BigSitemap

BigSitemap is a Sitemap generator suitable for applications with greater than 50,000 URLs. It splits large Sitemaps into multiple files, gzips the files to minimize bandwidth usage, supports increment updates, can be set up with just a few lines of code and is compatible with just about any framework.

BigSitemap is best run periodically through a Rake/Thor task.

require 'big_sitemap'

include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers # Allows access to Rails routes

BigSitemap.generate(:url_options => {:host => 'example.com'}, :document_root => "#{APP_ROOT}/public") do
  # Add a static page
  add '/about'

  # Add some URLs from your Rails application
  Post.find(:all).each do |post|
    add post_path(post)
  end

  # Add some URLs with additional options
  Product.find(:all).each do |product|
    add product_path(product), :change_frequency => 'daily', :priority => 0.5
  end
end

The code above will create a minimum of two files:

public/sitemaps/sitemap_index.xml.gz
public/sitemaps/sitemap.xml.gz

If your sitemaps grow beyond 50,000 URLs (this limit can be overridden with the :max_per_sitemap option), the sitemap files will be partitioned into multiple files (sitemap_1.xml.gz, sitemap_2.xml.gz, …).

Framework-specific Classes

Use the framework-specific classes to take advantage of built-in shortcuts.

Rails

BigSiteMapRails deals with setting the :document_root and :url_options initialization options.

Merb

BigSitemapMerb deals with setting the :document_root initialization option.

Install

Via gem:

sudo gem install big_sitemap

Advanced

Initialization Options

:url_options – hash with :host, optionally :port and :protocol
:base_url – string alternative to :url_options, e.g. 'https://example.com:8080/'
:url_path – string path_name to sitemaps folder, defaults to :document_path
:document_root – string
:document_path – string document path for sitemaps, relative to :document_root, defaults to empty string (putting sitemap files in the document root directory)
:document_full – string absolute document path to generation folder - defaults to :document_root/:document_path
:max_per_sitemap – 50000, which is the limit dictated by Google but can be less
:gzip – true
:ping_google – true
:ping_yahoo – false, needs :yahoo_app_id
:ping_bing – false
:ping_ask – false
:ping_yandex – false
:partial_update – false

Change Frequency, Priority and Last Modified

You can control “changefreq”, “priority” and “lastmod” values for each record individually by passing them as optional arguments when adding URLs:

add(product_path(product), {
  :change_frequency => 'daily',
  :priority         => 0.5,
  :last_modified    => product.updated_at
})

Partial Update

If you enable :partial_update, the filename will include the id of the first entry. This is perfect to update just the last file with new entries without the need to re-generate files being already there. You must pass the entry’s id in when adding the URL. For example:

BigSitemap.generate(:base_url => ‘example.com’, :partial_update => true) do

Widget.find_in_batches(:conditions => "id > #{get_last_id}").each do |widget|
  add widget_path(widget), :id => widget.id
end

end

TODO

Tests for framework-specific components.

Credits

Thanks to Alastair Brunton and Harry Love, who’s work provided a starting point for this library.

Thanks also to those who have contributed patches:

Mislav Marohnić
Jeff Schoolcraft
Dalibor Nasevic
Tobias Bielohlawek (www.rngtng.com)