Page Advanced Properties

Last Updated: Oct 10, 2022
documentation for the dotCMS Content Management System

When editing a Page in dotCMS, there are some basic required fields needed for the page to exist, such as the Title, Host or Folder, URL, Cache TTL, and Template fields. However, additional “Advanced Properties” can be added to a Page by clicking on the “Advanced Properties” tab.

The image below displays all of the Advanced Properties available on a default Page Asset.

Based Properties available on a default Page Asset.
Advanced Properties available on a default Page Asset

Basic Properties

PropertyDescription
Show on MenuIf this is set to true (box checked), the Page will appear in dotCMS front-end menus (generated automatically by dotCMS using the navigation tooling).
Menu Sort Order (legacy)When the Page is displayed in menus, the number in this property specifies the position of the Page in the menu (relative to Sort Order values of all other items displayed in the menu).
Note: Manually setting this value is no longer supplied, since menus can be re-ordered using drag-and-drop from the Page editing screen; this field is supported for backward compatibility only and will be deprecated in the future.
Friendly NameIf your Page uses one of the built-in dotCMS Templates (or a template that uses the same page header code), the value of this property is used to improve SEO (Search Engine Optimization) when search engine robots craw your site.
Cache TTLThe time (in seconds) that Page will be cached for performance. Example: 300 = 5 mins.
Changes to the Template, Containers, and content on the Page will not be reflected until after this timeout has expired, so if a Page has a large Cache TTL you may see an old version of the Page when displaying it in Live mode or on the dotCMS front-end.
DOT_DEFAULT_PAGE_CACHE_SECONDS sets the timeout for newly-created pages.

Advanced Properties

PropertyDescription
Redirect UrlIf this value is set, dotCMS will automatically redirect users to another URL when they attempt to visit the URL of this Page.
  • Choose the “select link” button to select the path to another Page on your dotCMS installation, or type the complete url to an external website.
  • After updating this property, you may need to flush the browser cache for the redirect to work properly
HTTPS RequiredIf this property is true (box checked), dotCMS will only display the page if it is accessed using HTTPS protocol.
Note: Use of the HTTPS protocol requires an SSL certificate on the dotCMS server and the proper configuration of dotCMS. Verify that your site can serve HTTPS pages by speaking to your webmaster or local system administrator.
SEO DescriptionMeta Descriptions, which are HTML attributes that provide concise explanations of the contents of web pages, are commonly used by search engines on search result pages to display preview snippets for a given Page.
SEO KeywordsEntering a list of keywords (comma separated), gives search engines clues as to how to categorize the content of this Page. For example, when creating a page for college admissions you might list key words such as: apply, admission, enroll, signup - or any other terms that you think visitors would use to find your Pages.
Hints for best SEO results:
  • Put no more that 25 words in the list.
  • Ensure words are separated by commas and spelled correctly.
  • Include words that you used in the title and body copy of your Page.
  • Include alternative forms and/or spellings, for example: signup, sign up, sign-up.

Meta Tags in Templates

Meta tags should be created in templates that parse the Velocity variables for the SEO description and keywords on each Page. Use the following code at the top of templates to retrieve the metadata set by Page creators.

<meta name="keywords" content="${dotPageContent.seokeywords}" />   
<meta name="description" content="${dotPageContent.seodescription}" />

For more information on calling page properties in Velocity, see the Page Content in Velocity documentation.

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