The Sitemap standard, started by Google and subsequently adopted by other search engines is a simple premise. It's a standard Xml file on a webserver that details all the Url's within the site that should be indexed by a search engine. It's the opposite of a robots.txt file, which excludes Urls - the sitemap tells search engine bots which Urls to include. In the days of simple Html files with an index page, it was pretty easy for a bot to find all the site content. With dynamic data-driven pages, the number of web pages on a site is growing dramatically, and there generally isn't an easy way for a bot to index the whole site.
Enter the iFinity Google Sitemap Provider
The iFinity Google Sitemap Provider was created as an answer to the problem of generating a Google Sitemap from a DotNetNuke website. Whilst subsequent releases of DotNetNuke have included a built-in sitemap, the main problem is that some of the most interesting content on a DNN site typically live in modules like the Blog module, or the Forum module. The standard DNN sitemap isn't extensible so can't index all of the content in these types of modules, which use query strings to provide large amounts of unique content on the same 'page'.
How it works
The iFinity Google Sitemap Provider is a drop-in installation, and generates a Sitemap of your DNN installation, giving control over certain paramters. It also provides a base for further extension of the content on a particular page, as it has a framework for module-specific extension. This works by matching the modules on a page with the list of Module-centric Providers also installed. If there is a blog module on a page in your site, the Sitemap provider looks for a Blog-module specific SItemap provider. If it finds one, it calls it and then adds all of the Url's for your Blog to the list of Url's for the whole site.
What you Get
Included in the download are sitemap Providers for the following products:
- Base DotNetNuke website - generates entries for all pages on a DotNetNuke installation
- Blog Module - generates entries for all of your blog entries, not just the first page.
- News Articles - generates entries for the popular Ventrian News Articles module
- iFinity Tagger - generates entries for all Tags in the Tag List of a website using the iFinity Tagger module
You also get the source code and instructions on how to develop your own sitemap providers for other custom modules.
Free Download
The Google Sitemap Provider is provided free of charge (including source code) to all who find it useful. The only restrictions are on resale as a commercial module (you can't resell it), and keeping the original copyright messages in the code.
Check out the iFinity.com.au Google Sitemap . You'll see a full expansion of all the pages in the Site Blog, and the site Tags as an example of how, using the iFinity DotNetNuke Google Sitemap Provider you can fully index a site's content easily.
Want a Sitemap Provider for your Module?
If you'd like a Provider developed for your Custom Module, and don't have the skills or the time, contact us at iFinity and we'll develop one for you. It is quick and easy to get a Sitemap Provider developed.