Generating custom-named sitemaps in Magento

You’ve probably noticed that Magento has the ability to create XML Sitemaps from the admin interface.

Whilst it gives you the option to specify a name, do so, and it will automatically reject it with the error Path is not available and cannot be used. Why?

Magento has a way of restricting what files are allowed to be for public viewing – done within it’s own XML configuration.

I recently wanted to create a sitemap_en.xml and sitemap_de.xml for a client, but couldn’t do so because of this.

As the configuration is handled via XML, we can over-ride this and add our own exemptions in. To do this, create a module, and in the config.xml fil, add the following.

<default>
    <general>
        <file>
            <sitemap_generate_valid_paths>
                <available>
                    <en_path>/*/sitemap_en.xml</en_path>
                    <de_path>/*/sitemap_de.xml</de_path>
                </available>
            </sitemap_generate_valid_paths>
        </file>
    </general>
</default>

<file>

<sitemap_generate_valid_paths>

<en_path>/*/sitemap_en.xml</en_path>

<de_path>/*/sitemap_de.xml</de_path>

</available>

</sitemap_generate_valid_paths>

</file>

</general>

</default>

This will then allow the addition of the two files – sitemap_en.xml and sitemap_de.xml – within any folder structure of the site.

Of course, doing this means you do need to pre-define the filenames. If you add a new language for example, you’ll need to update the configuratiuon.

Image Credit: Images George Rex

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