Configuring the Search Sitemap portlet for search by external search engines

The Search Sitemap portlet generates a navigable list of all public pages of the portal. You can configure the Search Sitemap portlet to determine the limit to the number of links that are displayed per page.

About this task

HCL Digital Experience provides the Search Sitemap portlet. It serves two purposes:
  • You can use the Search Sitemap portlet to navigate the portal site. For more information, see Managing pages.
  • The Search Sitemap portlet enables external search crawlers to collect portal pages more efficiently. This topic gives more information about configuring the Search Sitemap portlet for search by external search engines.
Note: The Search Sitemap portlet can use a large amount of session memory on the portal server if the MAX_LINKS value is not properly configured. If you plan on showing the portlet to users, leave the MAX_LINK value as the default value of 50 to reduce the total amount of session memory used by the MAX_LINKS portlet. If you plan on showing the portlet only to search crawlers, you can set the MAX_LINKS value to a higher number. Monitor memory usage on the system if you do set MAX_LINKS to a higher number.
The Search Sitemap portlet generates a list of all public pages of the portal. You can configure the Search Sitemap portlet to determine the limit to the number of links per page. The Search Sitemap portlet lists portal pages to that maximum figure per page and then starts a new page. Set this figure to a maximum of 50 - 200 links per page for the portal site. For example, the Google search engine recommends fewer than 100 links per page.

Procedure

Configure the maximum number of links per page for search of the portal by setting the value for the parameter MAX_LINKS in the portlet preferences. Either use the Manage Portlets administration portlet or update the portlet preferences in the portlet.xml file of the Search Sitemap portlet. You can also enable URI home substitution.
OptionDescription
Using the administration portlet Manage Applications Use this option to update the MAX_LINKS parameter for the Search Sitemap portlet.
  1. To open the Manage Portlets portlet, click the Administration menu icon.
  2. Then, click Portlet Management > Applications.
  3. Locate the Search Sitemap portlet by searching for wp.ap.sitemap.
  4. Click the Configure portlet application icon for the Search Sitemap portlet.
  5. Add the MAX_LINKS parameter by typing it in the New parameter: field.
  6. Click OK to save your updates.
Updating the portlet preferences in the portlet.xml file of the Search Sitemap portlet Use this option to set the general default for the parameter MAX_LINKS.
  1. Locate the WAR file of the Search Sitemap portlet in your portal installation. The WAR file is named sitemap.war.
  2. Edit the file portlet.xml in that WAR file.
  3. In the section portlet-preferences set the parameter MAX_LINKS to the required value, for example 50. Refer to this example code snippet:
    <portlet-preferences>
     <preference>
          <name>MAX_LINKS</name>
          <value>50</value>
     </preference>  
</portlet-preferences>
  4. Redeploy the Search Sitemap portlet.
  5. Restart your portal.
Enable the Export Search Sitemap button Set the EXPORT parameter to true to enable the Search Sitemap portlet to provide an Export Search Sitemap button. The Export Search Sitemap button can export a sitemap of all public pages available to anonymous users. The format is compliant with the Sitemap 0.90 format (www.sitemaps.org). To make the exported document accessible to crawlers through a web server, copy the file to the respective folder managed by the portal server. For example, store the file in the document root folder of the web server.
Use this option to set the general default for the parameter EXPORT.
  1. Locate the WAR file of the Search Sitemap portlet in your portal installation. The WAR file is named sitemap.war.
  2. Edit the file portlet.xml in that WAR file.
  3. In the section portlet-preferences set the parameter EXPORT to the required value, for example true. Refer to this example code snippet:
    <portlet-preferences>
     <preference>
          <name>EXPORT</name>
          <value>true</value>
     </preference>  
</portlet-preferences>
  4. Redeploy the Search Sitemap portlet.
  5. Restart your portal.
Enable URI home substitution Use this option to allow the public links that are generated by the Search Sitemap portlet to redirect to the protected page if a user session exists.
  1. Log in to the WebSphere® Integrated Solutions Console.
  2. Go to Resources > Resource Environment > Resource Environment Providers > WP ConfigService > Custom properties.
  3. Click New....
  4. For the name, set uri.home.substitution.
  5. For the value, set true.
  6. Apply and save the changes.
  7. If you have a cluster configuration, synchronize the nodes.
  8. Restart your portal.

Results

What to do next

Note: The Search Sitemap portlet lists only public pages of your portal that users can access without logging in to the portal with a user ID and password. Secured portal pages are not available for search by anonymous users. Therefore, they are not listed by the Search Sitemap portlet.

Search on your portal by external search engines requires more configuration. For more information, see Search by external search services and Client identification for search of the portal by external search engines.