Somewhat new to using umbraco and need to create a sitemap for a site I'm developing. I've read plenty about packages that can be installed and used. I chose the cultiv solution, but now am feeling a little dense in not knowing how to actually invoke it to make the sitemap.
Since it's an xslt file, I've put that in the Xslt directory, but now what? Do I create a macro based on it? Do I create an aspx page and embed the macro? Is this all that needs to be done??? Everyone says "install it and it will generate it for you." But how?
Did you install the package? (It sounds like you may have only downloaded it and then subsequently unzipped it...)
If you installed it (in the Developer section, expand the Packages node and click Install local package, then follw the instructions) your sitemap should be available at the URL: http://yoursite.com/cultivsearchenginesitemap.aspx
To change the sitemap URL, find the template (Settings > Templates) and rename it to something better, e.g. Sitemap.
Thanks Chriztian. That got me further down the road, but I'm still not all the way there. Perhaps I'm just missing the obvious. I installed the package, which dropped the xslt into the Xslt/ directory, the template in the Masterpages directory and created the macro. But if I just go in and change the template name in VS2010, a) it fails to bring up the xml when looking at /sitemap.aspx and b) in the CMS still shows the template with its original filename. When I go to change the name via the cms (less than ideal for the environment I'm developing in since I need to hand off the site to a build team that builds it and it's ready to go without any UI manipulation) it won't save the change. Not sure why, but I feel like there's things in App Data which need changing, which is also less than ideal since we don't put app data things in source control, but count on them to be generated when building out of VS2010. Any insight would be appreciated.
That sounds like a problem with the permissions - if you go to the Developer section and click the Developer folder at the top, do you get a tab called uGoLive Checklist? If you do, you should try running at least the Folder Permissions check to see whether that's the culprit.
Unfortunately, I don't have that tab. What's strange is, I can delete it, but can't change its name. Why, if I change the physical name of the file, won't it appear under Templates in Settings? I did have a peak at App_Data and there is definitely some stuff in there that might be contributing. Either way, the one thing that makes me crazy about umbraco is the looseness of the integration with VS2010. At times, the CMS takes its direction from the source code. Sometimes, the db contains things. Sometimes it's umbraco.config, sometimes it's things lingering in App_Data or some other cryptic directory. I wish it would be consistent.
That said, why can't I change the name of the template file in my source, build and have it appear with the name changed in the CMS? There must be something either in the db or in some other config file preventing this.
Unfortunately, I don't have that tab. What's strange is, I can delete it, but can't change its name. Why, if I change the physical name of the file, won't it appear under Templates in Settings? I did have a peak at App_Data and there is definitely some stuff in there that might be contributing. Either way, the one thing that makes me crazy about umbraco is the looseness of the integration with VS2010. At times, the CMS takes its direction from the source code. Sometimes, the db contains things. Sometimes it's umbraco.config, sometimes it's things lingering in App_Data or some other cryptic directory. I wish it would be consistent.
That said, why can't I change the name of the template file in my source, build and have it appear with the name changed in the CMS? There must be something either in the db or in some other config file preventing this.
Okay, we better know which version of Umbraco you're using then...
I don't use Visual Studio myself, so I can't for sure tell you how it works. I know that I can create a new template file in the templates directory and it will show up in the Umbraco UI (provided I've added the correct directives, e.g. setting the Master file, if any).
I'm still leaning towards the permissions thing, though...
Running umbraco 4.7. Alright. I figured out a workaround while I solve the permission problem.
1. I created a new template called Sitemap under Settings > Templates. I then created a physical Sitemap.master file in VS2010, copied the code from the CultivSearchEngineSitemap.master file into it, and created a new macro with Sitemap alias (because I can't modify the Sitemap template I created in Settings > Templates).
2. I then deleted the CultivSearchEngineSitemap template from Settings > Templates, CultivSearchEngineSitemap macro from Developer > Macros and removed the physical CultivSearchEngineSitemap.master file from VS2010.
That was easy (ugh).
If you have any insight into how I can find out why I don't have modify permission (but do have Create/Delete) in Settings > Templates (I can modify in Settings > Stylesheets, for example), that would be great.
What's the difference between sitemap.aspx and sitemap.xml? I know they are generated differently, but do search engine crawlers understand both (even if you don't have robots.txt set up to point them there?)?
instructions on actually generating a sitemap
Somewhat new to using umbraco and need to create a sitemap for a site I'm developing. I've read plenty about packages that can be installed and used. I chose the cultiv solution, but now am feeling a little dense in not knowing how to actually invoke it to make the sitemap.
Since it's an xslt file, I've put that in the Xslt directory, but now what? Do I create a macro based on it? Do I create an aspx page and embed the macro? Is this all that needs to be done??? Everyone says "install it and it will generate it for you." But how?
Thanks.
Hi Neil,
Did you install the package? (It sounds like you may have only downloaded it and then subsequently unzipped it...)
If you installed it (in the Developer section, expand the Packages node and click Install local package, then follw the instructions) your sitemap should be available at the URL: http://yoursite.com/cultivsearchenginesitemap.aspx
To change the sitemap URL, find the template (Settings > Templates) and rename it to something better, e.g. Sitemap.
/Chriztian
Thanks Chriztian. That got me further down the road, but I'm still not all the way there. Perhaps I'm just missing the obvious. I installed the package, which dropped the xslt into the Xslt/ directory, the template in the Masterpages directory and created the macro. But if I just go in and change the template name in VS2010, a) it fails to bring up the xml when looking at /sitemap.aspx and b) in the CMS still shows the template with its original filename. When I go to change the name via the cms (less than ideal for the environment I'm developing in since I need to hand off the site to a build team that builds it and it's ready to go without any UI manipulation) it won't save the change. Not sure why, but I feel like there's things in App Data which need changing, which is also less than ideal since we don't put app data things in source control, but count on them to be generated when building out of VS2010. Any insight would be appreciated.
Hi Neil,
That sounds like a problem with the permissions - if you go to the Developer section and click the Developer folder at the top, do you get a tab called uGoLive Checklist? If you do, you should try running at least the Folder Permissions check to see whether that's the culprit.
/Chriztian
Unfortunately, I don't have that tab. What's strange is, I can delete it, but can't change its name. Why, if I change the physical name of the file, won't it appear under Templates in Settings? I did have a peak at App_Data and there is definitely some stuff in there that might be contributing. Either way, the one thing that makes me crazy about umbraco is the looseness of the integration with VS2010. At times, the CMS takes its direction from the source code. Sometimes, the db contains things. Sometimes it's umbraco.config, sometimes it's things lingering in App_Data or some other cryptic directory. I wish it would be consistent.
That said, why can't I change the name of the template file in my source, build and have it appear with the name changed in the CMS? There must be something either in the db or in some other config file preventing this.
Unfortunately, I don't have that tab. What's strange is, I can delete it, but can't change its name. Why, if I change the physical name of the file, won't it appear under Templates in Settings? I did have a peak at App_Data and there is definitely some stuff in there that might be contributing. Either way, the one thing that makes me crazy about umbraco is the looseness of the integration with VS2010. At times, the CMS takes its direction from the source code. Sometimes, the db contains things. Sometimes it's umbraco.config, sometimes it's things lingering in App_Data or some other cryptic directory. I wish it would be consistent.
That said, why can't I change the name of the template file in my source, build and have it appear with the name changed in the CMS? There must be something either in the db or in some other config file preventing this.
Hi Neil,
Okay, we better know which version of Umbraco you're using then...
I don't use Visual Studio myself, so I can't for sure tell you how it works. I know that I can create a new template file in the templates directory and it will show up in the Umbraco UI (provided I've added the correct directives, e.g. setting the Master file, if any).
I'm still leaning towards the permissions thing, though...
/Chriztian
Running umbraco 4.7. Alright. I figured out a workaround while I solve the permission problem.
1. I created a new template called Sitemap under Settings > Templates. I then created a physical Sitemap.master file in VS2010, copied the code from the CultivSearchEngineSitemap.master file into it, and created a new macro with Sitemap alias (because I can't modify the Sitemap template I created in Settings > Templates).
2. I then deleted the CultivSearchEngineSitemap template from Settings > Templates, CultivSearchEngineSitemap macro from Developer > Macros and removed the physical CultivSearchEngineSitemap.master file from VS2010.
That was easy (ugh).
If you have any insight into how I can find out why I don't have modify permission (but do have Create/Delete) in Settings > Templates (I can modify in Settings > Stylesheets, for example), that would be great.
WARNING: noob question
What's the difference between sitemap.aspx and sitemap.xml? I know they are generated differently, but do search engine crawlers understand both (even if you don't have robots.txt set up to point them there?)?
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