PublishRank 2.9.72 — GitHub News source and activation consent

Summary

This release changes the optional News feed to the official announcements.json file in the PublishRank website repository, adds an activation-time consent dialog, improves external-service disclosures, and renders the top-level WordPress sidebar icon as a solid-white masked silhouette.

Changes

• Fetches the raw JSON corresponding to the official GitHub source file from raw.githubusercontent.com. The raw endpoint currently serves text/plain; charset=utf-8; the reader accepts that media type as well as JSON media types and still parses/validates the JSON schema before use.
• Adds a branded modal on first activation when News is not already enabled. Enable live News is the only choice that permits a feed request; No thanks records an opt-out, and Not now/Escape dismisses without connecting. The prompt is shown to an administrator with manage_options, remains pending until a choice is made, and links to the official source and service privacy policies.
• Keeps the feed disabled by default, requests nothing on activation itself, preserves any prior enabled preference, and stores the modal decision locally. The existing News screen remains available for later opt-in.
• Discloses GitHub Raw server-IP/request metadata and the distinct Netlify image/link traffic in the activation prompt, News consent screen, suggested WordPress privacy-policy text, this guide, and readme.txt.
• Uses versioned cache keys for the provider change and clears the legacy Netlify-feed cache when News is declined or disabled.
• Applies a local alpha mask to the sidebar icon, filled with #fff, because WordPress renders the add_menu_page() icon URL as a background image rather than an <img> element.

Validation performed

• All 32 standalone PHP regression tests passed, including no request before consent, activation prompt state, the exact GitHub Raw endpoint, text/plain and application/json responses, schema validation, caching, stale fallback, item filtering, and URL allowlisting.
• PHP syntax lint passed across production and test PHP, publishrank.php, and uninstall.php.
• node --check passed for all shipped/source JavaScript assets.
• composer run phpcs: 0 errors. 177 warnings remain visible across the existing project and remain non-blocking.
• The official raw endpoint returned HTTP 200, text/plain; charset=utf-8, and a 23,730-byte valid schema 1.0 active feed; it contained 10 announcements, including 8 active non-example entries at validation time.
• dist/PublishRank-v2.9.72.zip was verified to contain 198 files under one publishrank/ directory, including the activation modal assets, and excluding repository metadata, tests, developer tools, local dependencies, and documentation.
• git diff --check passed.

Manual interaction gap

No live WordPress staging dashboard was available in this task. The activation hook, protected form actions, modal keyboard handling, local styling, and CSS alpha-mask rule were statically reviewed and covered where applicable by regression/syntax checks, but the activation popup has not been clicked through in a browser and the rendered sidebar icon has not been visually checked in a live WordPress admin theme. Verify first-activation prompt display, Enable/No thanks/Not now/Escape behavior, no request after decline/dismiss, and the sidebar icon on a clean staging site before production deployment.