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jeromedb's avatar
jeromedb
Contributor
12 years ago
Solved

Can I add a last updated or modified date to a page metatag?

Hi guys,

 

I'm working with a sitewide enterprise internal search engine which makes extensive use of custom metadata tags, such as <meta name="product_sku" content="abc123" /> for filtering, categorising, ranking and displaying search results.

 

We intend on indexing category, board, article, blog and thread pages (not messages), and would like to capture the date of the last modification/update to each via a custom metatag added to the page. This will allow us to not only display a "last updated" date within the global search results, but rank content according to recency.

 

So my question is twofold – is the last modified date readily available across category, board, article, blog and thread pages, and if so, can it be added to a metatag such as <meta name="last_updated" content="16-10-2013" />?

 

Much appreciated!

 

Cheers, Jez

  • PaoloT's avatar
    PaoloT
    12 years ago

    Hi Jerome,

     

    as I mentioned you should be able to determine the date of the last change for these pages via the REST API looking at the time elements included in the responses. I am not sure around the effort required in building the XML feed - maybe you could look into the Lithium Studio Endpoints to generate the required data (with the rest calls) and pack it in the response format which can then be consumed by your tool.

     

    I have a feeling that implementing the logic that adds the meta tags directly to the pages may be quicker, but it's difficult to tell without all the details.

     

    In this case - it could be best to speak with your Lithium Manager and see if it's possible to arrange a consultancy on your specific integration issue.

     

    Kind Regards,

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  • PaoloT's avatar
    PaoloT
    Lithium Alumni (Retired)
    12 years ago
    Hi Jez,

    just to be clear - what do you define as "date of last modification / update" for each element?

    For a category, board, or thread I would think that could be the date of the latest post written (in which case you can get via REST - see for example http://lithosphere.lithium.com/restapi/vc/boards/id/studio/posts/recent for the latest post on the Developer forum on the Lithosphere - see post_time or last_edit_time ).

    You could use similar approaches for blog articles and threads (taking the last_edit_time of the root topic) - always via REST.

    You could then include this logic in your community wrapper to generate the appropriate tag.

    Hope that helps.
  • jeromedb's avatar
    jeromedb
    Contributor
    12 years ago

    Hey Paolo,

     

    Really appreciate your quick reply :)

     

    In terms of last modified, I'm looking for the date that any given board or thread was last updated. From what I can see a thread is made up of multiple messages, each ith their own date - I'm only interested in the latest date that any message within a thread was updated.

     

    As an alternative, the search engine I'm working with is capable of taking an xml feed, which might contain the title, url, and the above mentioned date for all thread, board and category pages. I initially explored the sitemap.xml, however it did not include all of the items I was looking for.

     

    Might what I'm trying to do be more effciently done as an xml feed with appropriate tags, rather than me crawl the site organicalluy and picking up the date in a metatag?

     

    Cheers, Jez

  • jeromedb's avatar
    jeromedb
    Contributor
    12 years ago

    Hey Paolo,

     

    I'm thinking an xml feed is perhaps the best approach for me to capture this information - do we do this via the REST API?

     

    Cheers, Jez

     

  • PaoloT's avatar
    PaoloT
    Lithium Alumni (Retired)
    12 years ago

    Hi Jerome,

     

    as I mentioned you should be able to determine the date of the last change for these pages via the REST API looking at the time elements included in the responses. I am not sure around the effort required in building the XML feed - maybe you could look into the Lithium Studio Endpoints to generate the required data (with the rest calls) and pack it in the response format which can then be consumed by your tool.

     

    I have a feeling that implementing the logic that adds the meta tags directly to the pages may be quicker, but it's difficult to tell without all the details.

     

    In this case - it could be best to speak with your Lithium Manager and see if it's possible to arrange a consultancy on your specific integration issue.

     

    Kind Regards,

  • jeromedb's avatar
    jeromedb
    Contributor
    12 years ago

    Hey Paolo,

     

    Many thanks for your help, agree we may need some technical support to get this in place, and will suggest that the Lithium Manager is engaged to further assist.

     

    Cheers, Jez

  • JasonL's avatar
    JasonL
    Lithium Alumni (Retired)
    12 years ago

    Hi Jez,

    Not sure if this would work for you ...

     

    We do have sitemap.xml for search engines. It's in XML format and has the modification times for the nodes

     

    Take a look at 

    https://lithosphere.lithium.com/sitemap.xml

     

    2013-11-06_093641.png

     

    Most communities have sitemap feature enabled, if not - you can log a Support ticket to enable it.

     

    Would this be sufficient?

     

     

  • jeromedb's avatar
    jeromedb
    Contributor
    12 years ago

    Hey Jason,

     

    Apologies for my late reply - this was actually the first thing I tried, however the sitemap by design does not include a title element, and the timestamp itself uses a format that's not supported by the platform we're using (the time offset).

     

    From previous queries I believe the sitemap itself is not able to be modified to include a title and alternate datestamp option, is that still the case?

     

    Cheers, Jez

  • JasonL's avatar
    JasonL
    Lithium Alumni (Retired)
    12 years ago
    jeromedb wrote:

    Hey Jason,

     

    Apologies for my late reply - this was actually the first thing I tried, however the sitemap by design does not include a title element, and the timestamp itself uses a format that's not supported by the platform we're using (the time offset).

     

    From previous queries I believe the sitemap itself is not able to be modified to include a title and alternate datestamp option, is that still the case?

     

    Cheers, Jez

    Hi Jerome,

    Yes, i'm afraid we can't customize the sitemap 

     

    What about the RSS feed?

     

    Here's an example:

    http://lithosphere.lithium.com/lithium/rss/Community

     

    Would that work? 

    -- Jason

  • jeromedb's avatar
    jeromedb
    Contributor
    12 years ago

    Hey Jason,

     

    That may work, though I think there's only 20 items coming through?

     

    Can I get all items across the entire community via this RSS feed?

     

    Cheers, Jez

  • JasonL's avatar
    JasonL
    Lithium Alumni (Retired)
    12 years ago
    jeromedb wrote:

    Hey Jason,

     

    That may work, though I think there's only 20 items coming through?

     

    Can I get all items across the entire community via this RSS feed?

     

    Cheers, Jez

    Hi Jerome,

    Hmm ... i guess not as its a RSS feed.

     

    Afraid have to go back to Paolo's suggestion.

     

    That is in Studio > Community Style > Wrapper > Page Head Content, you could add in freemarker/REST API code like this:

    <#if page.name = 'ForumTopicPage'>
    <#assign topic_id = page.context.thread.topicMessage.uniqueId />
    <#assign last_edit_time = restadmin("/messages/id/${topic_id}/last_edit_time").value!"" />
    <meta name="last_updated" content="${last_edit_time}">
</#if>

     This code gets executed when you're in Forum Topics Page, to create the following tag in the HTML <head> area. 

    <meta name="last_updated" content="2013-09-24T02:13:54+00:00">

     Probably need some freemarker built-ins to converts the timestamp to match your needs.

     

    If your unfamiliar with Lithium Studio/Freemarker/REST APIs, recommend engaging Lithium Services to help.

    --Jason