provide an alternative to the XSLT stylesheet processing instruction for XML Sitemaps since browsers are phasing out support for it

[pbiron]

This ticket is a follow-up to ticket:51117#comment:24.

In that comment @westonruter noted that Chrome (and other browsers) will soon deprecate and remove support for XSLT within the browser ​https://developer.chrome.com/docs/web-platform/deprecating-xslt Removing XSLT for a more secure browser on/about Nov 17, 2026 (which is after WP 7.1 but before WP 7.2).

When browsers do remove support for XSLT, then users who are used to loading /wp-sitemap.xml in their browser are likely to be confused because it will display the raw XML and not the currently rendered HTML sitemap.

Chrome and Firefox (I think) are considering releasing browser plugins that would provide XSLT support for anyone who has those browser plugins installed, but I think core should provide a more "natural" solution that doesn't require users install any such browser plugins.

I've been working on a patch that will allow users to load /wp-sitemap.html in the browser and get the current HTML rendering of their sitemap, by applying the existing XSLT styelsheet server-side. Of course, /wp-sitemap.xml will continue to provide the raw XML sitemap. At this point I'd say the patch is little more than a "proof-of-concept" and not yet ready to even post here.

Before continuing to work on that patch I wanted to start discussion of this issue and see if others think it is worth putting more time into.

[TobiasBg]

Related to (or duplicate of?) #65593?

[pbiron]

Replying to TobiasBg:

Related to (or duplicate of?) #65593?

I guess it is a dup of that ticket, I hadn't see it when I opened this one.

Trac's permissions are a little wacky lately and I currently can't close this as a dup of that one. Can anyone else do that?

I'll add my comments on that other ticket.