How are SharePoint (ASP) SiteMaps updated?

Question

So there are a gazillion of different SiteMap providers in SharePoint:

• SPNavigationProvider
• SPSiteMapProvider
• SPContentMapProvider
• SPXmlContentMapProvider
• SPXmlAdminContentMapProvider
• CombinedNavSiteMapProvider
• CurrentNavSiteMapProvider

To name a few. I found some tutorials on how to create my own SiteMap - all of them describe how I would in the end create an XML file with the SiteMapNodes with fixed URLs. When someone renames a page, my SiteMap will not be updated, hence broken!?

How is SharePoint updating its navigation menus (SiteMaps)? Is there a secret timer job running? Is this ASP.NET standard? How would I implement my own self-updating sitemap?

Answer 1

Sharepoint maintains its sitemap in database and not in xml.The database is updated as soon as you create new list or page.

If you want to create a self updating XML sitemap for specific items like pages or sites, you can do it with custom event receivers. For updating xml when:

1. New pages are added\deleted : Write SPItemEventReceiver
2. New Lists are added\deleted :Write SPListEventReceiver
3. New webs are added\deleted: Write SPWebEventReceiver

If you want to update xml for everything, Write a timer job to read from PortalSiteMapProvider. You can programmatically enumerate the sitemapnodes in any of the PortalSiteMapProvider implementations you listed above and write it to xml sitemap file.