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In case you were looking for an blog post about the XML Sitemaps feature project last week, worry no more. Work on the plugin 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:
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 PHP extension is widely available and we can rely on it safely. Current status: no action needed.
Rewrite rule conflict with plugins As we realized that the new /wp-sitemap.xml URL 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!