C# detect the type of given URL

Question

I'm getting from user a URL to webpage OR sitemap.

What is simplest way to check the type (Sitemap or Webpage) of the given URL?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Having sought clarification of the question, here is what you'll need to do:

1. Check the URL is valid and fetch the contents.
2. Validate the contents against the XML-based sitemap spec at http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html. This can best be done by defining classes that map to urlset and url and by de-serializing the XML to those types.
3. If it's valid XML, then treat it as a sitemap.
4. If it's invalid XML, you may wish to warn the user, or just treat it as a webpage.
5. If not XML, you may treat it as a webpage.