Setting Up Page Properties

Because CMS pages are dynamic objects that are built at runtime from the templates and the placeholders' content, we can specify page properties that affect when and how the page is displayed on the site. To display the Page Properties dialog, click Page Properties in the Web Author console (Figure 5-41).

Figure 5-41. Page Properties dialog

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NOTE: Content authors may either set up the page properties themselves or leave them to be set up by the editors and the moderators at a later stage of the publishing workflow. We will discuss this process in detail in the next chapter.


In the top area of the Page Properties dialog box, you can change the name and the display name for the page, and see the hierarchical URL for the page as well as the name and the path of the template on which the page is built. The URL and the template details are displayed for your information only; they cannot be modified.

The Standard tab of the Page Properties dialog provides the ability to set up the publishing schedule for the page. You can specify the start publishing options as either start immediately or start at an exact date and time; and the stop publishing options as either never stop or stop at an exact date and time. The calendar icon provides the ability to select the exact date for the start and the expiry dates; or you can just type the dates in.

The dialog also displays the page owner and the date and time when the page was last modified; these properties are for your information only and cannot be changed in the dialog. At the top of the Standard tab, there is a Description field that allows you to type in the optional description of a page. At the bottom of the Standard tab, there are four check boxes. The Important Page check box sets up a flag that can be used later on by the developers; it is not selected by default, and you only set it up if required by the developers. The Hide When Published check box allows the author to hide the page after it has been approved for publishing; it is also not selected by default.

NOTE: The Hide When Published option is often used programmatically for example, to provide linear navigation. An author writing a ten-page news story may not want subscribers to start reading in the middle of the story. Therefore, the author will hide all but the first page and provide a link to the next page in the series.


The Web Robots check boxes are selected by default; they allow CMS to generate the HTML META tags that contain information for Web crawlers such as search engines. The Web Robots Can Crawl Links check box allows robots to follow the links from the page; the Web Robots Can Index This Page check box allows robots to index data in the current page.

NOTE: For details on the robots META tags, refer to Chapter 6.


The Custom tab (Figure 5-42) allows us to set up values for the additional custom properties if these are defined in the page template by the template designers. There are two types of custom properties: text and selection. To set up the value for a text custom property, you may type the text in the Current Value column, or use the default value if provided. A selection custom property is displayed as a drop-down list in the Current Value column; you may select the value from the list, or use the default value provided. We will discuss custom properties in detail in Chapter 6.

Figure 5-42. Page Properties, Custom tab

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After you've set up the page properties, click Save Changes to save the properties and return to the page in Edit mode. The page with changed properties needs to be approved before it can appear on the live site.



Microsoft Content Management Server 2002. A Complete Guide
Microsoft Content Management Server 2002: A Complete Guide
ISBN: 0321194446
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 298

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