How to add custom xml tags to sitemap.xml using mvcsitemapprovider?

Question

Based on what Google defines in Video sitemaps , There are some xml tags should be added to sitemaps for videos, and it should be like this:

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
    xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1">
<url>
 <loc>http://www.example.com/videos/some_video_landing_page.html</loc>
 <video:video>
   <video:thumbnail_loc>http://www.example.com/thumbs/123.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
   <video:title>Grilling steaks for summer</video:title>
   <video:description>Alkis shows you how to get perfectly done steaks every
     time</video:description>
   <video:content_loc>http://www.example.com/video123.mp4</video:content_loc>
   <video:player_loc autoplay="ap=1">
     http://www.example.com/videoplayer.mp4?video=123</video:player_loc>
   <video:duration>600</video:duration>
   <video:expiration_date>2009-11-05T19:20:30+08:00</video:expiration_date>
   <video:rating>4.2</video:rating>
   <video:view_count>12345</video:view_count>
   <video:publication_date>2007-11-05T19:20:30+08:00</video:publication_date>
   <video:family_friendly>yes</video:family_friendly>
   <video:restriction relationship="allow">IE GB US CA</video:restriction>
   <video:gallery_loc title="Cooking Videos">http://cooking.example.com</video:gallery_loc>
   <video:price currency="EUR">1.99</video:price>
   <video:requires_subscription>yes</video:requires_subscription>
   <video:uploader info="http://www.example.com/users/grillymcgrillerson">GrillyMcGrillerson
     </video:uploader>
   <video:live>no</video:live>
 </video:video>

I would like to know how is it possible to add these custom tags dynamically to my sitemap.xml?I am using mvcsitemapprovider

Answer 1

well, I could not use the mvcsitemapprovider to achieve my goal yet, but I made this temporary solution and I am trying to make nuget package from it or add it as a feature to the mvcsitemapprovider package, here is the code I added to an ContentResult in a controller and I changed my routeConfig to call this method when the url is look like this "/videoSiteMap.xml" :

public ContentResult VideoSiteMap()
    {
        XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
        using (XmlWriter writer = xmlDoc.CreateNavigator().AppendChild())
        {
            //writer.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;
            writer.WriteStartDocument();
            writer.WriteStartElement("urlset", "http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9");

            // add namespaces
            writer.WriteAttributeString("xmlns", "video", null, "http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1");
            List<VideoSiteMap> siteMapp = null;
            siteMapp = ServiceHelper.GetGoogleSiteMap();//I invoked a service
            //you can use a fake loop instead: for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
            foreach( var content in siteMapp)
            {
                writer.WriteStartElement("url");

                // required
                writer.WriteElementString("loc", "http://example.com/myplayer.aspx");
                writer.WriteStartElement("video", "video", null);

                // start:optional
                writer.WriteElementString("video", "thumbnail_loc", null, "http://www.example.com/thumbs/123.jpg");
                writer.WriteElementString("video", "title", null, "");
                writer.WriteElementString("video", "description", null, "Alkis shows you how to get perfectly done steaks every time");
                writer.WriteElementString("video", "content_loc", null, "http://www.example.com/video123.mp4");

                writer.WriteStartElement("video", "player_loc", null);
                writer.WriteAttributeString("autoplay", "ap=1");
                writer.WriteString("http://www.example.com/videoplayer.mp4?video=123");
                writer.WriteEndElement(); // video:player_loc
                                          // end:optional

                writer.WriteElementString("video", "duration", null, "100");
                writer.WriteElementString("video", "expiration_date", null, "2009-11-05T19:20:30+08:00");
                writer.WriteElementString("video", "rating", null, "4.2");
                writer.WriteElementString("video", "view_count", null, "12345");
                writer.WriteElementString("video", "publication_date", null, "2007-11-05T19:20:30+08:00");
                writer.WriteElementString("video", "family_friendly", null, "yes");
                writer.WriteElementString("video", "category", null, "Cooking");

                writer.WriteStartElement("video", "restriction", null);
                writer.WriteAttributeString("relationship", "allow");
                writer.WriteString("IE GB US CA");
                writer.WriteEndElement();

                writer.WriteStartElement("video", "gallery_loc", null);
                writer.WriteAttributeString("title", "Cooking Videos");
                writer.WriteString("http://cooking.example.com");
                writer.WriteEndElement();

                writer.WriteStartElement("video", "price", null);
                writer.WriteAttributeString("currency", "EUR");
                writer.WriteString("1.99");
                writer.WriteEndElement();

                writer.WriteElementString("video", "requires_subscription", null, "yes");

                writer.WriteStartElement("video", "uploader", null);
                writer.WriteAttributeString("info", "http://www.example.com/users/grillymcgrillerson");
                writer.WriteString("GrillyMcGrillerson");
                writer.WriteEndElement();

                writer.WriteElementString("video", "live", null, "No");

                writer.WriteEndElement(); // video:video
                writer.WriteEndElement(); //url
            }

            writer.WriteEndElement(); //urlset 
            writer.WriteEndDocument();
            writer.Close();
        }

        var stringWriter = new StringWriter();
        var xmlTextWriter = XmlWriter.Create(stringWriter);
        xmlDoc.WriteTo(xmlTextWriter);
        xmlTextWriter.Flush();
        return Content(stringWriter.GetStringBuilder().ToString().replace("utf-16","utf-8"), "text/xml", Encoding.UTF8);

    }

I replaced utf-16 with utf-8 while returning my xml data because I could not find an easier way to change XmlWriter's result (by default it always returns a utf-16 format)

I hope it help the others, I will be glad if someone help me to make it a nuget package or something :D

Answer 2

since the XML sitemap functionality was not the main purpose of MvcSiteMapProvider but an "extra" feature, it was not made very flexible.

I started working on creating a general purpose way to build (and page) XML sitemaps and support the full spec of Google (including videos). But realized that this should be a completely separate component than MvcSiteMapProvider, and never released it. You are welcome to take what you need from here.