* Google Sitemaps 2.71 Breaks WordPress 2.3.1

Disable Google Sitemaps to avoid errors in WordPress 2.3.1.

I just upgraded from WordPress 2.2.3 to WordPress 2.3.1. I’ve had problems with two plugins.

Better Blogroll 1.13 does not work with WordPress 2.3.1. The widget renders raw PHP instead of the desired HTML output. So I’ve disabled Better Blogroll 1.13 for now.

Google Sitemaps 2.7.1 does not work with WordPress 2.3.1. But this failure is not as obvious. If you use the default theme, disable all plugins, enable Google Sitemaps 2.7.1, and then try to edit and save an existing post, you’ll get this error (where “example” is the name of your MySQL database):

WordPress database error: [Table 'example.wp_post2cat' 
doesn't exist]
SELECT cat_ID AS ID, MAX(post_modified) AS last_mod FROM `wp_posts` 
p LEFT JOIN `wp_post2cat` pc ON p.ID = pc.post_id LEFT JOIN 
`wp_categories` c ON pc.category_id = c.cat_ID WHERE post_status = 
'publish' GROUP BY cat_ID

WordPress database error: [Table 'example.wp_post2cat' doesn't 
exist]
SELECT cat_ID AS ID, MAX(post_modified) AS last_mod FROM `wp_posts` 
p LEFT JOIN `wp_post2cat` pc ON p.ID = pc.post_id LEFT JOIN 
`wp_categories` c ON pc.category_id = c.cat_ID WHERE post_status = 
'publish' GROUP BY cat_ID

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by 
(output started at /wordpress/wp-includes/wp-db.php:160) in 
/wordpress/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 391

Disabling Google Sitemaps 2.7.1 fixes the problem.

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6 Replies to “* Google Sitemaps 2.71 Breaks WordPress 2.3.1”

  1. Greetings Rick,

    When software breaks in the worst way possible (i.e. appearing to work but not working, giving no indication that it’s not working, giving no clues when it breaks that it is the source of a vexing error), when software fails to keep its markets informed about its status (i.e. not getting the info in the WordPress plugins database correct), then yes, I blame the author of the software.

    The only thing that matters for most users of software is the user experience. The problem might not be with Google Sitemaps, but that’s really beside the point. The point is that the problem appears to be with Google Sitemaps. Appearances matter. User experiences matters. This is why I typically wait for version n.1, to give software companies and plugin providers ample time to work out the bugs. If they haven’t, then shame on them.

    Yes, yes, a thousand times yes, blame the author of the software for this problem. Anything else would be passing the buck.

    Regards,
    Erik

  2. Seems like you’re punishing the Sitemaps plugin (which by the author’s own admission, v2.7.1 isn’t designed to work with versions greater than 2.1) because WordPress’s plugin database is incomplete. There’s a mechanism by which plugin authors can get their plugins added to WP’s database, at which point the notifications should work. Perhaps there’s an issue with multiple versions of a plugin that depend on which version of WP you’re running? I don’t know. But it does seem that the later version of the plugin would solve your problem, no?

  3. Greetings Rick,

    One of the new features of WordPress 2.3 is that the plugins page automatically notifies you when new versions of a plugin are available. My other plugins did this, Google Sitemaps did not. So auto-update-notifications also appear to be broken. Is it also broken in the new version?

    I would advise WordPress users to avoid using Google Sitemaps until this issue is addressed and the problem(s) fixed.

    Regards,
    Erik

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