SkaDate / Oxwall : how to assign custom meta desciption to index page only.

Oxwall / SkaDate is designed in a way that if meta data is not specified for certain page by the plugin or system feature responsible for that page, then system will assign that page a default meta data.

For meta description this gets defined in following file: ow_core/application.php

if ( $document->getDescription() === null )
{
$document->setDescription($language->text('nav', 'page_default_description'));
}

In Default Oxwall and SkaDate software index page doesn’t have it’s own description, thus default one is used. Default description is the value of {text key=’nav+page_default_description’} language text key in Admin Panel >> Settings >> Languages.

Defentions: Index page is the page that opens up under http://www.sitename.com/index URL.

To set custom meta description to index page only you must peform following modificaiton:

1. Editing Source code:

File to edit: ow_system_plugins/controllers/component_panel.php
Function to edit: public function index

Find following piece of code within this function:

else
{
$this->setDocumentKey('base_index_page');
}

Add following piece of code into this “else” clause:

OW::getDocument()->setDescription(OW::getLanguage()->text('base', 'index_page_description'));

 

Overall you should have:
else
{
$this->setDocumentKey('base_index_page');
OW::getDocument()->setDescription(OW::getLanguage()->text('base', 'index_page_description'));
}

What we did here is we have intruduced a new language key that will not will be used as index page’s meta description.

2. Creating new language key

Now we will need to give our language key a value. If you are not familuar to language keys in SkaDate and Oxwall please refer to this post first.

To add a new text key you must open following URL: http://www.yoursitenamehere.com/admin/settings/dev-tools/languages

Click “Add new text”.
Within the first drop down select “BASE” .
Within second input box paste: index_page_description
Within third input box add desired meta description.
Save your changes.

And you are done.

Open your index page ( http://www.sitename.com/index) >> Right mouse click >> View Page Source >> you will see that now your index page has a custom meta description: meta name=”description” content=”my cool custom description for index page only will be here “