feat(places): submit place and outcode sitemaps

Separate children per family so Search Console reports the location layer's
indexation apart from the school pages' — which is the point of the index
built in W1, and the number the stop condition watches.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015mWQnpye9F299NVRCCSRvj

backend/app.py

@@ -194,6 +194,29 @@ def _urlset(rows: list[str]) -> str:
     ])
 
 
+def _place_url(place) -> str:
+    """The canonical path for a place. Two namespaces, per the spec.
+
+    Towns and localities share /schools/[place]; authorities take their own
+    prefix because 67 town names collide with an authority name and neither
+    set contains the other.
+    """
+    if place.kind == "authority":
+        return f"/schools/authority/{place.slug}"
+    if place.kind == "outcode":
+        return f"/schools/near/{place.slug}"
+    return f"/schools/{place.slug}"
+
+
+def _place_sitemap_rows(kinds: tuple[str, ...]) -> list[str]:
+    return [
+        _url_element(BASE_URL + _place_url(p))
+        for p in sorted(get_place_registry().values(),
+                        key=lambda p: (p.kind, p.slug))
+        if p.kind in kinds
+    ]
+
+
 def build_sitemaps() -> dict[str, str]:
     """Build the sitemap index and every child, keyed by name."""
     df = load_school_data()
@@ -211,6 +234,17 @@ def build_sitemaps() -> dict[str, str]:
     for n, chunk in enumerate(chunks, start=1):
         children[f"schools-{n}.xml"] = _urlset(chunk)
 
+    # Separate children per family: Search Console reports coverage per
+    # submitted sitemap, which is how the location layer's indexation is
+    # measured apart from the school pages'.
+    for label, kinds in (("places", ("town", "locality", "authority")),
+                         ("outcodes", ("outcode",))):
+        rows = _place_sitemap_rows(kinds)
+        chunks = [rows[i:i + SITEMAP_CHUNK_SIZE]
+                  for i in range(0, len(rows), SITEMAP_CHUNK_SIZE)] or [[]]
+        for n, chunk in enumerate(chunks, start=1):
+            children[f"{label}-{n}.xml"] = _urlset(chunk)
+
     # On a sitemap index, lastmod means "when this sitemap file last changed",
     # so generation time is the correct value here — unlike on a <url>, where
     # it would be a claim about content we cannot support.

backend/tests/test_sitemap.py

@@ -59,9 +59,14 @@ def static_child(monkeypatch) -> str:
 def test_every_loc_uses_the_www_host(sitemaps):
     # The apex 301s to www. A <loc> that redirects burns a crawl per URL.
     # Checked across every file, index included, not just one.
+    #
+    # A child can legitimately be empty — this fixture holds two schools and no
+    # town clearing the threshold — so the presence check applies only to files
+    # that carry URLs. The absence check applies to all of them.
     for name, xml in sitemaps.items():
-        assert "https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk" in xml, name
         assert "https://schoolcompare.co.uk" not in xml, name
+        if "<loc>" in xml:
+            assert "https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk" in xml, name
 
 
 def test_school_with_results_is_listed(schools_child):
@@ -217,3 +222,49 @@ def test_school_with_no_results_in_any_year_is_still_omitted(monkeypatch):
     monkeypatch.setattr(app_module, "load_school_data", lambda: df)
 
     assert "/school/100002" not in app_module.build_sitemaps()["schools-1.xml"]
+
+
+def _places_df() -> pd.DataFrame:
+    base = {
+        "local_authority": "Essex", "school_type": "Academy",
+        "phase": "Primary", "year": 202425, "ofsted_grade": 2.0,
+        "ofsted_date": None, "attainment_8_score": np.nan,
+        "town": "Brentwood", "postcode": "CM13 1AA",
+    }
+    return pd.DataFrame([
+        {**base, "urn": 100000 + i, "school_name": f"Brentwood School {i}",
+         "rwm_expected_pct": 60.0}
+        for i in range(6)
+    ])
+
+
+@pytest.fixture()
+def place_sitemaps(monkeypatch) -> dict:
+    from backend import app as app_module
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(app_module, "load_school_data", _places_df)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(app_module, "_place_registry", None)
+    return app_module.build_sitemaps()
+
+
+def test_place_children_are_listed_in_the_index(place_sitemaps):
+    index = place_sitemaps["sitemap.xml"]
+    assert "/sitemaps/places-1.xml" in index
+    assert "/sitemaps/outcodes-1.xml" in index
+
+
+def test_town_and_authority_urls_use_their_own_namespaces(place_sitemaps):
+    xml = place_sitemaps["places-1.xml"]
+    assert "<loc>https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/schools/brentwood</loc>" in xml
+    assert "<loc>https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/schools/authority/essex</loc>" in xml
+
+
+def test_outcode_urls_live_in_their_own_child(place_sitemaps):
+    assert "/schools/near/cm13" in place_sitemaps["outcodes-1.xml"]
+    assert "/schools/near/cm13" not in place_sitemaps["places-1.xml"]
+
+
+def test_place_urls_carry_no_priority_or_changefreq(place_sitemaps):
+    for name in ("places-1.xml", "outcodes-1.xml"):
+        assert "<priority>" not in place_sitemaps[name]
+        assert "<changefreq>" not in place_sitemaps[name]

nextjs-app/app/sitemaps/[...parts]/route.ts

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ export const runtime = 'nodejs';
  * validated here rather than passed through, so this route cannot be used to
  * reach arbitrary backend paths.
  */
-const CHILD = /^(static|schools-\d+)\.xml$/;
+const CHILD = /^(static|schools-\d+|places-\d+|outcodes-\d+)\.xml$/;
 
 export async function GET(
   _request: Request,