sitemap: Difference between revisions

From Microformats Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
No edit summary
m (Replace <entry-title> with {{DISPLAYTITLE:}})
 
(7 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
<entry-title>Sitemap</entry-title>
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Sitemap}}


Enable the automatic generation of sitemap.xml from existing HTML by specifying a minimal amount of semantic information.
Per the [[process]], this is an effort to develop a sitemap microformat to enable the automatic generation of a number of different sitemap and related mechanisms from existing HTML navigation constructs by specifying a minimal amount of semantic information.  
* [[sitemap-examples]]
* [[sitemap-formats]]
* [[sitemap-brainstorming]]


Countless sites contain HTML navigation constructs which already detail parts of the information required to build a sitemap file. Typically these constructs leverage link elements which conveniently expose an 'href' attribute. Add a way to specify 'priority' and maybe 'changefreq' and enough would be in place for machines to build a site map.
==Editor==
[http://www.bheap.co.uk/about/ross.html#about-me Ross McDonald]


Currently the alternative is to either write a site map manually, or supply information to a generator (the said data being disconnected from your site).
== Problem ==
Currently accurate sitemap.xml files, HTML sitemaps and cache manifests are written manually, or created by supplying information generator services/sites.  This is rather disconnected from our sites, and not always as accurate as we would like.


The [http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html sitemap] protocol is very simple.
The separate sitemap.xml file is a "sidefile" and often violates [[DRY]] in that sites typically provide similar navigation structures in visible HTML.


Per the microformats [[process]]:
== Use Cases ==
A sitemap microformat would enable the following use-cases:


* encode in a machine readable way which navigation link elements pointing to locations in a site should be considered for inclusion in a sitemap.xml, cache manifest or related artifact, additionally information is not currently available which would enable specification of priority weighting or frequency of change.
Examples of what could be generated if we had such information:
* sitemap.xml
* HTML sitemap for usability/accessibility
* HTML5 cache manifest
Countless sites contain HTML navigation constructs which already detail all/most of the information required to build an HTML sitemap or cache manifest, and parts of the information required to build a sitemap.xml file.
Typically these constructs leverage link elements which conveniently expose an 'href' attribute.  Add a way to specify 'priority' and maybe 'changefreq' and enough would be in place for machines to build a sitemap.xml.
Useful metadata could be generated by machines or browser plugins with both leveraging a simple microformat.
== See Also ==
* [[sitemap-examples]]
* [[sitemap-examples]]
* [[sitemap-formats]]
* [[sitemap-formats]]
* [[sitemap-brainstorming]]
* [[sitemap-brainstorming]]
* [[sitemap-issues]]
* [[sitemap-issues]]

Latest revision as of 16:33, 18 July 2020


Per the process, this is an effort to develop a sitemap microformat to enable the automatic generation of a number of different sitemap and related mechanisms from existing HTML navigation constructs by specifying a minimal amount of semantic information.

Editor

Ross McDonald

Problem

Currently accurate sitemap.xml files, HTML sitemaps and cache manifests are written manually, or created by supplying information generator services/sites. This is rather disconnected from our sites, and not always as accurate as we would like.

The separate sitemap.xml file is a "sidefile" and often violates DRY in that sites typically provide similar navigation structures in visible HTML.

Use Cases

A sitemap microformat would enable the following use-cases:

  • encode in a machine readable way which navigation link elements pointing to locations in a site should be considered for inclusion in a sitemap.xml, cache manifest or related artifact, additionally information is not currently available which would enable specification of priority weighting or frequency of change.

Examples of what could be generated if we had such information:

  • sitemap.xml
  • HTML sitemap for usability/accessibility
  • HTML5 cache manifest

Countless sites contain HTML navigation constructs which already detail all/most of the information required to build an HTML sitemap or cache manifest, and parts of the information required to build a sitemap.xml file.

Typically these constructs leverage link elements which conveniently expose an 'href' attribute. Add a way to specify 'priority' and maybe 'changefreq' and enough would be in place for machines to build a sitemap.xml.

Useful metadata could be generated by machines or browser plugins with both leveraging a simple microformat.

See Also