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Examples of Index Block XML

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An Index Block produces Cascade Server-specific XML for Folders, Pages, Files, (External) Links, and Blocks. A developer wanting to write a format to transform an Index Block's listing of the CMS content will want to be familiar with the specific XML tags used and what kind of data they contain. The examples below show a portion of the Index Block XML for every kind of asset and demonstrate how an Index Block represents metadata, XHTML page and block data, and XML Structured Data.

Concept

Index Blocks index five types of assets: Folder, Page, File, (External) Link, and Block. These five assets are represented by the XML elements <system-folder>, <system-page>, <system-file>, <system-symlink>, and <system-block>. All of the asset types share some common information such as System Name, Metadata fields, System Metadata such as last modified date, and unique identifier. These shared fields are represented by XML tags within the asset elements like <name>, <title>, and <last-modified>. The unique identifier is an attribute of the asset element (e.g. <system-page id="ef81d1c90a00016b00659a66bcacb166">).

Each of the asset types also has a way of representing the information that is unique to that asset: folder contents, page XHTML or Structured Data, or link URI.

  • Folders contain other assets, so they will have nested <system-folder>, <system-page>, <system-file>, <system-symlink>, or <system-block> elements
  • Pages will contain either a <page-xhtml> or <system-data-structure> element upon whether the Page's Content Type uses a Data Definition
  • Links will contain a <link> element showing the External Link asset's URI

The "Folder Access Rights" and "Workflow Information" settings of an index block can add yet more information to the <system-folder>, <system-page>, <system-file>, <system-symlink>, or <system-block> elements detailing the asset's access permissions or current workflow status (if any).

Index Blocks can also contain other system information that is not specific to a single asset and will appear at the end of the Index Block XML, after all assets have been displayed. Available system information includes:

  • User Information - username, e-mail, and full name of the currently logged in user
  • Append Calling Page - a <system-page> element representing the current page that is displaying the index block. A <calling-page> element will only be present if the Index Block is selected in a region (of a Template, Configuration Set, or Page) and viewed in the Page's Layout or Preview pane.

Technical

Index Block XML

The examples below show a portion of an Index Block for each of the four types of indexed assets: Folder, Page, File, and (External) Link.

All index blocks begin with the following XML document element:

In this example, "index-block" is the system-name of the block asset, and the index block is Folder Index Block. The current-time attribute is the Cascade Server's local time at which the index block was rendered represented as a Unix timestamp in milliseconds.

A Content Type index block would start with the following:

Note that Content Type Index Blocks do not display Folder structure using <system-folder> elements. They inherently only contain <system-page> elements, because Content Types can currently only be assigned to Pages.

The following sections show the Index Block XML for a Page without a Data Definition, a Page with a Data Definition, a Folder containing a single Page, a File, and an External Link.

Page

Without Data Definition

With Data Definition

Folder

File

<file-size> element gives File size in bytes.

Block

Index or Feed Block

XHTML, XML, or Text Block

Note: Blocks will contain only one <block-xhtml> section and no comments. The commented sections above are for illustration only.

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