Name:
UBB.SitemapsAuthor: James Corthell,
VNC Web ServicesRequirements: UBB.threads 7.x
Current Version: 20250425
Documentation: Up to date documentation is available at the
UBBDev Wiki entry
UBB.SitemapsAbout:
This addon takes just moments to install, it gathers your forum topic links and exports them as a sitemap that you can add to Google, yahoo, or just about any search engine which utilizes sitemaps.
The configuration options allow you to specify which type of sitemap you wish to use and weather you wish to plugin threaded or flat view. The sitemap type and view type can both be set either hard coded or via url string.
Simply enter the URL to your sitemap install into your
Bing Webmaster Center,
Google Search Console, or
Yandex Webmaster and they will automatically grab copies of your thread links when they ping your site.
What are the security aspects?:
Well, the sitemap will ignore threads in private forums (if a guest cannot *see* them then the sitemap will not publish the link). Also, threads that are not approved will not show either (same aspect as above).
What is a sitemap?:
A sitemap will take and provide all of your current threads to search engines, thus eliminating the wait of "new discovery" of new pages on your forums.
You can read about the benefits of using sitemaps via the below quoted article from Google Webmaster Tools.
Please note that this addon does not create a sitemap for your entire site, and only creates one for your forum.
Demo: As this addon doesn't utilize a cache, no active demo is available, however you can see example output via the attachment screen shots.
Install Instructions:
The install is quite simple, after receiving the software via email simply open the php file and place your MySQL connect information where indicated. Now upload the file to your web root (not your forum directory) and then simply open the script via the web and you'll see the default XML (google valid) sitemap.
Usage Instructions:
By default, the script uses flat mode and the XML map. These defaults can be easily changed from within the script itself.
As for web-based switches:
http://www.example.com/sitemap.php?type=&view=&se=// Optional Parameter -- se=# Where # weather or not to use SE Friendly URLs (0/No, 1/Yes)
// Optional Parameter -- type=# Where # is a map type (1/XML, 2/Text, 3/HTML, 4/RSS, 5/ASP, 6*/SitemapIndex, 7/Forum Listing, 8/UBB.threads Pages, 9/UBB.threads Reviews, 10/UBB.threads Events)
// Optional Parameter -- view=# where # is your view type (1/ShowFlat, 2/ShowThreaded)
// Optional Parameter -- offsets=# where # is weather or not to use offsets.
Submissions:
Not all search engines will automagically re-check your sitemap when they ping it for new activity; in fact, I've only noticed that Google will re-check on its own. Yahoo now uses Bing Search results for their database.
Attachment Information:
sitemap-xml.jpg - An XML map.
sitemap-rss.jpg - An RSS map.
sitemap-text.jpg - A simple "text link list" map.
sitemap-link.jpg - A simple "html link list" map.
sitemap-asp.jpg - An ASP style sitemap.
sitemap-index.jpg - A screen cap of the Sitemap Index feature.
Pricing: $100 per install (each separate install requires a separate license) which includes 1 year of free updates. Install services are available for $30.
How to Buy: You can order via our Script Information page
here (there is an order form towards the bottom for PayPal payments).
Notice:
This addon is not freeware, and as such you cannot freely provide it to others without prior written permission from its author(s). Permission was obtained from the UBBDev administration to post this non-free addon's information in advance.
Quoting Google's Webmaster Help
What is a sitemap, and why should I have one?A Sitemap file lets you tell us about all the pages on your site, and optionally, information about those pages, such as which are most important and how often they change. By submitting a Sitemap file, you can take control of the first part of the crawling/indexing processes: our discovery of the pages.
This may be particularly helpful if your site has dynamic content, pages that aren't easily discovered by following links, or if your site is new and has few links to it.
Sitemaps help speed up the discovery of your pages, which is an important first step in crawling and indexing your pages, but there are many other factors that influence the crawling/indexing processes. Sitemaps lets you tell us information about your pages (which ones you think are most important, how often the pages change), so you can have a voice in these subsequent steps. Other factors include how many sites link to you, if your content is unique and relevant, if we can crawl the pages successfully, and everything outlined in our webmaster guidelines.
A Sitemap provides an additional view into your site (just as your home page and HTML site map do). This program does not replace our normal methods of crawling the web. Google still searches and indexes your sites the same way it has done in the past whether or not you use this program. Sites are never penalized for using this service. This is a beta program, so we cannot make any predictions or guarantees about when or if your URLs will be crawled or added to our index. Over time, we expect both coverage and time-to-index to improve as we refine our processes and better understand webmasters' needs.
Once you have created your Sitemap, you can add it to your Google Sitemaps account and update it as your site changes.
