express-sitemap-xml

Express middleware to serve `sitemap.xml` from a list of URLs

Create an Express middleware that serves sitemap.xml from a list of URLs.

This package automatically handles sitemaps with more than 50,000 URLs. In these cases, multiple sitemap files will be generated along with a "sitemap index" to comply with the sitemap spec and requirements from search engines like Google.

If only one sitemap file is needed (i.e. there are less than 50,000 URLs) then it is served directly at /sitemap.xml. Otherwise, a sitemap index is served at /sitemap.xml and sitemaps at /sitemap-0.xml, /sitemap-1.xml, etc.

Install

npm install express-sitemap-xml

Demo

You can see this package in action on BitMidi, a site for listening to your favorite MIDI files.

Usage (with Express)

The easiest way to use this package is with the Express middleware.

const express = require('express')
const expressSitemapXml = require('express-sitemap-xml')
 
const app = express()
 
app.use(expressSitemapXml(getUrls, 'https://bitmidi.com'))
 
async function getUrls () {
  return await getUrlsFromDatabase()
}

Remember to add a Sitemap line to robots.txt like this:

Sitemap: https://bitmidi.com/sitemap.xml

Usage (without Express)

The package can also be used without the Express middleware.

const { buildSitemaps } = require('express-sitemap-xml')
 
async function run () {
  const urls = ['/1', '/2', '/3']
  const sitemaps = await buildSitemaps(urls, 'https://bitmidi.com')
 
  console.log(Object.keys(sitemaps))
  // ['/sitemap.xml']
 
  console.log(sitemaps['/sitemap.xml'])
  // `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  //  <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  //    <url>
  //      <loc>https://bitmidi.com/1</loc>
  //      <lastmod>${getTodayStr()}</lastmod>
  //    </url>
  //    <url>
  //      <loc>https://bitmidi.com/2</loc>
  //      <lastmod>${getTodayStr()}</lastmod>
  //    </url>
  //    <url>
  //      <loc>https://bitmidi.com/3</loc>
  //      <lastmod>${getTodayStr()}</lastmod>
  //    </url>
  //  </urlset>`
})

Remember to add a Sitemap line to robots.txt like this:

Sitemap: https://bitmidi.com/sitemap.xml

API

`middleware = expressSitemapXml(getUrls, base)`

Create a sitemap.xml middleware. Both arguments are required.

The getUrls argument specifies an async function that resolves to an array of URLs to be included in the sitemap. Each URL in the array can either be an absolute or relative URL string like '/1', or an object specifying additional options about the URL:

{
  url: '/1',
  lastMod: new Date('2000-02-02'),
  changeFreq: 'weekly'
}

For more information about these options, see the sitemap spec. Note that the priority option is not supported because Google ignores it.

The getUrls function is called at most once per 24 hours. The resulting sitemap(s) are cached to make repeated HTTP requests faster.

The base argument specifies the base URL to be used in case any URLs are specified as relative URLs. The argument is also used if a sitemap index needs to be generated and sitemap locations need to be specified, e.g. ${base}/sitemap-0.xml becomes https://bitmidi.com/sitemap-0.xml.

`sitemaps = expressSitemapXml.buildSitemaps(urls, base)`

Create an object where the keys are sitemap URLs to be served by the server and the values are strings of sitemap XML content. (This function does no caching.)

The urls argument is an array of URLs to be included in the sitemap. Each URL in the array can either be an absolute or relative URL string like '/1', or an object specifying additional options about the URL. See above for more info about the options.

The base argument is the same as above.

The return value is an object that looks like this:

{
  '/sitemap.xml': '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>...'
}

Or if multiple sitemaps are needed, then the return object looks like this:

{
  '/sitemap.xml': '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>...',
  '/sitemap-0.xml': '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>...',
  '/sitemap-1.xml': '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>...'
}

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