Hi @auraleclipse,
The configuration is correct, can you please provide us the setup to recreate the issue?
So we can debug the issue at our end.
We ran into the same issue on a client site after a recent plugin update. In our case, the included Elementor pages were marked as private in the WP pages list (to prevent direct access). Removing the private flag on these pages restored functionality.
The templates were never meant to be used in the navigation menu or displayed publicly. However, a bug allowed this, and it also allowed the templates to be indexed by search engines. We have fixed this issue in 1.2.12
You can open the template to preview, but for that you need to be logged in as admin. And if you are not logged in, it will redirect to home page.The templates were originally not intended for use in the navigation menu or for public display. However, due to a bug, they were being indexed by search engines.
Other issue is also resolved, the issue is when the template is set to draft, private etc other then publish as status, still the template is visible on frontend which is not correct, so we have resolved this.
Other issue is also resolved, the issue is when the template is set to draft, private etc other then publish as status, still the template is visible on frontend which is not correct, so we have resolved this.
That’s is fine if it wasn’t the intended behavior and has been “corrected.” However, the changelog doesn’t explain or note said change.
We’ve been using the plugin for years now to display “private” Elementor pages (not templates) to keep said content from being directly accessed as they weren’t intended for this type of consumption. All of a sudden the plugin changes what appeared to be core functionality and causes unexpected issues on a live site (content mysteriously disappears). My point is, this type of possible site-breaking change to the plugin should have been documented more clearly.
I posted my discovery to this particular topic as the original issue didn’t appear as resolved at the time and I was experiencing what appeared to be a similar problem.
Thank you for your time and effort developing and maintaining this plugin.
@tejwanihemant Apologies for my delay in responding – I am currently out of country. Thank you for your explanation of what occurred in the recent update. My use case is more or less the same as what @briancurtis has described, where in my case, I’ve been using Private status templates in Published status pages. I was doing this strictly to avoid the templates being directly accessible or indexed by search engines, as they historically have been showing up in sitemap.xml if in Published status.
I’ll go back to 1.2.12 and try setting all of the templates to Published status when I’m back home this weekend and ensure they’re no longer directly accessible or showing up in sitemap.xml.
Thanks @tejwanihemant for your efforts in maintaining the plugin and @briancurtis for sharing your input and experiences as well. I tend to agree this change should probably have been identified and documented as being potentially breaking. Those eagle-eyed among us who saw the improperly indexed templates and have been using the plugin for as long as we have would likely have been using this same workaround to achieve the desired outcome of this bug fix. I suppose I didn’t know better at the time that setting the templates to Private wasn’t just part of the typical use of the plugin!
@tejwanihemant, I have upgraded the plugin back to 1.2.12, set all of my AE templates to Published status, and tested. All templates appear to be appearing in the pages as expected, however the published template entries still end up in sitemap.xml in format https://{domain}/?ae_global_templates={ae_template_name}. Despite this, they are each 301 redirecting to the homepage, so I’d consider that an acceptable tradeoff. I’m marking this issue as resolved, thank you.
Hi @auraleclipse
Thanks a lot for the confirmation and for marking the issue as resolved.
@briancurtis, I understand your point. In the recent release, we fixed the security issue report to us and we followed our usual practice and just mentioned that we have fixed an security issue. But you are right, this security fix was also a kind of functional change, so it has be to communicated in a better way in our changelog.
We will make sure to update the current changelog and also make sure to have it more informed for future releases as well.
