Last modified by guest (SOLVED)

[Leftfield]

I am encountering an unexpected issue where the "Last modified by" field shows "guest," and this modification triggers a sitemap update, potentially signaling changes to search engines like Google. This is concerning as there have been no recent content updates.

To clarify:

• I am the sole administrator with access to the website, and no unauthorized modifications have occurred.
• No new installations have been made on the system.
• No editing happened. The content remains unchanged.
• This issue only occurs on blog pages (using a specific template) where I manually modified the code for the Twitter share button. Is that it!?!? If that's it, then it's a problem.
• ProcessWire 3.0.184 (I am updating right after this post to the latest stable version).

I would appreciate any insights you may have on the cause of this unexpected modification.

PS: I apologize for the duplicate post. I felt it necessary to create a new one for better explanation. Thank you for your understanding!

[wbmnfktr]

I remember an issue with PageHitCounter a long time ago where each visit resulted in exactly this behaviour.
So in case you use that module, update that as well but check for update instructions as there have been some in the past.

Another possible solution is your custom code in either the template, a module, or a hook.

Hard to tell without knowing more about the template, possible hooks, and similar things.
Do you do anyting with the API, like updating or creating pages, entries or whatever?

[Leftfield]

No, I don't have that module (I am using just few modules). Yes, I only have one hook in the ready.php file that calculates reading time and updates one field on page save.

Thanks for helping me out @wbmnfktr

[wbmnfktr]

1 minute ago, Leftfield said:

I only have one hook in the ready.php file that calculates reading time and updates one field on page save.

I'd start with disabling that hook and go from there.

What other modules do you use?

[Leftfield]

OK. More than few I see now :D

All In One Minify, Email Obfuscation, Database Backups, Send Mass Email (inactive), Video embed for YouTube, Convert JPG/PNG images to WEBP, and 3 custom (super uber decently coded I guarantee) ones for backend.

All modules load on every single template except for Email Obfuscation, which loads only on the contact page.

[wbmnfktr]

Almost nothing seems to the reason for the behaviour.

As already said: I'd disable one module after the other and find similarities between those affected pages.

I am out of ideas for the moment.

[Leftfield]

Just now, wbmnfktr said:

I am out of ideas for the moment.

I'm wondering why this only happened on one template, although all the modules (fields) are loaded on all the templates. I don't know the time frame of the issue yet, so I'll need to check when this happens and then begin shutting down the modules.

[Leftfield]

Found the problem, and it was me, not ProcessWire, but... Here's why this issue might occur for anyone who encounters it:

I have a module with a hook that triggers on page save (thanks to @wbmnfktr's for pointing it out). This module's function is to update its fields in the database whenever a post is liked on the page. Simple: someone likes the page, so it counts as one more like.

The problem arises when both ProcessWire cache and silent page save are enabled. In this scenario, the changes aren't reflected on the front page. To ensure updates of the field are reflected on the frontpage, silent mode needs to be disabled. With silent mode off, the modified field updates whenever a post is saved from the hook.

Here's the code snippet which is solving issue with modified BUT in my case making the problem when the cache is on:

@$this->page->save($data['field'], array('quiet' => true));

@wbmnfktrI don't own you a beer, I own you at least a dinner man!

[wbmnfktr]

Sometimes even the best coded modules trick us. 😂

Still... great you found the issue and told us what the issue/reason was.

[Leftfield]

I'm an SEO guy (and all the alarms went off after I viewed the dates in sitemap), not a coder. I can understand PHP code reasonably well and make modifications, but I wouldn't consider myself a skilled programmer (it's been a decade since I've coded regularly). These custom modules were all created by @OLSA and then modified by me to suit my needs. Thanks to his help, it was much easier to fix the problem.

[wbmnfktr]

15 minutes ago, Leftfield said:

I'm an SEO guy (and all the alarms went off after I viewed the dates in sitemap), not a coder. I can understand PHP code reasonably well and make modifications, but I wouldn't consider myself a skilled programmer

Welcome to my world! 😂
Same here.

We got is solved. That's all that counts.