Changelog

Release date:

• July 3rd, 2017

Announcement: Local SEO Beta

• Local SEO is a premium extension, and it’s almost ready for testing.
• As we do not want to spam your WordPress dashboard, I’ve created a new Twitter account for future announcements.
• Feel free to follow us to receive the latest updates. As we’re planning a test-run prior to release, further details for beta-access will also follow in a tweet.

Local SEO technology teaser video

Summarized:

• Social images can now scale up to 4K resolution. This means (manual and automated) forced cropping no longer initiates at 1500px but at 4096px.
• A new option has been added for every taxonomical post type in the Visibility tab. It allows you to prevent the annotated pages from showing up in Archives.
• Structured Data output has been revisited. This includes merging of output, removal of misplaced output, and performance improvements.
• When your home page is a blog, pages without an ID (404, search, date archives, etc.) had output and caching issues. These issues have been resolved.
• Several security concerns have also been addressed. Although, none of them could be verified as the coding environment is already well protected.

For everyone: Caching changes:

• Descriptions and Schema.org output transients are no longer enabled by default. Because for most sites, it’s better left disabled.
• This has been done to reduce database calls. Ultimately, the performance benefits of using the transients are use-case specific.

For developers: Schema.org output code changes:

• The Schema.org output code has been rewritten. This improves reliability, performance and extensibility.
• If you’ve extended or altered the Schema.org generation output, you might wish to revisit your coding implementations.
• All affronted methods have been correctly deprecated and tested once more. So, 500 errors shouldn’t occur.
• To be certain, visit the detailed changelog and compare your code.

For high-traffic webmasters and Google Analytics integration plugin authors: About the Search URL change:

• From this update, new canonical URLs will be generated for search queries to comply to the pretty permalink structure.
• WordPress natively supports the /search/{search_term} endpoint; however, Google Analytics does not.
• To enable support, please visit this page for more information.
• I’ve created a plugin that will enhance support for you. You can download it here.
• An extension is planned that will implement Google Analytics for you, complying to those guidelines.

Detailed log

Already the Sun is climbing to noon, and I feel the need of something to strengthen me.

> View the code changes.

• For everyone:
  • Added:
    • A new option in the in-post Visibility tab that allows you to exclude the post from being listed in archives.
  • Changed:
    • Structured Data output has been revisited, so:
      • Sitename + Sitelinks Searchbox:
        • The output of Sitename has been merged into Sitelinks Searchbox.
          • They’re marked as @type “Website”.
        • The options still work as intended:
          • When both options are activated, the merged script emerges.
          • When only Sitelinks Searchbox is activated, only Sitelinks Searchbox will be output.
          • The previous applies to Sitename too.
        • This is now only output on the homepage.
          • When breadcrumbs are found, the Sitename script will no longer be output.
      • Sitelinks Searchbox:
        • The Search Link now is example.com/search/{query} instead of example.com/?s={query}. Where supported.
        • The Sitename output has been merged into this one.
      • Breadcrumbs:
        • No more database calls are initiated for term existence checks.
          • This means the generation is much faster on posts.
          • Instead, it now uses WordPress’ term cache to validate.
        • No more database calls are initiated for term object fetching.
          • This means the generation is much faster on posts and pages.
          • Instead, it now uses WordPress’ term cache to fetch.
      • Because some of the above mentioned changes affect the output, the Schema transient cache has been invalidated.
      • All output is now calculated once, rather than in multitude of items. This increases maintainability.
    • Description transient usage is no longer enabled by default.
    • Schema.org transient usage is no longer enabled by default.
    • Sitemap explanation URLs now open in a new window.
    • Automated Image Cropper now starts cropping when images exceed 4K (4096px/4096px), rather than 1500px/1500px.
    • Social Image uploader now accepts image sizes up to 4K, before forcing a crop.
      • This is according to Twitter Card guidelines.
    • Removed Open Graph and Canonical URL output on 404 pages.
      • Title, Robots and Webmaster Verification output are to stay.
    • Robots.txt sitemap location output now isn’t forced anymore when TSF’s sitemap is used.
      • This means the option now always works as intended, and doesn’t predict anymore (expectations).
  • Improved:
    • The schema metabox now renders faster.
    • The Facebook Social Settings placeholder URLs are now HTTPS, rather than HTTP.
    • LinkedIn profile title now no longer indicates that it must be an ID.
    • The sitemap stylesheet no longer outputs on domain mismatch, so you won’t see a blank page anymore.
      • This is a mitigated browser security feature.
      • This does not affect security nor validity of the sitemap.
    • Improved SEO input rendering performance, by:
      1. Adding rendering hinting to the character counters for Gecko, Webkit and Blink based browsers.
      2. Reducing description character counter calculation CPU overhead.
      3. Removing expectation of autocompletion on title input fields.
    • Genesis Theme head Microdata attributes were incomplete with The SEO Framework active; so, we removed its output again.
    • Slightly sped up URL generation by excluding extraneous function calls in sanitation by only allowing HTTP and HTTPS protocols.
  • Fixed:
    • When the home page is a blog, these fixes have been implemented:
      1. The 404 title now works.
      2. Shortlink output now works.
      3. Various fixes across non-taxonomical archives, i.e. ones that you can’t edit, have noindex set by default, and have no ID assigned:
         • These no longer share the same cache key as the home page.
           • This fixes numerous object caching issues.
         • These no longer use the home page Open Graph image.
         • These no longer use the auto-generated description meant for the home page.
         • These now listen to the archive option for rel=next/prev links, instead of the home page option.
    • Windows Touch now works on the SEO Bar, as was always intended (MT race condition).
    • Sitemap PNG logos aren’t blurry anymore on Webkit/Blink based browsers.
    • When touching an active SEO Bar or the tooltip thereof, the SEO Bar Tooltip no longer disappears (regression).
    • A few notifications now work again:
      1. Reset settings notification.
      2. New settings notification.
      3. Settings error notification.
    • The Canonical URL is now correct on Search Pages.
    • Dismissible notices now get correctly removed from the DOM when dismissed.
    • twitter:creator is no longer omitted and overshadowed by the twitter:site:id meta tag when both Twitter Site and Creator options are filled in.
    • The sitemap now works again on WordPress 4.4 and 4.5. Sorry about that!
• For translators:
  • Added:
    • “No Archive”:
      • Location: List archives.
      • It’s a post state, implying that Archive listing has been disabled.
    • “Archive Settings”
      • Location: In-post SEO Box, Visibility bab.
      • Option list title.
    • “Exclude this %s from archive listing”:
      • Location: In-post SEO Box, Visibility bab.
      • It’s a checkbox option label.
      • %s = post type name.
    • “This excludes this %s from on-site archive pages”:
      • Location: In-post SEO Box, Visibility bab.
      • It’s the label title, for a11y (accessibility).
      • %s = post type name.
  • Updated:
    • Translation POT file.
  • Removed:
    • “Local Search Settings”
      • Replaced by “Archive Settings”.
• For developers:
  • Added:
    • Links outputted through Markdown can now open in a new window when marked external.
    • An JSON-LD generator. Taken from The SEO Framework – Extension Manager and reworked to support PHP 5.3.
      • See method build_json_data(). It builds the input data.
      • See method receive_json_data(). It receives the built data.
    • Method get_schema_image(). A Schema.org Google-guideline aware image fetcher with caching powers.
      • It basically bypasses filters and fallbacks to prevent globally repeated image URLs.
      • Reduced image replication use is fine. But, don’t overdo it; it’s at most bland.
      • It works for both singular as term items. However, Terms don’t have image uploaders yet, so that returns empty for now.
    • Method post_type_supports_taxonomies(), determines whether the current or input post type support taxonomical archives.
    • New post metadata entry:
      • exclude_from_archive.
  • Improved:
    • The sitemap now outputs less data, because CRLF (\r\n) has been exchanged for LF (\n) only.
      • This removes XML view-source: readability support for very old browsers (IE8 or lower).
    • Function \The_SEO_Framework\_wpmudev_domainmap_get_url() now returns an array with two empty keys if no settings have been found. Instead of an empty string.
    • Method get_latest_post_id() has been rewritten; it’s now family friendly.
      • It no longer uses object caching.
      • It now uses WP_Query, rather than wpdb.
    • Method admin_redirect() now only accepts http and https protocols.
      • Rather than all of wp_allowed_protocols(). This improves performance, not notably.
  • Fixed:
    • Method is_front_page_by_id() no longer returns true on archives when home page is a blog. This fixes numerous issues listed in the “For everyone:” detailed log.
    • Robots.txt output can now better detect for public when the blog_public option has somehow been cast to integer.
    • Method admin_redirect() now processes query arguments again (regression in 2.9.2).
      • The Extension Manager’s URL debugging was depending on this. Only affected when using WP_DEBUG.
    • The shortlink generation no longer creates a PHP warning on questionable preview queries.
  • Deprecated:
    • A multitude of Schema generation methods, use build_json_data() and receive_json_data() instead.
      1. Get methods:
         • Method schema_context(), without an alternative.
         • Method schema_type(), without an alternative.
         • Method schema_home_url(), without an alternative.
         • Method schema_blog_name(), without an alternative.
         • Method schema_breadcrumblist(), without an alternative.
         • Method schema_listitem(), without an alternative.
         • Method schema_image(), without an alternative.
         • Method make_breadcrumb(), without an alternative.
         • Method ld_json_breadcrumbs(), use get_ld_json_breadcrumbs().
         • Method ld_json_breadcrumbs_post(), use get_ld_json_breadcrumbs_post().
         • Method ld_json_breadcrumbs_page(), use get_ld_json_breadcrumbs_page().
      2. Build methods:
         • Method ld_json_search(), without an alternative.
         • Method ld_json_name(), without an alternative.
         • Method ld_json_knowledge(), use get_ld_json_links().
         • Method ld_json_breadcrumb_first(), without an alternative.
         • Method ld_json_breadcrumb_last(), without an alternative.
         • Method ld_json_knowledge(), without an alternative.
  • Filter notes:
    • Added:
      • (array) the_seo_framework_receive_json_data, for altering passed JSON $data (arg 1) by $key (arg 2).
      • (string) the_seo_framework_updates_cache, for altering the updates cache option name. For future use.
      • (bool) the_seo_framework_overwrite_titles, for disabling The SEO Framework’s Title overwriting.
      • (string) the_seo_framework_ogurl_output, for adjusting the Open Graph URL output.
  • Constant notes:
    • Added:
      • (string) THE_SEO_FRAMEWORK_UPDATES_CACHE, maintains updates cache options. For future use.
  • Other:
    • Cleaned up code, i.e. improved documentation and writing style.