XML Sitemap Generator: Technical Details

Technical details of the XML Sitemap Generator for OXID eShop 7: generated files, XML structure, actual flow, classes, multi-language behaviour, database table, lifecycle and limits.

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XML Sitemap Generator: Technical Details

Generated files

All files are located in the output directory. With the default settings that is source/export/:

source/export/
├── sitemap.xml                 # sitemap index
├── sitemap-products.xml        # products
├── sitemap-categories.xml      # categories
├── sitemap-cms.xml             # CMS pages
├── sitemap-manufacturers.xml   # manufacturers
└── sitemap-static.xml          # static URLs (only with the setting enabled)

At most one file is created per type. For products, categories, CMS pages and manufacturers it contains at most 50,000 URLs, the static sitemap has no limit. File names with numbers such as sitemap-products-1.xml are not produced by the module. The directory source/export/sitemap, which is created on activation, stays empty with the default settings.

XML structure

Every URL is written with loc, lastmod, changefreq and priority:

<url>
  <loc>https://shop.example.com/product-page/</loc>
  <lastmod>2026-01-15</lastmod>
  <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
  <priority>0.8</priority>
</url>

lastmod comes from the object's oxtimestamp in the format Y-m-d. If the value is empty or invalid, the date of the generation is used
With hreflang enabled, xhtml:link entries with rel="alternate" are added, and the xhtml namespace is set only when such entries occur
Products get image:image entries with image:loc and, if the product title is not empty, image:title. The image namespace is set only when images occur
The index sitemap.xml contains loc and lastmod (date of the generation) per file

According to its own documentation, Google does not evaluate changefreq and priority, and lastmod only if the values are reliable. The module writes the fields anyway because the sitemap protocol provides them.

Defaults per type

Type	`changefreq`	`priority`
Products	`weekly`	`0.8`
Categories	`weekly`	`0.7`
CMS pages	`monthly`	`0.5`
Manufacturers	`monthly`	`0.6`
Static URLs	value of the entry, otherwise `monthly`	value of the entry, otherwise `0.5`

Flow

graph TD
    A["GenerateSitemapCommand"] --> B["Read settings and languages"]
    B --> C["GenerateSitemapService"]
    C --> D["Query service per type"]
    D --> E["HreflangService (optional)"]
    E --> F["UrlBuilderService"]
    D --> F
    F --> G["XmlWriterService"]
    G --> H["FileWriterService"]
    H --> I["sitemap-type.xml"]
    I --> J["Sitemap index sitemap.xml"]

The module works without a cache, without compression (.xml.gz), without pinging search engines and without a scheduler of its own. Every generation reads the data from the database again and overwrites the files.

Classes

Class	Task
`Command\GenerateSitemapCommand`	Console command `mmd:sitemap:generate`, options, language and type selection, output
`Service\Command\GenerateSitemapService`	Orchestrates query, hreflang, URL building, XML and writing, creates the index
`Service\Query\ProductQueryService`, `CategoryQueryService`, `CmsPageQueryService`, `ManufacturerQueryService`	Read the content with SQL against `oxarticles`, `oxcategories`, `oxcontents`, `oxmanufacturers` and `oxseo`
`Service\Query\StaticUrlQueryService`	Reads the table `mmd_sitemap_static_urls`
`Service\Domain\HreflangService`	Determines alternate language URLs from `oxseo`
`Service\Domain\UrlBuilderService`	Builds the URL with `lastmod`, `changefreq`, `priority` per record
`Service\Domain\XmlWriterService`	Creates sitemap and index XML with `DOMDocument`
`Service\Domain\FileWriterService`	Writes files, creates directories, deletes with `--clear`
`Service\Bridge\OxidConfigReader`, `OxidSettingsBridge`	Read the module settings as well as shop URL, languages and language URLs
`Core\Events`	Activation and deactivation
`Controller\Admin\*`	Admin overview and management of static URLs

Multi-language behaviour

Languages and their order come from the shop setting aLanguages, the language ID is the position in that list. Whether a language is active in the storefront is not checked
For each language the command queries the SEO URLs of that language and builds the addresses from the language URL (aLanguageURLs), falling back to the shop URL
The file name does not contain a language. Every language pass overwrites the file of the previous one, the language processed last remains
Hreflang (blHreflangEnabled) only takes effect if the shop has more than one language. For each object with at least two language URLs, alternates per language code are written. An x-default for the default language (sDefaultLang) is written only if the object has a URL in the default language

Database

The module creates only the table mmd_sitemap_static_urls (columns see Static URLs). All other data is read from the OXID tables without modifying them. It uses the shop's database connection as a PDO object.

Lifecycle

Event	Effect
Activation (`onActivate`)	Creates `source/export/sitemap` and the table `mmd_sitemap_static_urls` if they do not exist
Deactivation (`onDeactivate`)	No action, files and data are kept

There are no migrations. oe:module:apply-configuration only applies the module settings, not the table.

Limits

At most 50,000 URLs per file for products, categories, CMS pages and manufacturers, the rest is cut off (the setting iMaxUrls is not evaluated). The static sitemap has no limit
The file size is not checked, so the protocol limit of 50 MB is not monitored
The data of a type is loaded into memory completely and written to the file in a single write operation, there is no chunked writing
Several shops: shop URL, language list and static URLs always come from shop ID 1. With -s, the shop ID changes in the content queries and in the hreflang query
Product images are always included, the setting blImagesEnabled is not evaluated

Module structure

mmd/sitemap/                       # source/modules/mmd/sitemap
├── metadata.php                   # module ID mmd_sitemap, settings, events
├── services.yaml                  # services and console command
├── menu.xml                       # admin menu "Sitemap"
├── src/
│   ├── Command/                   # GenerateSitemapCommand
│   ├── Controller/Admin/          # overview, static URLs
│   ├── Core/Events.php            # activation/deactivation
│   ├── DTO/, Enum/, Model/        # value objects, types, StaticUrl model
│   └── Service/                   # Bridge, Query, Domain, Command
└── views/                         # admin templates and translations