Invalid date Error in Google Webmaster Tools for custom Taxonomy

Hi cynarad, that error is coming from an empty tag. Apparently, there is some difficulty in determining the lastmod date for these custom taxonomies. I fear I cannot reproduce the issue without knowing how thesze taxonomies are built…

Could you update to 4.3.1? The error should be gone since the tags are now hidden when empty but the real issue (not being able to get a lastmod value) is not solved yet.

I updated the version to 4.3.2. The error remains for the custom taxonomies.

I built these custom taxonomies manually in the functions.php file, therefore, if there is a change to the register_taxonomy function call I can make that will correct the error, I can make it.

Here is the current code to register the taxonomy:

function add_location_taxonomy() {
	// Add new "Locations" taxonomy to Posts
	register_taxonomy('location', array( 'issue' , 'solution', 'ml-advert', 'page' ), array(
		// Hierarchical taxonomy (like categories)
		'hierarchical' => true,
                'show_admin_column' => true,
		// This array of options controls the labels displayed in the WordPress Admin UI
		'labels' => array(
			'name' => _x( 'Locations', 'taxonomy general name' ),
			'singular_name' => _x( 'Location', 'taxonomy singular name' ),
			'search_items' =>  __( 'Search Locations' ),
			'all_items' => __( 'All Locations' ),
			'parent_item' => __( 'Parent Location' ),
			'parent_item_colon' => __( 'Parent Location:' ),
			'edit_item' => __( 'Edit Location' ),
			'update_item' => __( 'Update Location' ),
			'add_new_item' => __( 'Add New Location' ),
			'new_item_name' => __( 'New Location Name' ),
			'menu_name' => __( 'Locations' ),
		),
'capabilities' => array (
            'manage_terms' => 'manage_categories',
            'edit_terms' => 'manage_categories',
            'delete_terms' => 'manage_categories',
            'assign_terms' => 'assign_terms'
            ),
		// Control the slugs used for this taxonomy
		'rewrite' => array(
			'slug' => 'locations', // This controls the base slug that will display before each term
			'with_front' => false, // Don't display the category base before "/locations/"
			'hierarchical' => true // This will allow URL's like "/locations/boston/cambridge/"
		),
	));
}

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I see nothing special with that code, except maybe the fact that you set a different ‘slug’ than the default taxonomy name in the ‘rewrite’ array. I wonder if that could cause the issue…

Hang on… Looking at your sitemaps again, I see the Last Changed columns are now populated! Did you change anything?

Most of the errors were eliminated after I upgraded to version 4.3.2, however, the correct XML sitemap didn’t regenerate to the next day, so I didn’t see it immediatly.

The last error was eliminated when I removed the custom slug from my taxonomy declaration. (Again, I didn’t see the correction until the next day..)

But now my sitemap is working perfectly!

https://solutionspot.org/?feed=sitemap

Thank You!

OK, thanks cynarad for reporting this issue.

I hope it is not inconvenient for you not set a different slug for the location taxonomy. In the next release, I’ll implement a fix to allow this…