Hi,

I am interested in an option to define the sitemap file name. At the moment it is defined as sitemap.xml

In Google webmaster tools there is an option test/add a sitemap with any filename.

This is useful for i18n sites depending on how they configure langauge negotiation at the domain level (i.e. by domain name or path).

It also gives the possibility to add multiple sitemaps for the same language which can then be tested in Google Webmaster Tools before updating the "active" sitemap.

All the best,
Guy

Comments

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented
Category: feature » support
Status: Active » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

We already provide XML Sitemap internationalization for use with i18n which should give you individual sitemap.xml files for each locale. Is this not what you meant?

guysaban’s picture

guysaban commented

Hi Earnie,

Thanks for getting back to me.

I am requesting a feature that could be used with or without i18n sitemap module.

Regarding the issue you mention about the i18n sitemaps, if domain negotiation is used per langauge, e.g. de.websitename.com for German, then the sitemap URI will be http://de.websitename.com/sitemap.xml. So to for other languages, the url to the sitemap always ends as /sitemap.xml

I am requesting a feature that will allow for the ability to modify the /sitemap.xml to something else, say de-sitemap.xml or de.sitemap.xml or even test1-sitemap.xml. The feature will allow for all these sitemaps to exist at the same time but only one will be active/default (automatically submitted to search engines) per context/language. The others will be available for testing purposes (i.e. testing in Google Webmaster Tools, etc).

Let me know if I am explaining it clearly.

All the best,
Guy

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

You can do this already.

See admin/settings/xmlsitemap and admin/settings/xmlsitemap/settings; be sure to open the collapsed field sets especially the Advanced Settings one. Also check http://drupal.org/project/domain_xmlsitemap which is a specialized for domain access.

At admin/settings/xmlsitemap you can add or edit the sitemap.xml URL.

guysaban’s picture

guysaban commented

Thanks Earnie,

I tried both suggestions:

1) at admin/settings/xmlsitemap/settings I tried changeing the DEFAULT BASE URL but see that it did not affect any sitemaps. Also it would not help with i18n domains. It does not allow for changing the URL (like http://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml) that maps to the sitemap file. I would like to to be able to have that last part or the URL /sitemap.xml to be customizable for reasons mentioned in earlier comments.

2) The domain_xmlsitemap module is interesting but it only gave an option to change the domain associated with the sitemap.xml file - it does not allows for changing the path after the domain in the URL.

All the best,
Guy

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

I don't know if I should mark this as a feature request or a bug report. WTH is the 'edit' operation for? This is related to

Maybe others. Is this a duplicate?

guysaban’s picture

guysaban commented

Hi Earnie,

Its not a bug report.

All the XML sitemap submodules worked fine regarding i18n and context.

I am requesteding a feature to allow for specifying the name of the sitemap.xml file that appears in the URL which will facilitate testing in Google webmaster tools.

So the website will have the regular URL: http://websitename.com/sitemap.xml
But we will have the option for adding other test sitemaps with URLs with a user defined ending, example:
http://websitename.com/my-test-sitemap.xml
http://websitename.com/my-test-video-sitemap.xml
etc.

All the best,
Guy

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

You can do this now, albeit manually. There is nothing preventing you from creating those sitemaps for testing purposes and putting them in the DocumentRoot. There is already an issue open for providing various contexts and I mentioned those in my last comment.

guysaban’s picture

guysaban commented

Its true. That's what I did. But its error prone / not an optimal approach for a busy site which needs testing for more than one context. Especially when considering user permissions, file permissions, login credentials, etc. An option on the UI would make it simple for the user who could ADD an XML sitemap and define a unique (user defined) name and set it as a test XML sitemap. Now that I think about it, I wonder if the Google Webmasters API allows for submitting sitemaps for testing. I manually added my test XML sitemaps to Google Webmasters Tools where it allows for specifying that the sitemap is for testing and not indexing.

I read about context issue you mentioned. I did not see it address testing of XML sitemaps which would require at least two sitemaps, one sitemap which is "live"/"active" on an existing site and another for "testing" say in Google Webmasters Tools.

Maybe its worthwhile trying to find out if there is any need/interest for testing XML sitemaps before publication other than my own need.

Thanks for your help Earnie - based on your prompt and detailed replies I am sure you are giving much value to the users of the XML sitemap module.

All the best,
Guy

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

There are hooks, documentation in xmlsitemap.api.php, that can add contexts. So theoretically you should be able to create a context via a module using the hooks provided. I don't know if that works, haven't had to try.