OSMap Plugin

The OSMap - J2Commerce plugin connects your store to the Joomlashack OSMap sitemap component. Once installed, OSMap automatically discovers and lists every one of your J2Commerce product pages in both your XML sitemap (for search engines) and your HTML sitemap (for visitors). Each product appears exactly once — as its proper shop URL — so search engines never see the same product duplicated between your store and a plain Joomla article.

info

This plugin is a separate add-on available from the J2Commerce Extensions Store. It is not included with the core J2Commerce 6 component.

Prerequisites

Before installing, confirm the following are in place:

• J2Commerce 6 installed and active
• OSMap by Joomlashack installed and active. This plugin is an extension for OSMap — it will not function without it. OSMap is available from joomlashack.com.
• At least one J2Commerce product published, with a J2Commerce Products, Category, or Product Tags menu item created so OSMap has something to expand

Installation

1. Purchase and download the plg_osmap_j2commerce.zip package from the J2Commerce website.
2. Go to System -> Install -> Extensions.
3. Upload the plg_osmap_j2commerce.zip file.
4. The plugin installs and enables automatically.

Enable the Plugin

After installation, confirm the plugin is enabled:

1. Go to System -> Manage -> Plugins.
2. Search for OSMap - J2Commerce.
3. Verify the plugin shows a green checkmark. If not, click the status icon to enable it.

Configure the Plugin

Open the plugin settings by clicking its name in the plugin list.

The plugin has three settings on the Basic tab:

Settings Reference

Setting	Description	Default	Options
Product Priority	The sitemap priority value assigned to product pages. A value of 0.5 is a neutral middle priority. Choose Use Parent Menu Settings to inherit the priority from the OSMap menu item instead.	0.5	0.0 to 1.0, or Use Parent Menu Settings
Product Change Frequency	How often search engines are told your product pages change. Most stores update products less than daily, so Weekly is a safe default.	weekly	Always, Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, Never, Use Parent Menu Settings
Show Restricted Products	When set to No (the default), products that require login or a membership to view are hidden from the public sitemap. Set to Yes only if you intentionally want restricted products to appear in sitemaps shown to all visitors.	No	Yes / No

tip

Leave Show Restricted Products set to No. Exposing members-only product URLs in a public XML sitemap can confuse search engines and reveal product names that should stay private.

After adjusting settings, click Save & Close.

How Products Get Added to the Sitemap

OSMap builds sitemaps from menus. In your OSMap sitemap configuration (Components -> OSMap -> Sitemaps -> open your sitemap), you select which Joomla menus to include.

When OSMap processes a menu that contains a J2Commerce menu item, this plugin steps in and expands it. The types of J2Commerce menu items the plugin recognises and expands are:

• Products — a product category list (one or more categories)
• Category — a single product category
• Product Tags — a product tag listing

For each of those menu items, the plugin queries your product catalogue and adds a sitemap entry for every matching product. Each entry uses the J2Commerce product page URL (for example, /shop/clothing/blue-t-shirt) rather than the plain Joomla article URL.

What the Plugin Checks Before Listing a Product

A product appears in the sitemap only when all of the following are true:

• The J2Commerce product is enabled (not disabled in the product settings)
• The product's Visibility is set to show publicly
• The underlying Joomla article is published
• The article is within its publish up / publish down date window (if one is set)
• The article and its category are accessible to the Public access level (unless Show Restricted Products is set to Yes)

Subcategories are included automatically, up to the number of levels configured on the menu item (the default is 3 levels deep).

Why Each Product Appears Only Once

J2Commerce products are backed by Joomla articles — every product has an article behind it. Without special handling, OSMap would list each product twice: once from this plugin (shop URL) and once from the standard Joomla content plugin (article URL). This plugin prevents that duplication by tagging each product entry with the same internal identifier that the Joomla content plugin uses. OSMap's built-in de-duplication logic then keeps only the first entry it encounters and discards the second.

Best Practices

Order Your Menus So the Shop URL Wins

OSMap's de-duplication keeps the first URL it finds for each product and discards later duplicates. To make sure your product shop URL (not the plain article URL) is what ends up in the sitemap, you need the J2Commerce menu to be processed before any com_content / Articles menu.

In your OSMap sitemap configuration, drag the J2Commerce menu to the top of the menu list — above any content or article menu that covers the same products.

If a content menu is processed first, the article URL is kept instead of the product URL. The sitemap still has no duplicates, but it will link visitors and search engines to the article page rather than the shop page.

Rebuild the Sitemap After Changes

OSMap generates sitemaps on request. If you add new products or change your menu structure, open your sitemap in Components -> OSMap -> Sitemaps and click Refresh to regenerate it with the latest product list.

Troubleshooting

Products Are Missing from the Sitemap

Cause: The product does not pass one of the visibility checks, or the menu item type is not supported.

Solution:

1. Confirm the product is enabled in J2Commerce (J2Commerce -> Catalog -> Products — green icon).
2. Confirm the product's Joomla article is published (Content -> Articles).
3. Check the article's Publishing tab — if a Finish Publishing date is set and has passed, the article is hidden from the sitemap.
4. Check the article and its category Access level — both must be set to Public unless you have turned on Show Restricted Products.
5. Confirm your OSMap sitemap includes a menu that contains a Products, Category, or Product Tags J2Commerce menu item. A menu item of type Single Product is added directly to the sitemap but is not expanded into a list.

Products Link to the Article Page Instead of the Shop Page

Cause: A content/article menu was processed before the J2Commerce menu, so OSMap kept the article URL.

Solution:

1. Go to Components -> OSMap -> Sitemaps and open your sitemap.
2. In the menu list, drag the J2Commerce menu above any Articles or content menus.
3. Save the sitemap and click Refresh to regenerate it.

No J2Commerce Products Appear at All

Cause: The plugin may be disabled, OSMap may not be installed, or your J2Commerce menus may not be selected in the sitemap.

Solution:

1. Go to System -> Manage -> Plugins and confirm OSMap - J2Commerce is enabled.
2. Confirm OSMap is installed and its component is enabled (Components -> OSMap).
3. Open your sitemap (Components -> OSMap -> Sitemaps) and verify that at least one menu containing a J2Commerce menu item is selected.
4. Regenerate the sitemap with Refresh and check the output again.

What's New Compared to the J2Store OSMap Plugin

If you previously used the J2Store OSMap plugin (plg_osmap_com_j2store), here is what has changed:

Feature	Old J2Store Plugin	J2Commerce Plugin
Product URLs	Legacy J2Store URL format	J2Commerce 6 SEF URLs (e.g., /shop/category/product-alias)
Duplicate article prevention	Not implemented	Built-in — each product entry claims the article's identity so OSMap de-duplicates automatically
Access level filtering	Not applied	Respects article and category access levels — restricted products stay out of public sitemaps
Publish window filtering	Not applied	Respects publish up / publish down dates on articles
Subcategory support	Flat list only	Includes subcategories up to the menu's configured depth
Product tag support	Not supported	Product Tags (producttags) menu items are fully supported
SQL safety	Direct string concatenation	Parameterised queries throughout