Help improving your web metadata

Web Metadata Workshops & 1-on-1 Assistance

The flow team is now offering Web Metadata Workshops to provide you with further help to review and improve your metadata. These workshops cover the following topics:

What metadata is and why we need it
Common problems with metadata on the Curtin website
Curtin's current web metadata standard, including detailed explanations of each element
Reviewing your metadata using the new Web Metadata Reports
Updating your metadata using Dreamweaver

Web Metadata Workshops will be held in room 309:202 on the following dates:

Friday 12 September, 9:30am - 11:00am
Monday 22 September, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Tuesday 7 October, 10:30am - 12:00pm
Thursday 23 October, 3:00pm - 4:30pm
Wednesday 5 November, 11:00am - 12:30pm
Friday 21 November, 2:30pm - 4:00pm
Monday 1 December, 11:00am - 12:30pm
Tuesday 16 December, 12:00pm - 1:30pm

Bookings for the above workshops are essential. Please contact us with your preferred session time and a diary invitation will be sent to you to confirm your place.

We can also provide 1-on-1 assistance for people that would like additional help. This consists of a member of the flow team sitting with page owners to develop and document appropriate metadata for each page. The implementation of the revised metadata would then be done using the same methods you currently use to maintain your web pages. If you would like 1-on-1 assistance, please contact us.

If you've been to a metadata workshop you might like to view the presentation slides [PPS 256k].

Metadata and the ColdFusion/XML framework(s)

Many sites at Curtin use a ColdFusion/XML framework to manage their information architecture. These are the sites where the header and footer are "included", and where there's a "pagesettings.xml" file containing all of the site's navigation elements.

There are two versions of the XML framework: "framework 1.0" and "framework 2.0". To tell which one your site is using:

If it's framework 1.0, there is a file called Application.cfm in the root directory of the site, and most pages begin with a line of code like:
<cfinclude template="../local/includes/header.cfm">

Here is some information to help you improve the metadata on a "framework 1.0" site.
If it's framework 2.0, there is a file called Application.cfc in the root directory, and most pages begin with a line of code like:
<cfinclude template="http://global.curtin.edu.au/ ... /header.cfm">

Here's some information to help you improve the metadata on a "framework 2.0" site.

Need more assistance?

For more information on metadata at Curtin, visit the Metadata @ Curtin website.

If you need assistance, contact the flow team.