sitemap
<entry-title>Sitemap</entry-title>
Authors
Problem
Enable the automatic generation of a number of different sitemap and related mechanisms from existing HTML by specifying a minimal amount of semantic information.
Examples that could be generated:
- sitemap.xml
- HTML sitemap for usability/accessibility
- HTML5 cache manifest
Countless sites contain HTML navigation constructs which already detail all/most of the information required to build an HTML sitemap or cache manifest, and parts of the information required to build a sitemap.xml file.
Typically these constructs leverage link elements which conveniently expose an 'href' attribute. Add a way to specify 'priority' and maybe 'changefreq' and enough would be in place for machines to build a sitemap.xml.
Currently the alternative is to either write a site map manually, or supply information to a generator (the said data being disconnected from your site).
Useful metadata could be generated by machines or browser plugins with both leveraging a simple microformat.
Existing standards
The sitemap protocol is very simple.
Proposal
Per the microformats process: