Dynamic XML Sitemap for Google
Work in Progress:
1. Continue to work on SEF (status: beta version)
Updates:
2011-02-07 README file update with a Troubleshooting suggestion and a link to download the SEF-capable beta version.
2010-05-05: **If you downloaded the last update, download this new version & install...the other one doesn't work. Sorry, my bad.
2010-05-04: Fixed the Call-time pass-by-reference error some people were seeing. A big thanks to everyone who helped fix this, you know who you are!
2010-04-20: Fixed an error in the lastmod date format, if your offset is positive (e.g. +1).
2010-04-13: Completed rewrite of all module code, finished adding Kunena forum links, fixed a few errors. Disabled SEF...will keep trying :(
2010-03-20: Improved on VirtueMart links and added option to append product name and category name to the URL.
2010-03-20: Added product links for VirtueMart to the PLAIN.PHP file only, they won't show if you're using the SEF feature. Also added the option to "turn off" lastmod tags (date) for those of you who don't have created or modified dates for your articles for whatever reason. Just turn this off and Google will accept your sitemap.
2010-03-11: Fixed a bug in the "plain" view and corrected a db prefix in the helper file. If you're getting an error using the non-SEF links or if your database doesn't use jos_ as the table prefix, try installing this update.
2010-02-05: Added option for SEF links.
2009/11/03: Corrected "Catchable fatal error" problem.
2009/11/02: Corrected empty tag that was printing at the bottom of the sitemap & creating a 404 error in google. It appeared only if you didn't enter any manual URLs.
2009/09/28: Now allows for manually entered links (i.e. links that don't show up on the dynamically generated list can be entered in the module parameters so they are included).
Please see the README file for installation and troubleshooting steps. An HTML version of the README file (for readability) can be found here: http://www.dianascherff.com/miscellaneous/t
Then I discovered this extension. Figuring what the heck, I had nothing to lose, I downloaded it and gave it the ole college try.
Imagine my happiness when it worked! It installed, the directions were plain and straight forward and easy to follow and it just worked. Imagine that! It just worked. Right out of the box, no errors, it just worked.
Thank you so much for making a Joomla extension that works!!!
I'm sorry you had trouble with the template, it looks like you set this as your default template which would have caused that problem. The template associated with this module should not be made default for any page, it should just be installed and left alone.
For anyone reading this, this is a FREE module, there are no warranties, and therefore, like all other extentions, should be used at your own risk. Although I'd like to support this module 100% indefinitely, I can't, and that's why it's free. I'm sorry you had trouble with it though and to everyone, I recommend posting in the support forums to see if someone else can help, and that goes for anyone having trouble. If I can't respond to your post right away, I try to repond when I can anyway so the answer will be there when others are having trouble. I do recommend following the README file TO THE LETTER. If you stray at all from the instructions, there can be major problems.
Thanks,
Diana
Took a little to install, but it's FREE so who cares? The instructions in the Readme are strightforward and complete, so be sure you read them.
There are tooltips if you hover over areas. This helped me figure out how to get my additional URLs to list properly.
Also, ensure you're using IE to view the sitemap. It's in the readme but wayyy down.
Thanks so much for your comment! I regret that I'm not finding time to respond to support requests like I used to so I'm glad you've found it useful and somewhat easy to install. The readme file has definitely gotten long, mostly because of requests to add more troubleshooting notes, but hopefully people can find most of their answers there.
Anyway, thanks again!
Diana
1) The demo directly to the authors site seems to show SEF links in the XML whereas the downloadable version DOES NOT. So beware thats all.
2) Also make sure you are handling 404 errors properly in your site, as if you have content (articles) that has/have previously been indexed and shown in the XML sitemap and then they "expire" then Google will pick it up as a broken link. This is particularly relevant if you use the Article Generator extension which auto expires articles after x-days.
3) This module indexes ALL your content (as opposed to the content linked to menu options) So it would be good to have some further configuration options available to choose between sections/categories shown (rather than listing them) so as to filter out stuff that is categorised and likely to expire.
That being said, this does work well: and as it follows the Sitemaps XML specification it will work will other Sitemap needs not just google.
Thanks to the author :)
The directions are detailed. FOLLOW them closely and it will be OK!
Thanks for your input! I know this is an important feature, but it is much more difficult to implement than it was in Joomla! 1.0. Fortunately, the non-SEF URLs do still have the category and article names in them so they are more "search engine friendly" than links were in 1.0.
That said, I have worked out (on paper) how I will set up the SEF links, but I would like to ask everyone who has PHP and Joomla! 1.5 extension development experience to go to the support forums for this extension (link is above) and share any ideas you might have about how to go about actually making SEF work, even if it's not actual code, but ideas on code layout or ANYTHING. It would be of great help and I would happily credit you for any work you did, both in the code and on the site.
This is definitely a feature I want to complete, so I promise I will keep trying until I figure it out!
Thanks again for taking the time to review!
It will be more cool if it can add virtuemart links to xml map. In topic we see that the work in progress, at which date you are going to realize this?
Well, I have a LOT going on right now but I know people are asking for this feature so I will get it done as soon as I can. It is definitely a priority. Thanks!
I don't know what K2 is...if you can email me a link to the extension I can add it to my list.
Installation went without a hitch thanks to clear, precise instructions. Had a dump of my sitemap in less than 5 minutes after installing the module and template.
Unfortunately...
I have been looking high and low for a tool to create a sitemap for my VirtueMart installation and this does not appear to do it. There is a place where links can be added manually. I will play with this but I don't think it will get me there. In all fairness, VirtueMart compatibility was not promised.
Also, I was surprised to see that the sitemap did not report SEF URLs. I am using sh404SEF to avoid all the php code throughout the website, but it was the php links that were reported.
I will update this review if I am able to make this work for my needs.
You are the second person to request SEF so I will definitely move that to the top of my list. I will also look into adding VirtueMart links. All component links are really by request only because there are too many out there to support them all...I'm not quite knowledgeable enough about Joomla! and PHP to make that an automatic thing yet.
I will start working on the SEF immediately and VirtueMart will be next...assuming it's a free component I can add to my test site...? Email me if you have any other requests for features. I'm happy to give it shot!
Thanks!
The sitemap generated isn't in XML format, so I'm not sure why it's called that, except perhaps to relate to Google's naming.
The generated output is just a list of site links. For my site, they all started as "index.php/xxxx", so I had to add my site URL in the setup, as recommended.
Also, the output does not have CRLF codes. In fact, it appears as if each link is just separated by a single space. At least, that's how it looks when I copy/paste the output into a notepad browser.
I'd like to see each line ended with CRLF (for Windows), or perhaps just LF (for Linux), or an option.
An option to actually generate XML (for data manipulation) might be nice, but if Google accepts as is, then it's not important to me.
Lastly, visiting the author's web site and viewing their site map, they don't appear to use this component. Perhaps they are using a wordpress installation, etc. But, this also wasn't important to me.
Hi tabletguy,
The sitemap is in XML format. If it isn't showing up that way on your site, then I can certainly take a look at it for you. That's the whole purpose of it, so if you don't see JUST the XML when you view it, then it isn't set up properly.
The module position HAS to be "dynamicxmls" otherwise the template won't be able to pull it up and the template is where the XML tags start. If you don't use the template to pull up the module, then it won't generate the proper XML format and Google won't accept it.
This isn't a sitemap to list on your site. It's an XML sitemap that you submit to Google for indexing. I am not using a wordpress installation. I am using Joomla!...and this module...you can see it when you click on "Demo" above.
If you send me an email at the above address I can help you fix any problems you are having.
Thanks for the review!
The word "publish" in the instructions foxed me at first.
What she means is (after installation) is to go to the module manager and
1) enable it - select and use enable button
2) set the properties by double clicking it - especially to set the position - which is actually the template name
that was all a doddle.
what i am not sure of is having submitted my site to google - how the sitemap xml is generated, or whether in fact it actually is . . .
richard
lol thanks Richard for your review. Hopefully we'll get it working for you soon. I did mean "enable" instead of "publish"...thank's for pointing that out. I will fix the README and the info above tonight.