Folder-mapped Metadata

If the site has folder mapping configured, the metadata files within that folder will apply to all pages for that mapping. For example, if /templates/ is folder-mapped to /templates/default, metadata in /templates/default/metadata.xlsx will be applied to all pages below /templates/ if the URL pattern matches.

Last-Modified Date

Changes to folder-mapped metadata are not reflected in the last-modified HTTP response header of pages within the mapped scope. By default, the date of the last modification of the default document will be used. If you rely on that header value to be updated based on metadata changes, which may be desirable for SEO or SEM purposes, you can influence* it by adding an explicit last-modified column. This allows you to set the desired date string or timestamp for select rows only while leaving the others unchanged. We recommend the ISO date format to ensure it’s both human-readable and timezone-safe.

Example:

URL         Last-modified
/products/product1  2024-11-21T00:00:00Z
/products/product2  2024-11-20T00:00:00Z
/products/product3  2024-11-19T00:00:00Z

* Note: The actual last-modified HTTP response header is calculated based on the modification times of the contributing resources to the response:

  • The source document itself (for folder-mapped pages, this is the default document)
  • The head.html
  • The global (and additional) metadata
  • The custom headers configuration

The most recent modification time of those resources will be used. This means that the last-modified value provided might not be the final header value if, for example, the head.html is younger.

Additional Metadata

When having metadata that is managed by several teams it is not practical to keep them all in the same metadata files. Multi metadata support is possible by configuring the all the metadata files that need to be taken into account in the /.helix/config.xlsx file:

The order of the entries in the list dictates the order of how the data is applied. The final order of the metadata is as follows:

If there is metadata configured in the /.helix/config.xlsx:

  • Page level metadata block wins over
  • Folder-mapped metadata sheet wins over
  • Metadata sheet(s) in configured order

if there is no configured order:

  • Page level metadata block wins over
  • Folder-mapped metadata sheet wins over
  • Bulk metadata sheet (/metadata.xlsx)

Note that individual metadata properties are overwritten but never deleted. For example, if the /metadata.json defines a property title, the same property in /metadata-2nd.json will overwrite the value, but only if it is not empty.

Experience Manager