Having ChatGPT write a Sitemap

byDurhamDave

3.7K followers

Updated 2 weeks ago

I asked ChatGPT to write some Sitemap code in php for one of my websites. This has 240+ posts and 140+ products on it.

I of course trialed it on a test site to make sure it worked before going live.

It took several iterations to get to where I wanted it to be. My site has Pages, Posts and Products, so I needed them all included, itemised and paginated. Here's my interaction with ChatGPT.

My original request was:

Me: "Can you write me some code to produce a site map in Wordpress that can be displayed on a page by using a shortcode. Please tell me which Wordpress file to insert the code into".

Then it needed several modifications to get to where I needed it. I won't provide the output after each prompt, but the finished code is at the end.

Me: "Modify the code to prevent the sitemap page itself being listed in the page where the shortcode is displayed"

Me: "Can you please modify the code to include posts as well as pages and segregate them with suitable headings"

Me: "This seems to only list 5 posts. Can you modify it to include all posts please?"

Me: "Please paginate the results"

Me: "Please format the pagination links to display all numbered pages by default"

Me: "Don't show it as a list!"

Me: "Can you recode so the pages only appear on page 1 rather than all of the pages?"

Me: "This doesn't work. The pages don't appear on the first page"

Me: "That works well. Can you include Products to the index as well please?"

Me: "Ok, this time only the pages and products show in the sitemap. You need to include the posts"

Me: "Thanks but that's still not quite right. The pagination needs to be at the end of the pages, posts and products map overall, not after each section. Can you correct that?"

ChatGPT eventually came up with the finished code, which can be seen in action here.

https://durhamukweather.com/sitemap-page/

It's very impressive that ChatGPT can produce such code, though it's important to test, test and test again to make sure everything works correctly.

If you do make changes to your Theme code, make sure to create a Child theme and make the changes there, so any core update to Wordpress doesn't overwrite the changes you made.

Has anyone had ChatGPT write code for your site? What did you do?

Happy ChatGPT-ing. 😎

Dave.

Finished Code (for reference)

// Create a shortcode to display the site map

function custom_sitemap_shortcode() {

// Get the current page ID

global $post;

$current_page_id = $post->ID;

$output = '<h2>Site Map</h2>';

// Determine if it's the first page

$paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;

$is_first_page = ($paged == 1);

// Store the sections in an array

$sections = array();

// Display pages only on the first page

if ($is_first_page) {

$pages_section = '<h3>Pages</h3>';

$pages_section .= '<ul>';

// Get all published pages excluding the current page

$pages = get_pages(array(

'exclude' => $current_page_id // Exclude the current page

));

foreach ($pages as $page) {

$pages_section .= '<li><a href="' . get_permalink($page->ID) . '">' . $page->post_title . '</a></li>';

}

$pages_section .= '</ul>';

$sections[] = $pages_section;

}

// Display posts

$posts_section = '<h3>Posts</h3>';

$posts_section .= '<ul>';

$posts_per_page = 5; // Number of posts per page

$args_posts = array(

'post_type' => 'post',

'post_status' => 'publish',

'posts_per_page' => $posts_per_page,

'paged' => $paged // Pagination parameter

);

$posts_query = new WP_Query($args_posts);

if ($posts_query->have_posts()) {

while ($posts_query->have_posts()) {

$posts_query->the_post();

$posts_section .= '<li><a href="' . get_permalink() . '">' . get_the_title() . '</a></li>';

}

}

$posts_section .= '</ul>';

$sections[] = $posts_section;

// Display products

$products_section = '<h3>Products</h3>';

$products_section .= '<ul>';

$products_per_page = 5; // Number of products per page

$args_products = array(

'post_type' => 'product',

'post_status' => 'publish',

'posts_per_page' => $products_per_page,

'paged' => $paged // Pagination parameter

);

$products_query = new WP_Query($args_products);

if ($products_query->have_posts()) {

while ($products_query->have_posts()) {

$products_query->the_post();

$products_section .= '<li><a href="' . get_permalink() . '">' . get_the_title() . '</a></li>';

}

}

$products_section .= '</ul>';

$sections[] = $products_section;

// Combine all sections

$output .= implode('', $sections);

// Pagination links

$output .= '<div class="pagination">';

$output .= paginate_links(array(

'total' => max($posts_query->max_num_pages, $products_query->max_num_pages),

'current' => $paged,

'prev_text' => __('« Previous'),

'next_text' => __('Next »'),

'mid_size' => -1, // Show all numbered pages

));

$output .= '</div>';

// Reset post data

wp_reset_postdata();

return $output;

}

add_shortcode('sitemap', 'custom_sitemap_shortcode');