sitemap

What is sitemap?

The sitemap npm package is a powerful tool for generating XML sitemaps for your website. It helps search engines like Google to better understand the structure of your site and improve its indexing. The package supports various features such as creating sitemaps, adding URLs, and generating sitemap indices.

What are sitemap's main functionalities?

Creating a Sitemap

This feature allows you to create a basic sitemap with a few URLs. The SitemapStream class is used to create a stream, and URLs are added using the write method. Finally, the stream is ended and written to a file.

const { SitemapStream, streamToPromise } = require('sitemap');
const { createWriteStream } = require('fs');

const sitemap = new SitemapStream({ hostname: 'https://example.com' });
const writeStream = createWriteStream('./sitemap.xml');
sitemap.pipe(writeStream);

sitemap.write({ url: '/page-1/', changefreq: 'daily', priority: 0.8 });
sitemap.write({ url: '/page-2/', changefreq: 'weekly', priority: 0.5 });
sitemap.end();

streamToPromise(writeStream).then(() => console.log('Sitemap created successfully.'));

Adding URLs Dynamically

This feature demonstrates how to add URLs to the sitemap dynamically from an array. This is useful when you have a list of URLs that you want to include in your sitemap.

const { SitemapStream, streamToPromise } = require('sitemap');
const { createWriteStream } = require('fs');

const sitemap = new SitemapStream({ hostname: 'https://example.com' });
const writeStream = createWriteStream('./sitemap.xml');
sitemap.pipe(writeStream);

const urls = [
  { url: '/page-1/', changefreq: 'daily', priority: 0.8 },
  { url: '/page-2/', changefreq: 'weekly', priority: 0.5 }
];

urls.forEach(url => sitemap.write(url));
sitemap.end();

streamToPromise(writeStream).then(() => console.log('Sitemap created successfully.'));

Generating a Sitemap Index

This feature allows you to create a sitemap index, which is useful for large websites that have multiple sitemaps. The SitemapIndexStream class is used to create the index, and individual sitemaps are added using the write method.

const { SitemapIndexStream, streamToPromise } = require('sitemap');
const { createWriteStream } = require('fs');

const sitemapIndex = new SitemapIndexStream();
const writeStream = createWriteStream('./sitemap-index.xml');
sitemapIndex.pipe(writeStream);

sitemapIndex.write({ url: 'https://example.com/sitemap-1.xml', lastmod: '2023-01-01' });
sitemapIndex.write({ url: 'https://example.com/sitemap-2.xml', lastmod: '2023-01-02' });
sitemapIndex.end();

streamToPromise(writeStream).then(() => console.log('Sitemap index created successfully.'));

Other packages similar to sitemap

sitemap-generator

The sitemap-generator package is another tool for creating sitemaps. It is a bit simpler and more straightforward compared to sitemap. It crawls your website and automatically generates a sitemap based on the discovered URLs. This package is useful if you prefer an automated approach to sitemap generation.

xmlbuilder

The xmlbuilder package is a general-purpose XML builder that can be used to create sitemaps among other XML documents. It provides a more manual approach compared to sitemap, giving you full control over the XML structure. This package is suitable if you need to generate custom XML documents beyond just sitemaps.

sitemap-xml

The sitemap-xml package is a lightweight alternative for generating sitemaps. It offers basic functionality for creating sitemaps and adding URLs. It is less feature-rich compared to sitemap but can be a good choice for simpler use cases.

README

sitemap.js

sitemap.js is a high-level sitemap-generating framework that makes creating sitemap XML files easy.

Installation

It's recommended to install via npm:

npm install --save sitemap

Usage

The main functions you want to use in the sitemap module are

var sm = require('sitemap')
var sitemap = sm.createSitemap({ options }); //Creates a sitemap object given the input configuration with URLs
sitemap.toXML( function(xml){ console.log(xml) });) //Generates XML with a callback function
var xml = sitemap.toString(); //Gives you a string containing the XML data

###Example of using sitemap.js with express:

var express = require('express')
  , sm = require('sitemap');
  
var app = express()
  , sitemap = sm.createSitemap ({
      hostname: 'http://example.com',
      cacheTime: 600000,        // 600 sec - cache purge period
      urls: [
        { url: '/page-1/',  changefreq: 'daily', priority: 0.3 },
        { url: '/page-2/',  changefreq: 'monthly',  priority: 0.7 },
        { url: '/page-3/'},    // changefreq: 'weekly',  priority: 0.5
        { url: '/page-4/',   img: "http://urlTest.com" }
      ]
    });

app.get('/sitemap.xml', function(req, res) {
  sitemap.toXML( function (xml) {
      res.header('Content-Type', 'application/xml');
      res.send( xml );
  });
});

app.listen(3000);

###Example of synchronous sitemap.js usage:

var express = require('express')
  , sm = require('sitemap');

var app = express()
  , sitemap = sm.createSitemap ({
      hostname: 'http://example.com',
      cacheTime: 600000,  // 600 sec cache period
      urls: [
        { url: '/page-1/',  changefreq: 'daily', priority: 0.3 },
        { url: '/page-2/',  changefreq: 'monthly',  priority: 0.7 },
        { url: '/page-3/' } // changefreq: 'weekly',  priority: 0.5
      ]
    });

app.get('/sitemap.xml', function(req, res) {
  res.header('Content-Type', 'application/xml');
  res.send( sitemap.toString() );
});

app.listen(3000);

###Example of dynamic page manipulations into sitemap:

var sitemap = sm.createSitemap ({
      hostname: 'http://example.com',
      cacheTime: 600000
    });
sitemap.add({url: '/page-1/'});
sitemap.add({url: '/page-2/', changefreq: 'monthly', priority: 0.7});
sitemap.del({url: '/page-2/'});
sitemap.del('/page-1/');

###Example of pre-generating sitemap based on existing static files:

var sm = require('sitemap')
    , fs = require('fs');

var sitemap = sm.createSitemap({
    hostname: 'http://www.mywebsite.com',
    cacheTime: 600000,  //600 sec (10 min) cache purge period
    urls: [
        { url: '/' , changefreq: 'weekly', priority: 0.8, lastmodrealtime: true, lastmodfile: 'app/assets/index.html' },
        { url: '/page1', changefreq: 'weekly', priority: 0.8, lastmodrealtime: true, lastmodfile: 'app/assets/page1.html' },
        { url: '/page2'    , changefreq: 'weekly', priority: 0.8, lastmodrealtime: true, lastmodfile: 'app/templates/page2.hbs' } /* useful to monitor template content files instead of generated static files */
    ]
});

fs.writeFileSync("app/assets/sitemap.xml", sitemap.toString());

License

See LICENSE file.