Metadata rules explained

What is Metadata?

HighQ Publisher’s Metadata helps us define, limit and filter different content. This means it can be a very powerful tool which can enable administrators to build out complex solutions using our “dashboard” page builders.

When you add an article, video or event, you can tag it with these metadata custom labels. For example; you write an article on European Travel restrictions on COVID-19. The metadata you use is 'Countries' and 'Topic Areas'. You can tag this article with all European Countries, as it applies to all of those countries and under Topics you can select 'Health and Safety', or because it is so important, you could decide that it deserves its own label:

https://<yourinstance>/<yourcontextname>/insights/coronavirus-europe-plans-full-border-closure-in-virus-battle

For both the Dashboards and system aggregated generated content emails, you can filter what content is displayed to users on these pages and emails, based on the rules created in the platform (based on Metadata). For example, I could decide to have a COVID-19 Hub in the system and using this rule builder you can therefore restrict what is displayed within the page. 

What are Metadata System Rules?

Metadata System rules govern the logic used to pre-filter content for:

• Email and Alerter Preferences
• User Preferences
• Channel Dashboard Preferences

Channel dashboard

Keeping track of all of the content added to the platform and enabling it to be more easily discovered can be a challenge. However, with the use of our Channel dashboards we can easily build any custom static content pages with the drag and drop dashboard builder. These custom static content pages can be tailored to only show content of a chosen topic area.

For example, you can have a channel called the “Banking Knowledge Hub” where you can specify logic in the metadata system rules that only articles/videos/events tagged with “Banking” within the Industry metadata node would show on this page. This allows for flexibility and filtering based on the requirements of the channels required.

System rules for channels are;

• Only available on channel dashboards and not modules
• Only applied when the "Respect channel settings" checkbox is selected on a content panel (Content list, Masonry, Slider, etc.)
• Ignored for panels where this checkbox is not selected

And system rules are composed of two parts;

• A rule (defined in the metadata system rules page)
• A selection of metadata (selected in the "Metadata" tab of the channel configuration)

The rule (a logic expression) sets which metadata nodes must have a selection made in them (i.e. any node referenced in the rule will need to have one or more labels selected within it).

Please note that failure to make a selection from each referenced node will prevent any content from being shown

The logic in the rule between those selected nodes then defines how the selected metadata labels work to build a filter.

How do we apply these System Rules?

The ANY and RANGE functions can be used to simplify complex expressions. These functions are:

AND – Both relations must be true for the expression to be true
OR – If either relation is true, the expression is true

For example, if A is the Country metadata node and B is the Industry metadata node
AND – Only data that is tagged with a Country AND an Industry would the content show
OR – Only data that is tagged with either a Country OR an Industry would the content show

How do we apply these System Rules?

If we have the following three different metadata rules listed below:

Rule: Country AND Industry 

Only content which met the requirement of being tagged with BOTH "UK" (from Country) AND one of “Consumer" OR “Education" (from Industry) would be available to the panel to display.
This is because within the same node - there is always an "OR" between labels.

For example, if Article D is tagged with "UK" (from Country) AND “Education" (from Industry) it would be displayed.

If Video D is not tagged with a Country but is tagged with “Education" (from Industry) it would not be displayed.

Rule: Country AND (Industry OR CONTENT TYPE) 

Only content which met the requirement of being tagged with BOTH "UK" (from Country) AND one of “Consumer" OR “Education" (from Industry) OR “Announcement" (from Content Type) would be available to the panel to display.

For example, if Article D is tagged with "UK" (from Country) AND “Education" (from Industry) it would be displayed.

If Article B is tagged with "China" (from Country) AND “Consumer" (from Industry) it would be displayed.

If Article C is tagged with "US" (from Country) AND “Corporate" (from Content Type) but does not have a Industry tagged, it would be displayed.

If Video A is tagged with "UK" (from Country) AND “Consumer" (from Content Type) but does not have a Industry tagged, it would be displayed.

If Video D is not tagged with a Country but is tagged with “Consumer" (from Industry) it would not be displayed.

How do we apply a combination?

An example of this would be when you want a "Banking" channel. This means you will need to have the rule be related to the Industry.

Rule: Industry 

Only content which meets the requirement of being tagged with “Banking” (from Industry) would be available to the panel to display. It can be tagged with other metadata labels, but for the full channel this doesn't matter.

Channel > Content Metadata

In addition to the rule, it is a requirement to filter the channel down in "Content Metadata" to just "Banking". On the channel itself you limit the options of metadata that can be shown from within the metadata node.

Channel > Edit Dashboard > Content List Panel Settings

The last requirement is to make sure that the content panels follow this rule. When you are applying channel settings, you need to ensure for all the content lists you have “Respect Channel Settings” selected. On panels that have “Respect Channel Settings” this means you cannot have “Respect Dashboard Preferences” because this functionality must be one or the other:

Content Source filter(s)

On the page you might want to show different content within different panels. To do this you, will need to add the Content Source filters:

Click View content source filter(s) to show the Announcement panel and select Content Type > Announcement, as shown below:

Please note that you should not filter the 'must' system rule (E.G. Industry > Banking) in this section otherwise it will not work as expected

If Article D is tagged with “Banking" (from Industry) it would be displayed on the page. Because it was tagged with “Announcement" (from Content Type) it will be displayed on the Announcement filtered panel.

If Video D is tagged “Banking" (from Industry) it would be displayed on the page. Because it was tagged with “Announcement" (from Content Type) it will be displayed on the Announcement filtered panel.

If Video A is not tagged with "Banking" (from Industry) it would not be displayed.

Content Aggregate Email Preferences

Users who are logged in can subscribe to the platform to receive regular email updates (daily/weekly/monthly) about new content that they are interested in, when it is added to the platform. These email updates are automatically sent by the platform, personalised to each user, based on their individual preferences that they have set.

Although the user can select their preferences, it is also possible to define the logic of what content is sent out in the same way outlined for the channels.

Alerter preferences

Users who are logged in can subscribe to the platform to receive regular email updates (daily/weekly/monthly) about new content added to a specific module using the alerter service in the same way as the content aggregate email.

Please note that the Alerter also has an option to bypass these preferences

User preferences or System preferences

With the use of our Channel Dashboards, we can easily show landing pages that provide personalised lists of content based on user preferences and permissions.

These user preferences are only applicable if a dashboard (channels, module dashboards, and the home dashboard) has content that is based on the users preferences, e.g. on a Content List panel that has “Respect user dashboard preferences” selected and the Metadata System Rules have "Dashboard Preferences" set up.

Please note that in all cases they are ignored for panels where this checkbox is not checked

This allows the ability for these dashboards to be tailored to the individuals specific preferences allowing for personalisation of the platform.

Again, please note that if a user does not have any user/system preferences set up then nothing will be displayed
 

User preferences work just like system rules for channels, except that instead of the administrator selecting the metadata labels (done in the channel settings > "Metadata" tab), the end-user is able to select their own selection in the "System preferences screen". 

Given that there is a requirement to select something from each metadata node that's mentioned in the rule (which is system preferences is the first option - "Dashboard Preferences"), and that the rule is not exposed to the end user - there is a second checkbox called "Dashboard Preference message". This checkbox is designed to facilitate the administrator providing guidance text to the end user on the "System preferences" page. 

Using variables in the dashboard preference message - If any metadata node's number is place in this field within braces (for example {1} or {2}), the end user will be shown the name of this node in place of the number. 

For example, where the above metadata nodes and labels exist, (and again we use the rule: 1 AND (2 OR 3) - but this time for the "Dashboard preferences"); the user will then need to select at least one metadata label from "Country" AND one metadata label from "Area of law" OR "Sector". 

In this case the system admin might want to use an instruction text as follows:

Please select one label from {1} and then either an {2} or a {3}

This would then translate to the end user as:

Please select one label from Country and then either an Area of law or a Sector

Therefore, providing them adequate instructions to ensure they select the right options.