Is an external sitemap an option?

[GrandmaJ]

I have been having a difficult time customizing Zen Cart to match my site (MY fault, not Zen's) and so my Zen site is nowhere ready to "go live". I thought that tonight I would go ahead and start adding my own categories into Zen and customizing the product layouts, but it seemed logical to get the Zen sitemap layout the way I wanted it first (thus new products go in where I want them in the layout as I add them). The problem is, I don't think it can be done.

Our current sitemap in the static html site is here:
http://www.puppycoatjunction.com/Sitemap.html

and what Zen Cart is producing by default is here:
http://www.puppycoatjunction.com/cat..._page=site_map

You can see my delima. I think I *might* be able to get the side columns shut off using info from threads I've saved from the forums. But there's the also the fact that I need a 2-column sitemap, I do have different fonts for section titles, and there's that darned Information image showing at the bottom (obviously it's picking that up from my sidebox for some reason). I've looked at the tpl_site_map_default.php, but it's mostly over my head. The best I can decipher, I can use it to comment out the links I don't want, and that's about it.

Am I crazy, or have I actually stumbled across a part of my site that isn't going to be able to be replicated in Zen Cart? And if so, what might the impact be (as far as Google crawling & placing my site) if I keep the old html sitemap and just have the links pointing into Zen cart pages?

[gjh42]

You absolutely do not need to go outside ZC for the sitemap.

First, to disable the sidebars on the sitemap page, edit your /includes/templates/your_template/common/tpl_main_page.php.
Around line 40, find

// the following IF statement can be duplicated/modified as needed to set additional flags
  if (in_array($current_page_base,explode(",",'list_pages_to_skip_all_right_sideboxes_on_here,separated_by_commas,and_no_spaces')) ) {
    $flag_disable_right = true;
  } 

Add
site_map,
and
$flag_disable_left = true;
as shown to get

// the following IF statement can be duplicated/modified as needed to set additional flags
  if (in_array($current_page_base,explode(",",'site_map,list_pages_to_skip_all_right_sideboxes_on_here,separated_by_commas,and_no_spaces')) ) {
    $flag_disable_left = true;
    $flag_disable_right = true;
  } 

This will give you no sideboxes on your sitemap page. (It won't hurt to leave the instruction text in the statement for a future reminder.)

Getting the map in two columns will be a bit more involved and I can't tell you how to do that offhand, but there are others who can. It will probably be related to what it will take to display wearables and supplies in two separate sidebar menus as you appear to desire.

Do you *really* want to show every single product in your catalog in your sitemap? IMO, it bloats the page and makes it harder to see the layout of your site at a glance.

[GrandmaJ]

Thank you very much, that worked perfectly

As for displaying every product on the map, we didn't used to do that, but then nothing but the home page was getting indexed by Google either. After adding the product list map, their spider ate it up like candy and now product pages are starting to show up too.
In watching the site stats this past few months, we've actually got traffic coming into the site by way of the map itself too now, so I supposed it's a "neccessary evil."