Sitemap with a reciprocal hreflang cluster
A sitemap whose three URLs form a complete hreflang cluster: every page lists every locale including itself and a shared x-default. This is the shape an international audit should pass, and the reference twin of the broken cluster.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<url>
<loc>https://www.example.com/catalog/boots</loc>
<lastmod>2026-01-01</lastmod>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://www.example.com/catalog/boots"/>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://www.example.com/de/katalog/stiefel"/>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-CA" href="https://www.example.com/fr-ca/catalogue/bottes"/>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.example.com/catalog/boots"/>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://www.example.com/de/katalog/stiefel</loc>
<lastmod>2026-01-01</lastmod>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://www.example.com/catalog/boots"/>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://www.example.com/de/katalog/stiefel"/>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-CA" href="https://www.example.com/fr-ca/catalogue/bottes"/>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.example.com/catalog/boots"/>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://www.example.com/fr-ca/catalogue/bottes</loc>
<lastmod>2026-01-01</lastmod>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://www.example.com/catalog/boots"/>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://www.example.com/de/katalog/stiefel"/>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-CA" href="https://www.example.com/fr-ca/catalogue/bottes"/>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.example.com/catalog/boots"/>
</url>
</urlset>
Specifications
- Seed
- 70400
- Site
- example.com (fictional)
- Format
- urlset + xhtml:link
- Urls
- 3
- Locales
- en, de, fr-CA, x-default
- Reciprocal
- true
Testing contract
Expected to pass- Scenario
- Audit the annotation cluster for reciprocity and self-reference.
- Expected result
- All three pages return the same four alternates, every hreflang has a matching return tag, each page references itself, and exactly one x-default is declared.
What is a .xml file?
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a verbose, self-describing markup language using nested tags, attributes, and namespaces to represent structured, hierarchical data. It supports schemas, entities, and validation and underlies many document and data formats. It remains common in enterprise, publishing, and interchange contexts.
How to use this file
Use an example XML file to test parsers, namespace and schema validation, XPath queries, and protection against entity-expansion and external-entity attacks.
How to use this file for testing
“Sitemap with a reciprocal hreflang cluster” is a deterministic Novus Examples fixture for Web assets, Web scraping, Editor testing. Favicons, web app manifests, service workers, robots and sitemap files, Open Graph images, and .well-known resources — for testing web tooling, crawlers, PWA installers, and asset pipelines.
Documented properties for this file: seed 70400 · urlset + xhtml:link. Compare results against paired or grouped companions on this page when present (clean↔damaged, searchable↔scanned, or format twins) so scores stay reproducible across runs.
Download the file once, keep the path stable in CI or local scripts, and treat the spec table as the contract: dimensions, seeds, field lists, and roles are intentional. Corrupt or invalid samples are labelled as such — expect parsers to fail loudly rather than silently accept them.
Web-platform fixtures are standards-compliant samples against fictional example.com data. Test crawlers, PWA installers and manifest validators, favicon/icon pipelines, service-worker registration, or .well-known parsers against the documented structure.
Code examples
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
tree = ET.parse("sitemap-hreflang.xml")
root = tree.getroot()
print(root.tag, [c.tag for c in root][:5])Related files
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