Add image field to XML sitemap in Django

Question

Google recognizes an <image> tag for XML sitemaps (http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=178636), and I would like to include an image attribute into my sitemaps.

So, something like this is needed to get the cover_image and then loaded into the xml file:

for article in articles:
        print article.cover_image

I'd also need article.title loaded too for the <image:title> tag.

I've Googled and searched Stack Overflow for an example, but I surprisingly couldn't find any, so help appreciated.

My files so far:

## sitemaps.py ##
from django.contrib.sitemaps import Sitemap
from myproject.article.models import Article

class ArticleSitemap(Sitemap):
    priority = 1.0

    def items(self):
        return  Article.objects.order_by('-id').order_by('-pub_date')

    def lastmod(self, obj):
        return obj.pub_date

## urls.py ##
from myproject.sitemaps import ArticleSitemap

sitemaps = {
    "article": ArticleSitemap
}
urlpatterns += patterns ('',
    (r'^sitemap.xml$', 'django.contrib.sitemaps.views.sitemap', {'sitemaps': sitemaps})

Answer 1

It can be done by

1. Redefining get_urls method in your inherited class (add image information)
2. Change default template to the one which required to render image info

here is the code:

1. Add these methods in your class - these methods are almost same as defined in django's sitemap framework, but differ by the way it prepares data that need to be render in the template

   class MySItemapClass(Sitemap):
     def item():
        .........        
   
     def __get(self, name, obj, default=None):
       try:
         attr = getattr(self, name)
       except AttributeError:
         return default
       if callable(attr):
         return attr(obj)
       return attr
   
     def get_urls(self, page=1, site=None, protocol=None):
       # Determine protocol
       if self.protocol is not None:
         protocol = self.protocol
       if protocol is None:
         protocol = 'http'
   
       # Determine domain
       if site is None:
         if Site._meta.installed:
             try:
                 site = Site.objects.get_current()
             except Site.DoesNotExist:
                 pass
         if site is None:
             raise ImproperlyConfigured("To use sitemaps, either enable the sites framework or pass a Site/RequestSite object in your view.")
       domain = site.domain
   
       urls = []
       for item in self.paginator.page(page).object_list:
         loc = "%s://%s%s" % (protocol, domain, self.__get('location', item))
         priority = self.__get('priority', item, None)
         url_info = {
             'item':       item,
             'location':   loc,
             'lastmod':    self.__get('lastmod', item, None),
             'changefreq': self.__get('changefreq', item, None),
             'priority':   str(priority is not None and priority or ''),
             'images'   :   get_image(protocol, domain,item), # changed here
         }
         urls.append(url_info)
       return urls
   

define get_image method as you please

2. define your custom template. mine look like this - note change in defining namespaces("urlset")

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
     xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1">
   {% spaceless %}
   {% for url in urlset %}
     <url>
       <loc>{{ url.location }}</loc>
       {% if url.images %}
           {% for image in url.images %}
               <image:image>
                   <image:loc>{{image}}</image:loc>
               </image:image>
           {% endfor %}
       {% endif %}
       {% if url.lastmod %}<lastmod>{{ url.lastmod|date:"Y-m-d" }}</lastmod>{% endif %}
       {% if url.changefreq %}<changefreq>{{ url.changefreq }}</changefreq>{% endif %}
       {% if url.priority %}<priority>{{ url.priority }}</priority>{% endif %}
      </url>
   {% endfor %}
   {% endspaceless %}
   </urlset>
   

3. Override to use new template rather than the default template

   url(r'^sitemap-(?P<section>.+)\.xml$', 'django.contrib.sitemaps.views.sitemap', {'sitemaps': sitemaps,'template_name': 'seo/sitemap.xml'}),