Get blog post custom field in template head - Sitefinity

1
votes

I need to set several meta tag values in my page head to values set in blog post custom fields.

How do I access the blog item viewmodel from the head?

I've created a separate MVC view snippet for my custom head and referenced it in my template's layout, that much works.

Tried

I grab some of the same custom field values inside my blog template via references like Model.Item.Fields.MyFieldName.Fields.Title.

Adding this same line to the head template throws a System.Web.HttpCompileException with little useful information attached. I somewhat expected this, as I suspect that viewmodel for the blog post only exists in the context of the blog widget.

Ends up that I need to rebuild after every change to the head cshtml file or I get this error. Seeing as this is about a four-minute process with Sitefinity (15 seconds to build, 3:45 to do whatever Sitefinity does for about four minutes), this is a gruelingly horrid thing to have to do.

However the Model is null at this level.

Also tried

Per the ever-helpful and highly knowledgeable @Veselin Vasilev, I looked into passing the data up via MetaDataFields. I didn't see these options in my admin section for the widget. To clarify, I'm using the built-in "Blog posts" widget with a customized view file.

The advanced edit view

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But if it's possible to do this, it gives me hope that there's a way to pass more data up, even if it's going to take some work.

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sitefinitysitefinity-10
If using the built in meta features do not work please provide more context on the task you are trying to complete, code examples help too/ – Jon R.
@JonR. unfortunately I don't have any other code examples. I set a custom field in the blog in the CMS and then access it in my MVC view as mentioned above. Now I'm trying to get at those custom fields in the MVC template (specifically, the head of the page) but it doesn't appear as though that model is yet populated, or at least I cannot find where to access it. – Randy Hall

1 Answers

1
votes

EDIT: Sitefinity v.10.2 and above:

There is an easier way to achieve what you are trying - in Page edit mode, in the Blog Posts widget click Edit and then Advanced. Then you should see a MetaDataFields button. Click it and you should see several meta data related fields. In the MetaTitle field put the name of your custom field and save.

Also, from the docs:

If you leave MetaTitle field empty, Sitefinity CMS adds takes its value from the Title field of the static content item or from the identifier field of a dynamic content item. Otherwise, the tag is populated with the contents of the field that you have entered in MetaTitle field.

More details here: https://docs.sitefinity.com/configure-meta-title-and-meta-description-on-widget-level

Sitefinity 10.1 and below:

Check this article

Basically, in your view you get a reference to the Page object and then update its Header with the meta data you need.