Creating a property tag

A property tag is used to display various fields and metadata from content items and site areas.

This is the format of a property tag:

[Property field=" " context=" " type=" " name=" " key=" " format=" " link=" " separator=" " 
htmlencode=" " awareness=" " ifEmpty=" " include=" " restrict=" " resolve=" "
start=" " end=" " ]

To create a property tag:

  1. Click Insert a Tag from a presentation template or element design field. The Tag Helper dialog opens.
  2. Select Property as the tag type.
  3. Select a property type. This is added to the tag as the field=" " parameter:
    Identification properties:
    Name
    Displays the text entered in the name field of an item.
    Title
    Displays the text entered in the title field of an item.
    Description
    Displays the text entered in the description field of an item.
    Authors
    Displays the users and groups selected in the authors field of an item.
    Owners
    Displays the users and groups selected in the owners field of an item.
    ID
    Displays the GUID of an item.
    Authoring template properties:
    authtemplateid
    Displays the GUID of the authoring template used by the current content item.
    authtemplatename
    Displays the name of the authoring template used by the current content item.
    authtemplatetitle
    Displays the display title of the authoring template used by the current content item.
    History properties:
    lastmodified
    Displays the last modified date and the last change message.
    lastmodifieddate
    Displays the last modified date.
    creation
    Displays the creation date.
    lastmodifier
    Displays the name of the user who last modified the item.
    creator
    Displays the name of the user who created the item.
    Profiling properties:
    Categories
    Displays a list of categories that an item has been profiled with.
    Keywords
    Displays a list of Keywords that an item has been profiled with.
    Access level properties:
    User
    Displays a list of users and groups assigned user access to an item.
    Contributor
    Displays a list of users and groups assigned contributor access to an item.
    Editor
    Displays a list of users and groups assigned editor access to an item.
    Manager
    Displays a list of users and groups assigned manager access to an item.
    Workflow Properties:
    Status
    Displays the workflow status of an item.
    Workflow
    Displays the selected workflow of an item.
    Current Stage
    Displays the workflow stage that the item is currently in.
    Publish Date
    Displays the date and time selected in the publish date field of an item.
    Expiry Date
    Displays the date and time selected in the expiry date field of an item.
    General Date One
    Displays the date and time selected in the general date one field of an item.
    General Date Two
    Displays the date and time selected in the general date two field of an item.
    Additional Viewers
    Displays the names of any additional viewers selected for an item.
  4. Select whether to display an element from the current content item, its parent site area or the top site area in the current path. This is added to the tag as the type=" " parameter.
  5. Select the context of the item to retrieve the element from. This is added to the tag as the context=" " parameter:
    Selected
    Use this option to select a specific site area or content item. You must then add the name of the item being referenced using the name=" " parameter. You can select an item by clicking Select.
    Current
    Use this option to reference the element from the current site area or content item.
    AutoFill
    Use this option when the element being referenced is determined by the search parameters of a menu, navigator, or taxonomy component. If the tag is not used within a menu, navigator, or taxonomy component, the context will revert to the current item.
    1. If you select Selected, click the Select button to select a specific site area or content item.
  6. Click OK to add the tag to your design.
Once you have added the tag to your design, you can also add the following parameters to the tag:
Table 1. Additional tag parameters
Tag parameters Details
name=" " You must specify the name of the item being referenced if the context="selected". If you specify name="./itemName", the actual path is not resolved until the item is rendered. This takes slightly longer to resolve than specifying the path to the item.
format=" " This parameter is optional and can only be used with some element types:
When field="ID":
  • format="id" displays the plain ID. If not specified, this format is used by default.
  • format="uri" outputs a wcm:oid:<id> style URI.
When referencing user details:
When formatting user details, the format parameter is used to define which LDAP parameter to use when displaying user details. For example:
  • format="cn" is used to display the common name.
  • format="dn" is used to display the distinguished name.
When field="categories":
When field="categories" the format parameter is used to determine the output format.
  • format="title" displays a list of category titles.
  • format="uri" displays a wcm:oid:<id> style URI for each listed category.
Maximum character length:
You can also specify a maximum number of characters to display by using this format:
  • format="length:number_of_characters"
For example, to display a maximum of ten characters you would specify the following parameter:
  • format="length:10"
When referencing number or date elements:
In this case, the format is used to specify the display format of dates and numbers. The following formats can be defined when displaying dates:
  • format="DATE_SHORT"
  • format="DATE_MEDIUM"
  • format="DATE_LONG"
  • format="DATE_FULL"
  • format="DATE_TIME_SHORT"
  • format="DATE_TIME_MEDIUM"
  • format="DATE_TIME_LONG"
  • format="DATE_TIME_FULL"
  • format="TIME_SHORT"
  • format="TIME_MEDIUM"
  • format="TIME_LONG"
  • format="TIME_FULL"
  • format="relative" (The relative date is displayed as either "today", "yesterday" or the number of days ago.)
You can also set user-defined formats for both dates and numbers:
separator=" " This is used when referencing a property that returns multiple results. For example, to add a line break between each result, you would use separator="<br>" . If not defined, a comma is placed between each result when rendered.
htmlencode=" " If htmlencode="true" any reserved HTML characters is converted into character entities. For example, '<' is converted to '&lt;'. This is useful if you would like to prevent users adding malicious code, or if you want to prevent users changing the look and feel of their text using HTML.

If not specified, the default setting specified by the cmpnt.htmlEncodeDefault property in the WCM WCMConfigService service is used. By default, this property is set to true.
awareness=" " If awareness="true" then user names are displayed using the people awareness features. This feature displays user names as hyperlinks that allow users to contact people with whom they might want to work. Wherever person links appear, users can click the link to display a menu of actions for collaborating (contacting and working) with the person named by the link. If you, as administrator, have also configured an IBM® Lotus® Sametime® server to work with WebSphere Portal, person links indicate whether a person is active, away, offline, or in a Do Not Disturb state.

People awareness only works in content rendered using either a local or remote rendering portlet.

If not specified, then awareness="false" and people awareness is not used.
ifEmpty=" " Enter some text to display if no result is returned by the tag. If not specified, nothing is displayed if no result is returned by the tag.
include=" " Used only with field=categories. Determines which level of a taxonomy to display:
  • exact
  • ancestors
  • descendants
  • all

For example, if an item is profiled with a category of Sport, and include=descendants, then all the descendants of "sport" would also be displayed.
restrict=" " Used only with field=library/categories. Enter a list of categories separated by commas to only return results for the categories specified in the list. For example, restrict="library/red, library/green" only displays profile details of items profiled with the categories of red or green. If no library is specified, the default library is used.
resolve=" " This determines which type of access to resolve to when rendering access level properties:
none
Only users and groups selected in the access section of an item is resolved. This is a combination of User, Workflow, and Administrator defined access settings. Virtual users are not resolved. If the field parameter is used, only users and groups directly selected for a role type is resolved. For example, a user assigned "contributor" access would not be resolved if field="user".
virtual
Only users and groups selected in the access section of an item, including virtual users, is resolved. This is a combination of User, Workflow, and Administrator defined access settings. If the field parameter is used, only users and groups directly selected for a role type is resolved. For example, a user assigned "contributor" access would not be resolved if field="user".
inherited
All inherited users and groups plus users and groups selected in the access section of an item, including virtual users, is resolved. This is a combination of Inherited, User, Workflow, and Administrator defined access settings. If the field parameter is used, only users and groups that are either directly selected for a role type or that inherit a role type is resolved. For example, a user assigned "contributor" access would not be resolved if field="user".
inheritedonly
Only inherited users and groups, including virtual users, are resolved. If the field parameter is used, only users and groups that directly inherit a role type is resolved. For example, a user that inherits "contributor" access would not be resolved if field="user".
effective
Only users and groups selected in the access section of an item, including virtual users, is resolved. This is a combination of User, Workflow, and Administrator defined access settings. If the field parameter is used, access roles are cascaded down so that users and groups assigned roles higher than the role selected using the field parameter is resolved. For example, if field="user", contributors, editors, and managers are also resolved.
all
All inherited users and groups plus users and groups selected in the access section of an item, including virtual users, is resolved. This is a combination of Inherited, User, Workflow, and Administrator defined access settings. If the field parameter is used, access roles are cascaded down so that users and groups assigned roles higher than the role selected using the field parameter is resolved. For example, if field="user", contributors, editors, and managers are also resolved.
start=" "

end=" "

 The start and end attributes are used to wrap the data returned by a tag within other tags, such as HTML. These attributes are not mandatory.
Double-byte character sets:

Not all double-byte character sets support extended ASCII. To use tags such as "&nbsp;" you need to replace "&" with "&amp;".

For example: 
separator="&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;"
Parent topic: Creating Web content tags