The sitemap.json file defines the layout for the web content, pages, and
portlets in your site. As the file extension suggests, sitemap.json uses JSON
syntax, so if you are familiar with JSON you should be able to navigate your way
through the sitemap fairly easy. If you are not familiar with JSON syntax, don’t
worry, the sitemap will be explained in further detail.
Since the sitemap.json file was already created when you copied the contents
of the resources-importer folder, you don’t need to do anything to implement.
Here’s what it does.
The code below adds a Welcome and About Us page using the default layout template and populates the pages with web content articles:
{
"layoutTemplateId": "1_column",
"layouts": [
{
"name": "Welcome",
"title": "Welcome",
"friendlyURL": "/home",
"columns": [
[
"carousel.xml",
"Welcome to the Lunar Resort.html",
"Amenities.html",
"2 column description.html"
]
]
},
{
"name": "About Us",
"title": "About Us",
"friendlyURL": "/about-us",
"columns": [
[
"About Us Info.html"
]
]
}
The sitemap starts out by defining a default layout template ID for the pages.
You can find layout template IDs in the layouttpl folder in your Liferay
bundle. Next, the pages, referred to as layouts in the sitemap, are organized.
The page is then given a name, a title, and a friendly URL.
Next, the web content is organized under the columns section. Columns refers
to the columns in the layout template. Since the Welcome page uses the default
1_column layout, the layoutTemplateId doesn’t need to be specified. Since
the page uses a one column layout, the web content articles are all placed
within the same set of brackets[. As with an image in a web content
article, you reference the web content by the name of the file in the Resources
Importer.
The layout below adds an Activities page with a Rover Racing child page and populates them with web content:
{
"name": "Activities",
"title": "Activities",
"friendlyURL": "/activities",
"columns":[
[
"Activities Info.html",
"Activities Links.html"
]
],
"layouts":[
{
"name": "Rover Racing",
"title": "Rover Racing",
"friendlyURL": "/rover-racing",
"columns": [
[
"Rover Racing Article.html"
]
]
},
As you can see, to create a child page, you use the same layouts syntax that
you would use to create a parent page. The layouts configuration for the child
page is placed within the parent page’s configuration.
The following code adds two portlets to the page and defines its own layout template.
{
"name": "Collaboration",
"title": "Collaboration",
"friendlyURL": "/collaboration",
"layoutTemplateId": "2_columns",
"columns": [
[
{
"portletId": "36"
}
],
[
{
"portletId": "115"
}
]
]
}
Portlets are defined within the layout template columns like the web content
articles, with just a slight variation in syntax. They are referenced by their
portlet ID, which you can find in the portlet-custom.xml inside your Liferay
bundle. A layoutTemplateId is set for the page because it does not use the
default template ID that was defined at the top of the sitemap.
The following code creates a page hidden from the navigation menu and adds a web content article and a custom portlet to the page.
{
"name": "Reservation",
"title": "Reservation",
"friendlyURL": "/reservation",
"hidden": "true",
"columns":[
[
"Reservation Form.html",
{
"portletId": "guestbook_WAR_guestbookportlet"
}
]
]
}
Portlet plugins are defined the same way core portlets, such as the Web Content
Display portlet, are defined, and their IDs are defined in their own
portlet.xml files. They follow an easy to remember pattern:
portletName_WAR_projectName. In order for the portlet to be assigned an ID it
has to be deployed first. You took care of this in the last section of the
Learning Path.
You should now have a better understanding of the sitemap.json file. There’s
one last file to configure, liferay-plugin-package.properties, which you’ll
work with in the next section.