Administrative and Maintenance Tools - vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator

vBulletin Google Sitemaps by vBSEO v.2.5 - vBulletin 3.7.x
Download vB 3.8.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.6.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.5.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.0.x Compatible Version Here

Note: Version 2.5 replaces all previous versions of the vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator, and now includes support for all the new URL types in vBulletin 3.8.x.

Overview
============================

Providing Google, Yahoo, Ask sitemaps is an essential step towards improving your forums.

The "vBSEO Google Sitemaps" plugin provides a solution that allows your forum to be indexed by the Google (and also Yahoo and Ask) search engines faster, more completely, more effectively, and with less bandwidth consumption.

The ultimate goal is to help you achieve more web traffic for your forum.

Originally Posted by Google's Description of GSM

https://services.google.com/inquiry/publishertools?hl=en_US
Google Sitemaps is an easy way for you to help improve your site?s representation in the Google index. It's a collaborative crawling system that enables you to communicate directly with Google. You get a smarter crawl because you can provide Google with specific information about all your web pages, such as when a page was last modified or how frequently it changes.

Note: This plugin is fully compliant with vBSEO 3.x version. The current version is vBSEO 3.2. However, if you are running vBSEO, please upgrade to vBSEO 3.2 or greater before installing.

Compatibility
============================


Fully compatible with:

• vBulletin 3.0.x, 3.5.x, 3.6.x, 3.7.x and 3.8.x
• vBulletin Blogs 1.0.x and 2.0.x *Optional
• vBSEO 2.x, 3.x *Optional

What does it do?
============================

• Auto-generates a Google XML sitemap for all of your specified forum URL types (including vBulletin Blog URLs).
• Auto-generates a Yahoo text sitemap for all of your specified forum URL types.
• Auto-notifies Google when a new sitemap is generated.
• Automatically sends you a summary of the sitemap generation via email each time it is created.
• Includes only publicly accessible forums and threads.
• Allows Google/Yahoo to find all of your forum URLs without having to spider the forum to find the links.
• Allows Google/Yahoo to find your forum URLs without having to account for query string and/or session ID information.
• Allows Google to give precedence to crawling your higher priority forum pages.
• Allows Google to give precedence to crawling your forum pages that change more frequently.
• Allows you to conserve bandwidth by more efficiently facilitating the crawling processes for GoogleBot and Yahoo Slurp.
• Is 100% compatible with the static CRUs (Content Relevant URLs) used by vBSEO-enabled forums.

How does it work?
============================


Whenever it is scheduled or invoked via the URL, this plugin will generate both the Google XML formatted and the Yahoo text formatted sitemaps. If you selected "Yes" to the Google auto-notification setting, Google will be notified each time the sitemap is generated. The Yahoo sitemap must be manually submitted to http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request/.

• Google Sitemap files are gzipped
• Forum and thread pages are listed with pagination (i.e. all pages for each forums/thread are included in the sitemap)
• Maximum Priority is set for Sticky threads.
• Optimization for sitemap generation on large forums.

Automated Reporting Tool
============================

The vBSEO Sitemap includes a report tool, allowing you to track your progress. To access your reports enter the following URL:

http://www.example.com/forums/vbseo_sitemap/

NOTE: Replace "http://www.example.com/forums/" with the full URL to your vB forum root.


You will be required to login by providing your "Sitemap Interface Access Password" from your vBSEO Sitemap settings in:

• vBulletin Admin CP (for 3.5.x/3.6.x/3.7.x/3.8.x users) OR
• vbseo_sitemap.php configuration file (for 3.0.x users) located in the vbseo_sitemap directory in your forum root.

Once you successfully login, you will be provided with a list of 'Useful Links'. Here are the 4 main links:

Show Reports List
The 'Show Reports List' link will display a report of each time your vBSEO Sitemap generator executed, including the (1) date, (2) run time, (3) total URLs included, and (4) and change in # of URLs included from the last generation.

Each vBSEO Sitemap generation record will include a (1) "View details" and (2) "Remove record" link. The "View Details" link shows more detailed information about the sitemap generated. The "Remove record" will permanently delete the record from your reports.

Show Sitemap Downloads Log
The 'Show Sitemap Downloads Log' link will display a report of each time your vBSEO Sitemap was downloaded by either a search engine (GoogleBot or Yahoo) or by another user agent (i.e. Web browser, etc.).

The report includes the (1) date, (2) name of sitemap file downloaded, (3) Bot, (4) IP address of the downloader, and the (5) User-agent.

Each vBSEO Sitemap download record will include a "Remove record" link which will permanently delete the record from your reports.

Run Sitemap Generator
The 'Run Sitemap Generator' link will automatically regenerate your Google and Yahoo sitemaps.

Your Forums Homepage
The 'Your Forums Homepage' link is a quick link back to your forum homepage.

Additional Links
Additional links to various other related SEO resources are also included.


Click "Install"
============================

Please click "Install" to show your support for this script.


Installation & Configuration for vB 3.5.x, 3.6.x, 3.7.x and 3.8.x as a Plugin
============================

Follow the installation/upgrade instructions provided in the docs/readme.html file.


Google Webmaster Accounts
============================

It is NOT required for you to have a Google Webmaster account to run the vBulletin Google Sitemaps plugin. If you decide to setup an account for testing purposes you can do so here:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login?sourceid=gsm&subid=us-et-about2


Copyright & Licensing

============================

• vBSEO Google Sitemaps plugin is copyright protected by Crawlability Inc.
• You are free to download and install this plugin on any vBulletin forum for which you hold a valid vB license.
• Unauthorized distribution of any code and/or documentation, whole or in part, included here is strictly prohibited.
• In addition, the following copyright notice must be maintained.

vBSEO(TM) ? 2005-2009 Crawlability, Inc.


Revision History
============================

02/22/2009 - Version 2.5 Released

NEW FEATURE: Blog tags URLs are included.
NEW FEATURE: Social Group Discussion URLs are included.
NEW FEATURE: Smart Priority applied for the following URL types

1. Show Post
2. Member Profiles
3. Forum Display
4. Poll Results
5. Blog Entries
6. Member Profile Albums
7. Social Groups
8. Social Groups Discussions
9. Social Group Pictures
10. Tags
11. Blog Tags

UPDATE: Compatible with vBulletin 3.8.x. Includes the following updated settings:

1. Priority Range - Show Post
2. Priority Range - Member Profiles
3. Priority Range - Forum Display
4. Priority Range - Poll Results
5. Priority Range - Show Thread
6. Priority Range - Blog Entries
7. Priority Range - Member Profile Albums
8. Priority Range - Social Groups
9. Priority Range - Social Group Pictures
10. Priority Range - Tags

Fix: Social Group Discussion database error is fixed.

Upgrade Instructions
============================

(1) Follow the installation/upgrade instructions provided in the docs/readme.html file.

(2) For versions of vBulletin 3.6.x only: Open "Schedule Manager" in the vBulletin Admin Control Panel (admincp); Remove existing scheduled task for Sitemap Generator if you have one.
Note: The new task will be automatically setup when you import the XML product file.

Other vBSEO Plugins

============================

• vBSEO - vBulletin Search Engine Optimization
  
• vBSEO Conditional Signatures for vBulletin

vBSEO Affiliate Program
============================

We welcome you to join the vBSEO Affiliate Program.

[ATVTorture]

Makes perfect sense. Thanks for the tip. Re-ran it the way you suggested to get it updated.

I have another question. I noticed in a lot forums that many people submit multiple sitemaps for one domain URL like sitemap_1, sitemap_2, sitemap_3, etc.. What is the purpose of this and are they getting a whole differnet set of URLs?

Thanks!
Buster

[iojam]

You should only submit sitemap_index.xml.gz - it includes links to all your sitemap files (sitemap_X.xml.gz)

[ATVTorture]

Well when I look in that file, all it shows is sitemap_1.xml.gz. So what's the difference? I guess I don't understand the purpose of multiple sitemap files. I also don't see what generates multiple ones since the sitemap generator only creates one by default.

Is there some advantage to multiple ones and if so, what do the differnet ones point to differently than just one?

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

Buster

[iojam]

In case if you have many URLs vBSEO Sitemap Generator will separate them on multiple file (default setting is 20,000 URLs max per file).

[nca]

I keep running the generate link from the control panel and it says that everything ran fine. But when I go through FTP to the site the files it said it created are nowhere to be found.

Here is the output it gives me:

[homepage] [4,875.7Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[SECTION START] forumdisplay [4,875.8Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 4, total threads: 0, pages: 1 [4,875.9Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 3, total threads: 0, pages: 1 [4,894.5Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 5, total threads: 409, pages: 21 [4,894.8Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 6, total threads: 97, pages: 5 [4,896.9Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 7, total threads: 93, pages: 5 [4,899.5Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 8, total threads: 46, pages: 3 [4,900.9Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 9, total threads: 83, pages: 5 [4,902.1Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 10, total threads: 110, pages: 6 [4,903.3Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 11, total threads: 130, pages: 7 [4,905.0Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 12, total threads: 85, pages: 5 [4,907.1Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 13, total threads: 35, pages: 2 [4,909.1Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 14, total threads: 197, pages: 10 [4,910.8Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 15, total threads: 16, pages: 1 [4,913.9Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 16, total threads: 29, pages: 2 [4,917.2Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 17, total threads: 56, pages: 3 [4,917.9Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 18, total threads: 119, pages: 6 [4,919.0Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[SECTION START] showthread [4,921.1Kb mem used] [0s (+0s)]
[archive homepage] [5,037.5Kb mem used] [3s (+3s)]
[SECTION START] forumdisplay archived [5,038.4Kb mem used] [3s (+0s)]
[SECTION START] member [5,048.7Kb mem used] [3s (+0s)]
[create sitemap file] filename: sitemap_1.xml.gz, number of urls: 25000 [4,905.4Kb mem used] [3s (+1s)]
[create sitemap in text format] part #2 [4,905.3Kb mem used] [3s (+0s)]
[SECTION START] polls [5,115.4Kb mem used] [4s (+1s)]
[SECTION START] blogs [5,134.0Kb mem used] [4s (+0s)]
[SECTION START] albums [5,136.7Kb mem used] [4s (+0s)]
[SECTION START] groups [5,136.8Kb mem used] [4s (+0s)]
[SECTION START] tags [5,137.4Kb mem used] [4s (+0s)]
[create sitemap file] filename: sitemap_2.xml.gz, number of urls: 2410 [4,909.0Kb mem used] [4s (+0s)]
[create sitemap in text format] part #3 [4,908.9Kb mem used] [4s (+0s)]
[create sitemap index] filename: sitemap_index.xml.gz, number of sitemaps: 2 [4,909.3Kb mem used] [4s (+0s)]
Sitemap has been created. Click here to return [4,905.6Kb mem used] [4s (+0s)]

But again when I go looking for the sitemaps it said it created I cannot locate them. A click on the link to view the google and yahoo ones just gives a 404 error.



Here is my .htaccess file:

# Comment the following line (add '#' at the beginning)

# to disable mod_rewrite functions.

# Please note: you still need to disable the hack in

# the vBSEO control panel to stop url rewrites.

RewriteEngine On



# Some servers require the Rewritebase directive to be

# enabled (remove '#' at the beginning to activate)

# Please note: when enabled, you must include the path

# to your root vB folder (i.e. RewriteBase /forums/)

#RewriteBase /



#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.yourdomain\.com

#RewriteRule (.*) http://www.yourdomain.com/forums/$1 [L,R=301]



RewriteRule ^((urllist|sitemap).*\.(xml|txt)(\.gz)?)$ vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php?sitemap=$1 [L]



RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(admincp/|modcp/|cron)

RewriteRule ^((archive/)?(.*\.php(/.*)?)?)$ vbseo.php [L,QSA]



RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^(admincp|modcp|clientscript|cpstyles|images)/

RewriteRule ^(.+)$ vbseo.php [L,QSA]

[iojam]

What exactly is your sitemap URL?
Try to change this line:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(admincp/|modcp/|cron)
to:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(admincp/|modcp/|cron|vbseo_sitemap/)

[nca]

It worked! thank you iojam!!

Now when I visit the forum in firefox there are no google adsense ads anywhere to be found. Would this sitemap generator affect the ads in the pages?

here the the forum:
http://forum.horseville.com

the is the page for example:
http://forum.horseville.com/intros/1...ggestions.html
When viewed with IE it shows the ads, when viewed with firefox no ads are to be found.

[dholt]

will this work with 3.8.0

[buro9]

Originally Posted by chadi

I manually ran the task and got this:

Database error in vBulletin 3.8.1:

Invalid SQL:

                 SELECT count(*)as cnt,max(dateline) as lastupdate
                 FROM groupmessage
                 WHERE groupid='1';

MySQL Error   : Unknown column 'groupid' in 'where clause'
Error Number  : 1054
Request Date  : Friday, January 30th 2009 @ 09:45:06 PM
Error Date    : Friday, January 30th 2009 @ 09:45:09 PM
Script        : http://www.talkjesus.com/xxxxx/cronadmin.php?do=runcron&cronid=56
Referrer      : http://www.talkjesus.com/xxxxx/cronadmin.php?do=modify
IP Address    : xxxxx
Username      : Chad
Classname     : vB_Database
MySQL Version : 5.0.67-community

Originally Posted by iojam

Check this please: http://www.vbseo.com/f67/error-durin...50/#post190403

Solved my problem too... good work.

[steven.hartland]

First off the fix for vb 3.8.2 as the group changes break the base code:-

--- vbseo_sitemap_functions.php.orig    2009-02-06 14:57:36.000000000 +0000
+++ vbseo_sitemap_functions.php 2009-02-06 14:59:58.000000000 +0000
@@ -569,6 +569,7 @@
                $tcount = $db->query_first("
                        SELECT count(*)as cnt,max(dateline) as lastupdate
-                       FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "groupmessage
-                       WHERE groupid='$rrow[groupid]'
+                       FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "discussion d, " . TABLE_PREFIX . "groupmessage g
+                       WHERE d.groupid='$rrow[groupid]'
+                               AND g.discussionid = d.discussionid
                ");
                $pcount = ceil($tcount['cnt']/$vboptions['vm_perpage']);

Next up we are getting a load of garbage in our sitemap even the zcat cant read the files:-

sh -c ' for i in *.gz; do echo $i; zcat $i | head; done' > 1
zcat: sitemap_21.xml.gz: trailing garbage ignored
zcat: sitemap_24.xml.gz: trailing garbage ignored
zcat: sitemap_27.xml.gz: trailing garbage ignored
zcat: sitemap_30.xml.gz: trailing garbage ignored
zcat: data stream error
zcat: sitemap_31.xml.gz: uncompress failed
zcat: data stream error
zcat: sitemap_34.xml.gz: uncompress failed
zcat: sitemap_36.xml.gz: trailing garbage ignored
zcat: data stream error
zcat: sitemap_37.xml.gz: uncompress failed
zcat: data stream error
zcat: sitemap_39.xml.gz: uncompress failed
zcat: sitemap_42.xml.gz: trailing garbage ignored
zcat: urllist.txt.gz: not in gzip format

Even some of the files that can be decompress are corrupt internally with invalid xml e.g. the data of the lastmod appearing in the url and missing close tags all over.

Has anyone seen this sort of corruption before?

We are running the following:-

PHP 5.2.6 with Suhosin-Patch 0.9.6.2 (cli) (built: Sep 18 2008 16:29:55) 
Copyright (c) 1997-2008 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2008 Zend Technologies
    with Zend Extension Manager v1.2.2, Copyright (c) 2003-2007, by Zend Technologies
    with Zend Optimizer v3.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2007, by Zend Technologies

apache-2.2.8        Version 2.2 of Apache web server with prefork MPM.

FreeBSD loncore1.multiplay.co.uk 7.0-RELEASE-p2 FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE-p2 #9: Mon Jun 30 17:43:02 BST 2008