Presentation Template for adding Metadata to HTML

If the pages are generated and *then* you have the users set Metadata on the pages - the only way to insert the Metadata as meta tags is via post-processing code - not the PT.

If you set metadata on the DCR *before* you generate the pages - then the PT can use <iw_perl> code to extract (iwextattr) the EAs from the dcr (iwpt_get_dcr_name()) and then inject it into the generated page as Meta tags.

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

Sri

Hi,

You'd have to use 'iwextattr' CLT to read and write EAs on any files. There is no API provided in PTs to achieve this.

Sri

Migrateduser

It's may be a good idea to write a Perl module that represents a file on the Interwoven virtual filesystem to encapsulate the iwextattr calling/parsing logic (and all other operations you might do on a file in TeamSite) rather than coding the iwextattr calls all over your Perl code. Then if they ever fix their APIs to not use the CLTs you only have one place to change, or if you find a bug in your logic (such as not trapping STDERR) you only have one place to fix it.

I usually have CMSFile inherit from CMSFSE which represents any entry (branch, workarea, directory or file) that functions for parsing branch, normalizing path, getting iwattrib properties, etc.

well, most of IWOV consultants already have a EA handling module.

Sunil - I have a few pieces of code that does this. All depends on the structure of metadata. If it's flat, that's easy. If it's represented as set of replicants/containers/etc - then the task becomes very complex and one would need to effectively re-create an underlying XML that represents the metadata, to be able to render it properly.

I asked the question about Metadata API before, but IWOV keeps silence, even on vice-president level....

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU

Adam,

you are not quite correct. I do this in a PT - it's the easiest thing (and place) to do it.
However, a workflow should have (as a safeguard) an external task that would simply iwregen all templated assets. voila!

(and most of at least Australian IWOV staff do the same)

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU

Now that I think about it - assuming you set the EAs towards the end of the PT processing, the file being generated *should* exist at that point (buffered output for a small amout of content might cause problems) - so doing it from within the PT is manageable. Sorry for the misinformation / thanks for the correction.

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

I agree that this concept (I call it a 'chicken and egg' problem) is a bit confusing from the beginning - I mean one needs to have a (web asset) file to tag (and this is why you once advocated keeping the metadata in a DCR - and many clients of mine had such an approach). But because metadata is not a content and as such is not previewed, I believe it's Ok to insert it at a later stage...

and, because of a (way) better metadata capture mechanism in 6, IMO this concept will gain the momentum from now on

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU

I normally have the metadata set with in the dcr to keep the number of steps to a minimum.
PT processing sets these fields as EA as described here.

A simple way of doing this is to use ostream to force the creation of the file.

Now I never really checked the templating code to see if the ostream tag is flushed to disk when closed, but I guess it must as I havent had a problem.

here's a snippet to get this going



<iw_perl>
    <![CDATA[
       $oFile = iwpt_get_ofile_name();
       ($dummyOFile = $oFile) =~ s|^.*[/\\]WORKAREA[/\\][^/\\]+||;
       # below... create a dummy file so we can set EA's on them. Just incase its a new file
    ]]>
</iw_perl>
<iw_ostream file ="$dummyOFile" />
<iw_perl>
    <![CDATA[
        $iw_file->load($oFile);
        $iw_file->setEA('TeamSite/Metadata/dc.title' => $title,
                        'TeamSite/Metadata/dc.description' => $description,
                       );
    ]]>
</iw_perl>

I know it's a little off the subject but it's in response to the comments made by fish.
Could be useful.

John Cuiuli

Johny,

you know that this is an old technique that (in 6) is not to be used, as metadata capture is way more advanced (and lets you attach metadata to multiple files - something you can't do wiuth this approach), and yet you keep pushing it

..

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU

I love your articulate manner.

It's not a case of an old/new technique, there are pro's and con's to any solution.

You simply way them up and decide what is most appropriate/applicable to the situation. There is never one way.

And yet you keep pushing "your" way

Keep to the value added comments only huh

John Cuiuli

in pre-6 I'd agree with you, with some hesitation, though. But in TS 6 I don't believe that putting metadata in DCRs solves all the problems (provided that, in large organisation, metadata has to be assigned to all assets, not only templated ones - and with metadata in DCRs how would you acheive it)?

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU

If metadata is required for non templated assets then ofcourse you would use the built in metadata system.
You are talking about specific scenarios.... like I said it's all about pro's and con's.
I didn't sell any one way, I was replying to a technical scenario already mentioned which can be valid in certain situations.

I haven't had looked into the metadata capture of TS 6 but I haven't seen anything new to make a distinction apart from the more useable interface.
Being able to set metadata to more than one asset as you previously mentioned, could be done with previous versions of TeamSite, if you had situations that needed <- that's the point.

Where I am now, we keep metadata with in DCR's because

- the contributors are responsible for both content and metadata
- streamlines data entry to one step
- some metadata fields are so closely related to content such as headlines that lines could be blurred in separation.

There have been plenty of other posts regarding this topic, we haven't covered anything new here and have fallen off the subject.

I agree with many points. Smiley Happy

peace

BTW, it's agood feature if one has a metatagger, that it can retrieve a Subject line, say, or a Title and copy it to metadata... These 'dual purpose' fields are sometimes something to think about.....

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU

It's always cool Greg, just be careful how you say things!

I agree with these 'dual purpose' fields.
Metatagger is a luxury in most cases unfortunately Smiley Happy

But regardless which way you have gone, having the fields present as EAs will always be handy and keeps you in good shape if you do go the metadata capture/meta tagger way.

Reading EAs can be much cleaner than parsing DCRs.

John Cuiuli

actually, ( I revisit this issue again and again) - if you keep EAs not as simple key-value pairs, but rather as structured data, organised in replicants, etc - treating such a structure imposes a challenge, as IWOV does not have an API for this (let alone EAs from VisualAnnotate, that are almost impossoble to parse...)

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU

http://www.quotient-inc.com

Sheesh - I'm almost sorry I said anything :-)
Going back to the original query:
Can someone share an example of a presentation template which picks up the TeamSite Metadata Entries values and puts these values as proper metadata tags on the generated HTML Page?

My Pages are already generate by the Workflow System and then the user is asked to set Metadata. After this how can I make use of this presentation template to insert Meta Tags in the already generate page?

The issue was in creating <meta> tags within the generated page - and I think the summation is:

yes back to the original post is a good idea!

Sorry we took a fork in the road.

John Cuiuli

Adam, well done.

a simple comment on the following:

The second is simpler with less overhead, but could impose problems down the road if/when you decide to do more with regard to capturing metadata (such as incorporating MetaTagger functionality).

from my little offtopic with Johny, I have touched an issue of non-templated assets. Even though the original poster did not ask, in many sites some of the assets are not templated, and, therefore, the second method does not take care of those files. What I do in many cases - during post-processing in the workflow, I *inject* metadata into non-templated files as well. MetaTagger does not have to be present, to have such a functionality, however would be helpful, especially to cater for 'dual purpose' content (that is both content and metadata).

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU