This plugin now “takes over” other site pages… How do I stop this?

@roam92, would you provide a screenshot of your settings page please?

Hi @auctollo

Thank you for your fast response. Here are the plugin’s basic options, which I have not changed for many years:

Is that enough, or do you need something more?

Thanks again

Thanks for that. It’s not clear how this is happening. Would you email us the debug report, so we can dig deeper?

Hello @auctollo,

Looking through the plugin’s source code, you appear to be adding rewrite rules (in the function add_rewrite_rules()) that could possibly explain this behavior, whereby my page (/complete-sitemap.html) is redirected…

rewrite ^/.*sitemap.*(?:\d{1,4}(?!-misc)|-misc)?\.html$ "/index.php?xml_sitemap=params=$2;html=true" last;

Is that not it?

Hello @auctollo,

Can you please confirm if those plugin rewrites are causing the issue I’m experiencing whereby the page /complete-sitemap.html is being replaced by a blank/empty “XML Sitemap”?

Thank you.

@roam92, if the exact same file was not in conflict with prior releases, then we definitely need to investigate, especially because you have HTML sitemaps disabled. Have you already emailed support about this?

Hi @auctollo

That’s exactly it. It’s not “the exact same file” as before…

I recently upgraded from version 4.1.3 to version 4.1.19 because there was a lot of instability and too many problems in the interim releases… This redirect did not happen before in version 4.1.3.

I checked the plugin code and the relevant regular expression recently changed in the “add_rewrite_rules()” function.

The regex in question used to be “/sitemap(-+([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+))?.html$” (in version 4.1.3) and now it is “/.sitemap.(?:\d{1,4}(?!-misc)|-misc)?.html$” (in version 4.1.9).

I tested both the previous and new expressions using https://regex101.com and the previous one does not match my site page “/complete-sitemap.html” but the new one does match (and overwrite) the URL.

So, it’s pretty clear that your plugin is taking over other (external) pages that it really should not… Could you please look into this?

Again, everything worked fine before in plugin version 4.1.3. You can see this for yourself above. Thus, this seems to be a new bug.

Thank you!

Correction: Above it should be 4.1.13 (the version from 2023-08-04), not 4.1.3.

So, the redirects in the “add_rewrite_rules()” function changed in between versions 4.1.13 and (the current) 4.1.19.

Awaiting your response… Thank you.

@roam92

Hello!
Is your complete-sitemap.html file generated statically or with a third-party plugin?

• This reply was modified 6 months, 3 weeks ago by iwebdealer.

Hi @iwebdealer

It is generated via a third-party plugin to create a HTML (human-readable) table of contents for the site.

Regardless, what reason is there for the XML Sitemap plugin to step on or mess with that URL? (/complete-sitemap.html)

It never did this before recently, and I don’t understand why it is doing so now… It seems like an overstep to me.

@roam92, which plugin were you using to generate the HTML sitemap? We would like to test with it to consider an alternative approach.

@auctollo

Thank you for your reply. It’s a plugin called “Dagon Design Sitemap Generator”, version 3.17.

That plugin is no longer available, however I have been using it for a long time – it works fine and suits my needs perfectly.

Why do you ask about it instead of fixing your own plugin to stop taking over other site URLs like “/complete-sitemap.html”?

Is there any good reason for doing that? It seems like overreach, and your plugin never used to do it.

Thanks again.

I’m not sure why you’re assuming a negative intent. We have created and supported our product for free; I thought we could be trusted. Over time, the plugin has been changed for many reasons, and of course, changes have consequences, which we aim to resolve. That’s the reason for asking for the plugin: to investigate as deeply as possible and learn as much as we can to avoid unintended consequences. Sorry that this approach is troublesome from your perspective.

Hi @auctollo

Not assuming negative intent at all. Merely trying to understand why this is happening to my site and trying get things to work again without problems.

There have been a number of bugs introduced since version 4.1.13 and these impact your users and their time and their websites significantly, even if the product is free.

Obviously no software is perfect, but this plugin has caused more issues recently than all the others I use. Though for years prior to this, it was mostly trouble free.

Would be helpful if you could address the original question of why is the plugin doing this unexpected new redirect, and if it really should be? That seems to be the core question. Just trying to get my site fully working again. Thanks, much appreciated.

Hello @auctollo

It’s been several months since this ticket was opened. Would it be possible to share an update on status of the issue?

I’m hopeful for an official fix, or a better understanding of the plugin’s change in behavior. If necessary, I could manually revert the code in my local copy of the plugin, but would prefer not to.

Thanks very much for your assistance!