to align with manage_{$screen_id}_columns.
        • This fixes some odd race conditions we found when multiple plugins try to add columns. When they consistently run in the same order, issues are less likely to occur. Yes, we know, race conditions aren’t possible in PHP, but this acted much like one, albeit very predictably.
  • Filter notes:
    • Added:
      • the_seo_framework_get_excerpt is now available. It’s used to get an excerpt, right before parsing the entire post content, used by the description generator.
        • There’s also still the_seo_framework_description_excerpt, but that is a layer lower and meant for direct description output. Effectively, for now, they’ll act the same. When in doubt, use the new one, so you’ll affect all excerpts.
      • the_seo_framework_robots_blocked_user_agents is now available. It’s used to assign user agents to block via the robots.txt file.
      • the_seo_framework_robots_txt_sections is now available. It’s used to create a map of robots directives to generate.
        • In effect, the_seo_framework_robots_txt_pre and the_seo_framework_robots_txt_pro are deprecated.
      • the_seo_framework_schema_queued_graph_data is now available. It’s used to allow creating graph references.
    • Deprecated:
      • the_seo_framework_fallback_archive_description_excerpt, use the_seo_framework_get_excerpt instead.
      • the_seo_framework_generated_archive_excerpt, use the_seo_framework_get_excerpt instead.
      • the_seo_framework_pta_description_excerpt, use the_seo_framework_get_excerpt instead.
      • the_seo_framework_robots_disallow_queries, use the_seo_framework_robots_txt_sections instead.
      • the_seo_framework_robots_txt_pre, use the_seo_framework_robots_txt_sections instead.
      • the_seo_framework_robots_txt_pro, use the_seo_framework_robots_txt_sections instead.
  • Improved:
    • Added strict Dashicons dependency for scripts tsf, tsf-ui (new), and tsf-settings because it appears this may be unregistered as a default WordPress admin stylesheet.
    • Improved the Markdown parser’s performance by using fewer memory operations.
    • Removed the jQuery dependency for scripts tsf, tsf-post, and tsf-media by refactoring animations to vanilla JS and CSS.
  • Other:
    • CSS file tsf-media is now available and will be loaded alongside its namesake script.
    • Element .tsf-notice-wrap is gone. We’ve long been relying on .wp-header-end instead.
    • Removed support for obsolete -ms-clear and -ms-input-placeholder vendor-specific CSS pseudo-selectors.
    • Template id tsf-primary-term-selector-help is gone, along with its element .tsf-primary-term-selector-help-wrap. We now use a selection field, requiring no tooltip.
    • The PHPDoc for all arrays has been updated, which contributed to most of the line changes in this release.
    • The SEO Framework’s main settings form element now has the ID tsf-settings.
    • We optimized opcodes for PHP 8.4:
      • In short, PHP 8.4’s OPcache module now also precaches sprintf. But, when working inside a namespace, we can only utilize that by namespace-escaping calls to sprintf.
      • We maintain static code checks for this via WPCS-TSF.
    • We’ve removed remaining element closers from void elements in the admin area, since we can safely assume HTML5 support.