Ultrabubble: NEW: SefJam Sitemap for all JR sites, SefJam not required!!!
SteveX Ultrabubble
Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 8792
Location: Ultrabubble
Posted: 09/10/07 11:44
What is SefJam Sitemap?
SefJam Sitemap (sitemap.php) is an add-on script which will return an xml sitemap for submission to Google. It also writes this xml to a static file (sitemap.xml) in case you have a large site and want to minimise the load on your server. It is highly configurable and will suit any type of skin and theme.
Do I need SefJam installed?
No, there is a setting for SefJam users: Set $sefjam = 1 in the sitemap config file.
What is a Sitemap file and why should I have one?
You can use a sitemap file to tell Google about all the pages on your site, and optionally, to provide information about those pages, such as which are most important and how often they change. Sitemaps are particularly helpful if your site has dynamic content, pages that aren't easily discovered by following links, or if your site is new and has few links to it.
Sitemaps helps speed up the discovery of your pages, which is an important first step in crawling and indexing your pages, but there are many other factors that influence the crawling/indexing processes. Sitemaps lets you tell us information about your pages (which ones you think are most important, how often the pages change), so you can have a voice in these subsequent steps.
How do I install it?
Unzip the files, upload to your Jamroom directory and set the permissions of sitemap.xml so as it is writable by the server. Then in the config file you can easily configure it to your needs.
How do I configure it?
SefJam Sitemap comes pre-configured for Cobalt3/Sage. For other skins and themes different exclusions might be necessary. This is because with Jamroom's flexibility it can be used in many different ways, and many different part-files might be generated into your artists directory depending on how your skin/theme is coded. You do not want to include all of these in your sitemap as they are not full pages and would dilute the effectiveness of your submission to Google. In the sitemap.config.php file you simply list the files you want to exclude, see the default Cobalt3 settings and settings for other skins/themes in this thread.
What next?
Submit your sitemap to the Google webmaster programme:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/
You can submit either the dynamic file (sitemap.php) or the static file (sitemap.xml). The xml file is regenerated each time the php script is run, so if you submit this one you might want to set up a cronjob on a daily or weekly basis, or you can do it manually.
What does it cost?
£12.50 paid via Paypal. You need one license per Jamroom installation.
You will be able to buy it on the SefJam site for immediate download, but the store is currently offline, so you can order via the Jamroom Marketplace, or pm me your email address and the site you want to license for and I will send you a manual Paypal invoice.
But I already have SefJam
SefJam Sitemap is free to people who already purchased SefJam, pm me your email address and your SefJam url and I will send it asap. However, going forwards it is no longer part of the SefJam download.
_________________ Kulshi Mezian!
"Stranger from another planet, welcome to our hole. Just strap on your guitar and we'll play some rock and roll"
Ultrabubble create things.
Last edited by SteveX on 09/10/07 17:43; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 8792
Location: Ultrabubble
Posted: 09/27/07 15:57
Yes, this would work with any skin/theme combination. It is very configurable, so you would be able to adjust the config to suit pretty much any customisations as well.
_________________ Kulshi Mezian!
"Stranger from another planet, welcome to our hole. Just strap on your guitar and we'll play some rock and roll"
Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 8792
Location: Ultrabubble
Posted: 06/25/08 01:46
Yes, it works with 3.3.6
The sitemap is generated every time the script is run/visited. This can take some time, so you might want to submit the xml output rather than the php script. The xml file is generated each time the script is run, so you might want to set up your cron if that needs to be regular.
_________________ Kulshi Mezian!
"Stranger from another planet, welcome to our hole. Just strap on your guitar and we'll play some rock and roll"
I believe that once submitted, google comes back every so often to check to see if anything has changed. so if i set up a daily cron to keep the sitemap uptodate then google can comeback whenever it likes to see how im going.
Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 8792
Location: Ultrabubble
Posted: 04/06/09 16:00
It is possible that there will not be an update for this, because of Nova. Great skin/theme though it is, in combination with the changes to sefjam urls, it might mean an entirely different solution is necessary.
_________________ Kulshi Mezian!
"Stranger from another planet, welcome to our hole. Just strap on your guitar and we'll play some rock and roll"
Joined: 06 Apr 2006
Posts: 1417
Location: The Americas
Posted: 04/18/09 22:47
SteveX:
It is possible that there will not be an update for this, because of Nova. Great skin/theme though it is, in combination with the changes to sefjam urls, it might mean an entirely different solution is necessary.
I read the thread but I am a little puzzled. I am currently running JR 4.09 ProPack using Flashback skins. If I purchase and download the current version of the php file, can I create a sitemap.xml?
If I am understanding it, NOVA (inconsequential to me) and the SEF url's will create a problem, but is the problem with the autogeneration aspect of the php (automatically finding the various pages) or is it possible to create a one time sitemap.xml? I thought I saw one comment that seemed to suggest it will still work.
I have tried writing my own version, but I have now received an error from Google three times. My son, the programmer and self-professed XML expert says the syntax looks fine, but I think I may be using the wrong paths or destination files. That is, I think I may be providing "directories" rather than specific files.
