Holy pre-Gutenberg Block introduction release Batman! Originally, 6.2 was to contain a Gutenberg Block, however it did not make the release. New in 6.2 are two filters (bcn_register_rest_endpoint and bcn_breadcrumb_assemble_json_ld_array), and support for following a primary (post parent hierarchy) and then secondary hierarchy (specified in the Hierarchy option for the post type).

A few bug fixes were included in this release. A bug preventing the settings reset option under the help drop down from working was fixed. A cause of PHP warnings to show up on the custom post type and custom taxonomy settings immediately after upgrading/migrating the settings to a new version was fixed.

Several behavior changes were made in this release. The biggest involves the REST API endpoints no longer being enabled by default. Additionally, the default templates were changed for two reasons. The first was to simplify and clarify the translatable content. The second was to improve Schema.org BreadcrumbList compatibility. As part of these changes, the default unlinked breadcrumb templates no longer contain span elements, or any Schema.org BreadcrumbList markup. This fixes an issue seen in the Google Structured Data Testing Tool.

REST API Changes

As introduced in 6.1, the REST API was enabled by default. In 6.2, this changes. Now, individual Breadcrumb NavXT REST API endpoints must be requested via the newly introduced bcn_register_rest_endpoint filter. This provides a method for plugins using the Breadcrumb NavXT REST API to request and expose only the endpoints that are needed. Note that the BCN_DISABLE_REST_API constant can still disable the Breadcrumb NavXT REST API and takes priority over the new filter.

These changes were made in an effort to decrease the attack surface of Breadcrumb NavXT and were prompted by concerns raised by Janek Vind. Previously, the author endpoint could be used to find usernames based on user ID if the display name was kept as the username. While WordPress itself will make this information available, some users employ methods to prevent WordPress from making this information public. Hence, changes were made to the default behavior in Breadcrumb NavXT

Primary/Secondary Hierarchy

This newly introduced option for post types (except pages), allows for hierarchies that start with the post parent and once that hierarchy has been exhausted follows the post hierarchy option. This allows attachment like behavior for custom post types.

As always, you can grab the latest version of Breadcrumb NavXT from the Breadcrumb NavXT page. If you experience any issues with this version of Breadcrumb NavXT, please leave a comment on this post detailing the issue.

-John Havlik

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Holy REST API Batman! New in this release is the addition of REST API endpoints for posts (of any post type), terms (of any taxonomy), and author archives. Support for root pages for author archives was also added. Additionally, support for microdata format Schema.org BreadcrumbList was added to the included widget.

On the bug fix front, two bugs were fixed in this version. One bug involved a PHP warning being thrown due to get_term() not returning an instance of WP_Term. The other involved fixing the incorrect label for the Schema.org BreadcrumbList RDFa format option.

REST API

The Breadcrumb NavXT REST API introduces endpoints for retrieving Schema.org BreadcrumbList compliant JSON-LD formatted breadcrumb trails for posts, terms, and author archives. For applications that do not need the REST API, it may be disabled by defining BCN_DISABLE_REST_API to be false in wp-config.php. See the Breadcrumb NavXT Rest API Reference for more information.

Regarding Support

Previously, support for Breadcrumb NavXT was provided on this site and the WordPress.org sub-forum for Breadcrumb NavXT. Breadcrumb NavXT even included a link to the release announcement for reporting bugs. However, starting with 6.1.0, official support is moving completely over to the WordPress.org sub-forum for Breadcrumb NavXT. Most support queries already come through the forums, this just codifies it. Users of the premium extensions with valid support license keys still receive email support initiated via the support ticket form.

As always, you can grab the latest version of Breadcrumb NavXT from the Breadcrumb NavXT page. If you experience any issues with this version of Breadcrumb NavXT, please leave a comment on this post detailing the issue.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

This is the fourth bug fix release of the 6.0 branch of Breadcrumb NavXT. Two bugs were fixed in this release: both issues that resulted in PHP Notices being generated. One on the page for posts when the display blog breadcrumb option was disabled was fixed. The other, on the archive pages when attachments are set to display in said archive. Additionally, the settings change that required migration in 6.0.0 is now automatically applied to the settings used by bcn_display().

The first issue was due to the massive  reworking of the bcn_breadcrumb_trail class. In the process of making the fill() function pass in the state into the do_* functions, the code handling the inclusion/exclusion of the blog breadcrumb was erroneously partially removed. While this was mostly fixed in 6.0.1, when on the blog page, and when the blog breadcrumb was set to be excluded, PHP Notices were thrown due to improper handling of this situation.

The second issue, as with the first, was due to the reworking of the bcn_breadcrumb_trail class. The call to do_root() in the block that handles archives ends up with a PHP notice due to the root page not being defined for attachments. This only happens when explicitly modifying WordPress’ behavior so that it includes attachments to the results of a wp_query for archives.

In 6.0, the internal name for the hierarchy type and hierarchy display settings was changed to match their actual function (previously they were taxonomy type and taxonomy display). Without migrating the user settings to the new names, the default values will be used by Breadcrumb NavXT. For many users, this is not a problem. However, if either of these settings had been adjusted, the behavior would not match expectations until the user ran the migration routine in the settings page.

As always, you can grab the latest version of Breadcrumb NavXT from the Breadcrumb NavXT page. If you experience any issues with this version of Breadcrumb NavXT, please leave a comment on this post detailing the issue.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]