Xmap AND sh404sef quick tips to sitemap perfection

March 25, 2010 at 11:11 AM

I noticed that sh404sef threads is sticky'ed and some tutorials written on knowledgebase, so I can't help imagining there must be substantial amount of us (JReviews'ers) are using sh404sef to handle our SEF URLs.

I discovered a quick trick to handle our sites' sitemap using Xmap.

Requirements (this trick requires all the extensions below)

1) Xmap (you must know how to basically use Xmap. Get to know how to use it first if you have no idea).

2) sh404sef (basic knowledge using sh404sef is required).

3) xmap plugin for sh404sef (optional but very recommended; it's implied that if you are using sh404sef, you want prettier URLS so get it!)

First of all, this step is not required unless you want "yoursite.com/sitemap/" when using sh404sef and Xmap. Donwload that xmap plugin onto your desktop. Unzipped and upload it to ~public_html/component/com_sh404sef/sef_ext/

Now since you are using sh404sef, i imagine you must already made the "hidden" menu to make JReviews detail page display correctly on SEF (regardless native or sh404sef turned on, this hidden menu is required) enabled.

Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

Depending on how you setup your JReviews (multiple categories but one section? multiple cats and sections? 1 category and 1 section? and more), you must have all your "hidden" menus made for it to appear in sitemap.

Now that everything is made and ready. If you're decent Joomla devs like myself, I bet you already get anything up to this part covered, aren't you?

It's good that we are on the same page now. The main issue lies in between Xmap's content plugin and sh404sef is the "hidden" menu category/categories/section/sections that appears in sitemap (together with the listings which is published and has NO issue at all).

Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

The detail pages or listings are linked correctly as we want it, but the category/section view is NOT what we want to publish (instead we want to publish either JReviews' blogview/tableview/thumbview).

Before doing this in sh404sef backend, let's make up a situation for us to understanding this better.

say your correct JReviews intended like is: yoursite.com/category

by default (if you followed my tutorial from start), your sitemap should published something like: yoursite.com/category/

that extra slash really kills me from the inside (and its not good especially when Google sees it in XML form).

Now go to sh404sef backend -> sh404sef URL manager (sef url edits) -> Search for your ~/category/ (the one with 'slash /' or another indicator would be "index.php?option=com_content...."

Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

Go to intended or wanted link; from this example, the one WITHOUT 'slash' or "index.php?option=com_jreviews..."

Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

Include the non-sef link and "category/" into the alias list. Voila!

Now your sitemap will behave accordingly and not just that, now at least even if the links are indexed by Google, it will be redirected to the correct pages. Enjoy and hopefully those helps.

March 25, 2010 at 11:13 AM