Cookbook

How to Create a XML Sitemap in a Mvc-Based Application?

The following example shows one potential use case to render a XML sitemap within a laminas-mvc based application. The example uses a middleware as request handler and the Sitemap view helper.

The example is based on the laminas-mvc skeleton application.

Before starting, make sure laminas-navigation is installed and configured and also laminas-mvc-middleware.

Create Navigation Container Configuration

Add a container definition for the navigation to the configuration, e.g. config/autoload/global.php:

return [
    'navigation' => [
        'default' => [
            [
                'label' => 'Home',
                'route' => 'home',
            ],
            [
                'label' => 'Another page',
                'route' => 'application',
            ],
        ],
    ],
    // …
];

Create Request Handler

The Sitemap helper already creates all the XML content, so the rendering of the view layer can be omitted. With the custom response type Laminas\Diactoros\Response\XmlResponse the Content-Type header is set to application/xml.

Create a middleware class as request handler and inject the Sitemap helper via the constructor, e.g. module/Application/Handler/SitemapHandler.php:

namespace Application\Handler;

use Laminas\Diactoros\Response\XmlResponse;
use Laminas\View\Helper\Navigation\Sitemap;
use Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface;
use Psr\Http\Message\ServerRequestInterface;
use Psr\Http\Server\RequestHandlerInterface;

class SitemapHandler implements RequestHandlerInterface
{
    private Sitemap $sitemapHelper;

    public function __construct(Sitemap $sitemapHelper)
    {
        $this->sitemapHelper = $sitemapHelper;
    }

    public function handle(ServerRequestInterface $request): ResponseInterface
    {
        return new XmlResponse(
            $this->sitemapHelper->setContainer('default')->render()
        );
    }
}

Create Factory for Request Handler

Fetch the Navigation Proxy helper from the view helper manager and fetch the Sitemap helper from Proxy helper in a factory class, e.g. src/Application/Handler/SitemapHandlerFactory.php:

namespace Application\Handler;

use Laminas\View\Helper\Navigation as NavigationProxyHelper;
use Laminas\View\Helper\Navigation\Sitemap;
use Laminas\View\HelperPluginManager;
use Psr\Container\ContainerInterface;

class SitemapHandlerFactory
{
    public function __invoke(ContainerInterface $container): SitemapHandler
    {
        // View helper manager
        /** @var HelperPluginManager $viewHelperPluginManager */
        $viewHelperPluginManager = $container->get('ViewHelperManager');

        // Navigation view helper
        /** @var NavigationProxyHelper $navigationHelper */
        $navigationHelper = $viewHelperPluginManager->get(
            NavigationProxyHelper::class
        );

        // Sitemap view helper
        /** @var Sitemap $sitemapHelper */
        $sitemapHelper = $navigationHelper->findHelper(Sitemap::class);

        return new SitemapHandler($sitemapHelper);
    }
}

Register Middleware and Create Route

To register the middleware for the application and to create the route, extend the configuration of the module. Add the following lines to the module configuration file, e.g. module/Application/config/module.config.php:

namespace Application;

use Laminas\Mvc\Middleware\PipeSpec;
use Laminas\Router\Http\Literal;

return [
    'service_manager' => [
        'factories' => [
            // Add this line
            Handler\SitemapHandler::class => Handler\SitemapHandlerFactory::class,
        ],
    ],
    'router'          => [
        'routes' => [
            // Add following array
            'sitemap'     => [
                'type'    => Literal::class,
                'options' => [
                    'route'    => '/sitemap.xml',
                    'defaults' => [
                        'controller' => PipeSpec::class,
                        'middleware' => Handler\SitemapHandler::class,
                    ],
                ],
            ],
            // …
        ],
    ],
    // …
];

Render Sitemap

To render the sitemap, open a browser, e.g. http://localhost:8080/sitemap.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"><url><loc>http://localhost:8080/</loc></url><url><loc>http://localhost:8080/application</loc></url></urlset>

To format the output, which is useful for better reading only for humans, use the setFormatOutput method of the view helper:

return new XmlResponse(
    $this->sitemapHelper->setContainer('default')->setFormatOutput()->render()
);

Output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>http://localhost:8080/</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>http://localhost:8080/application</loc>
  </url>
</urlset>

Using a Controller

This all works with a classic controller as well. The Sitemap helper already creates all the XML content, so the rendering of the view layer can be also omitted here:

• Get the response object of the controller
• Set the HTTP header for XML content
• Set the rendered sitemap as content
• Return the response object for controller action

namespace Application\Controller;

use Laminas\Http\Response;
use Laminas\Mvc\Controller\AbstractActionController;
use Laminas\View\Helper\Navigation\Sitemap;

class IndexController extends AbstractActionController
{
    private Sitemap $sitemapHelper;

    public function __construct(Sitemap $sitemapHelper)
    {
        $this->sitemapHelper = $sitemapHelper;
    }

    public function sitemapAction(): Response
    {
        /** @var Response $response */
        $response = $this->getResponse();

        // Set HTTP header for XML content type
        $response->setHeaders(
            $response->getHeaders()->addHeaderLine(
                'Content-Type',
                'application/xml; charset=utf-8'
            )
        );

        // Render sitemap and set as content
        $response->setContent(
            $this->sitemapHelper->setContainer('default')->render()
        );

        // Return HTTP response
        return $response;
    }
}