Changelog

Release date:

• May 8th, 2017

Summarized:

• Now, Polylang is officially supported by The SEO Framework.
• The sitemap now supports plain permalinks. That means it now literally works for every website.
• The robots.txt file has been enhanced, so it now informs you when the output location is incorrect.
• Moreover, various bugs have been fixed, mainly concerning third party plugins.

We’re looking for translation editors:

• First, thank you so much to all the translation contributors.
• Now, if you want to see The SEO Framework in your language, head over to this page and feel free to contribute.
• If you wish to easily maintain and keep a close eye on all the contributions for your language, ask us to ask WordPress Polyglots to add you as a contributor.
• Ultimately, it’s up to the WordPress Polyglots team to fulfill your request. It generally depends on how well you’ve submitted translations for you to be accepted.

A few notes about translations:

• If you use a machine to translate for you, note that they can generate out-of-context strings. So keep an eye out for those!
• If you notice that strings are very hard to translate, e.g. because of grammatical gender, let us know!
• Please don’t translate “The SEO Framework”, it’s a registered brand-name.
• Be sure not to add spaces if you see backticks, asterisks, or brackets. They’re used for Markdown language construction.
• In TSF, you generally can’t use UTF character codes like ♡, as they’re automatically removed or rendered unreadable for added security. Add them as displayed instead: ♡.

Detailed log:

If you are a friend, speak the password, and the doors will open, and you can enter.

> View the code changes.

• For everyone:
  • Added:
    • The sitemap and its stylesheet can now be output when using plain permalinks.
      • This doesn’t mean that you should use permalinks in the first place.
    • Polylang canonical URL compatibility.
  • Improved:
    • If an admin redirect initiated by TSF causes a white screen of death, a helping message is now outputted on the white screen.
    • When using WPML, the URLs are now converted much faster than before.
    • On plugin activation and deactivation, the options are now automatically toggled from options autoload.
      • For non-developers, this means that this plugin won’t stock up on your website’s memory after deactivation. Unlike many, many other plugins.
    • The sitemap’s layout is now a bit neater when lastmod output is disabled.
    • A little link in plugin activation page to the companion plugin to inform wary users about its existence, which next to the deactivation link.
      • This link is only added if the plugin isn’t found to be installed.
      • This link is super non-intrusive; most won’t even spot it.
      • This link is named “Extensions”.
    • When using a translation plugin, the plugin now pings Search Engines with your current admin language’s sitemap, rather than the default one.
    • When using a translation plugin, the robots.txt output now directs Search Engines to the current language’s sitemap location.
      • This only works when using domain or subdomain translation URLs. Subdomain translation URLs are highly discouraged, and this is another reason.
      • For more information, visit robotstxt.org.
    • The robots.txt file will now show a notification when it’s at an invalid location, whilst pointing you to the “supposed” location.
      • It can’t check whether that location is a valid robots.txt file without using excessive server resources.
      • For that, please sign up with The SEO Framework – Extension Manager‘s Monitor, which allows you to excessively use my servers’ resources.
        • An update that checks for this has recently been implemented on the Monitor server.
      • For more information, visit robotstxt.org.
    • Paginated URLs generation performance has been vastly improved.
      • There were heavy things calculated that were unused half of the time.
    • Sitemap generation performance by 40% (sliced about half) to 100% (divided by two) when using 9000 URLs.
      • Heavy calls have been checked beforehand whether they should run. These are only used in special scenarios, like with translation plugins.
      • Benefits vary greatly by server setup. But a benefit non-the-less.
      • This affects URL generation time insignificantly.
  • Changed:
    • The URL generation now uses WordPress default home URL generation, rather than our own.
    • The General Settings meta box tabs have been reordered, so new users won’t be overwhelmed with advanced options at first sight.
    • The sitemap settings are now output when using Plain permalinks.
      • Instead, the Robots.txt tab will now show a notice. Because that does require pretty permalinks.
  • Updated:
    • Knowledge Graph Social Profile links’ placeholders and example profile redirect links.
    • The sitemap cache will be cleared on update, because of the URL fixes.
  • Fixed:
    • When using WPML, alternative languages’ terms and taxonomies URLs are now correct.
    • wpForo plugin compatibility has been implemented, so canonical URLs, titles, and descriptions are always correct on wpForo pages.
      • This only works if bbPress isn’t active.
    • Home URL ports are now also considered.
    • EdgeHTML in-post meta box’ contents overflowed when placed in the sidebar or on a mobile-sized screen.
    • Prevented memory leak when re-selecting social images.
    • The sitemap’s stylesheet now works on translated (alternative) domains.
    • When using Polylang, the Canonical URLs no longer mismatches.
• For translators:
  • Plugin home:
    • The “others notes” have been summarized in a FAQ entry.
    • Various other changes to respect the new WordPress plugin directory layout.
    • Improved grammar, mainly Oxford commas.
  • Plugin code:
    • Updated:
      • POT translation file.
        • Translations are handled through WordPress.org.
    • Added:
      • “There has been an error redirecting. Refresh the page or follow [%s](this link).”
        • This is shown when admin redirection fails because of PHP debugging issues.
        • It uses Markdown.
      • “Extensions”
        • Yes, there are official plugin extensions.
      • “https://wordpress.org/plugins/the-seo-framework-extension-manager/”
        • Please translate it to your WordPress.org language’s location. Like “nl.wordpress.org”.
        • This accounts also for many other WordPress.org links.
    • Changed:
      • The plugin indication strings have been adjusted.
        • So, “Start/End The SEO Framework” now is “Start/End %s”.
        • Many translators translated a brand name, which shouldn’t be.
          • This means “The SEO Framework” should always stay “The SEO Framework”.
          • Not e.g. “De SEO Lijstwerk” (Dutch).
      • “Only adjust these options if you are aware of its SEO effects.”
        • Now is: “Only adjust these options if you are aware of their SEO effects.”
        • Grammar: The subject (options) is plural.
      • “Change your Permalink Settings %s (Recommended: ‘postname’).”
        • Now is: ‘Change your Permalink Settings %s (Recommended: “Post name”).’
        • Style: Using double quotes rather than single quotes.
        • Name: WordPress has changed “postname” to “Post name”.
      • “This means we can’t output the sitemap through the WordPress rewrite rules.”
        • Now is: “This means the robots.txt file can’t be outputted through the WordPress rewrite rules.”
        • Updated: We can now output sitemap.xml, but it’s impossible (by robots specification) to output the robots.txt file.
        • Anthropomorphism: We shouldn’t use “we”, it’s an integrated and automated “it” system.
          • More updates like this will follow in the future.
• For developers:
  • Added:
    • Method is_sitemap(), determines whether the request is rendering the sitemap output of The SEO Framework.
    • Method is_robots(), a copy of WordPress’ Core function is_robots().
    • Method get_plugin_indicator(), it returns the plugin output indication, so they can be used in custom scenarios (like AMP).
    • Method get_sitemap_xml_url(), it returns the correct URL in any situation.
    • Method get_robots_txt_url(), it returns the correct URL in any situation.
  • Changed:
    • Method get_home_host():
      1. It now uses function get_home_url(), rather than get_option( 'home' ).
      2. It now adds ports, if any (likely found on local development environments).
    • (Typo) Renamed method get_relatitve_fontcolor to get_relative_fontcolor.
      • No fallback (backwards compatible) method has been put in place. A warning is displayed instead.
  • Improved:
    • Method add_menu_link() can now be called multiple times without issues.
    • Method get_all_options() now has an extra method parameter that allows to overwrite the cache.
    • Incorporated WordPress Core filter get_the_archive_title in method get_the_real_archive_title().
      • This method is a copy of WordPress function get_the_archive_title() with admin capabilities.
    • Method get_sitemap_xsl_url(), it now returns the correct URL in any situation.
    • Method can_do_sitemap_robots() now also checks for permalink settings.
    • The Markdown URL parser now adds nofollow noopener noreferrer, rather than only nofollow.
      • This unbinds threads in Chromium, for enhanced performance and debatable security.
  • Updated:
    • Extended file copyrights by a year. Awesome.
  • Removed:
    • Functions that were deprecated since version 2.7.0; therefore, the inc/functions/deprecated.php file could and has been unloaded.
  • Filter notes:
    • Added:
      • (array) the_seo_framework_generated_description_additions, this filters the generated description additions.
        • See this post for more information.
    • Fixed:
      • the_seo_framework_description_args second parameter now works.
      • the_seo_framework_og_image_args second parameter now works.
      • the_seo_framework_title_args second parameter now works.
      • the_seo_framework_url_args second parameter now works.
  • Other:
    • Cleaned up the code, i.e. improved documentation and writing style.