Metadata Elements are placeholders for content that are generated by HelpStudio and are the key to understanding how to customize templates. Metadata Elements can be inserted into Page Types and Scraps. All content in a Page Type or Scrap that is not a Metadata Element is static and output exactly as defined to the generated output.

A Metadata Element consists of a type name and a collection of parameters; where each parameter is represented by a name and value pair.

In a Page Type, an example "TypeName" Metadata Element appears as follows:

<!--DXMETADATA type="TypeName" ParameterName1="ParameterValue1" ParameterName2="ParameterValue2"--><!--DXMETADATA end-->

In a Scrap value, the same Metadata Element is expressed as:

%%TypeName:ParameterName1="ParameterValue1",ParameterName2="ParameterValue2"%%

Common Parameters

In addition to any specific parameters supported by a particular Metadata Element type, every Metadata Element supports a 'format' parameter and a 'blankformat' parameter. These parameters allow conditional formatting, i.e., the format parameter is used as a template to render the element only if actual content was found and blankformat is used as a template to render the element only if no content was found. (For more information, see).

Nesting Metadata Elements

The content of a Metadata Element (or the value of a parameter) can contain another Metadata Element. E.g.

%%TypeName:ParameterName="%%AnotherTypeName:AnotherParameterName=AnotherParameterValue%%"%%

.. or

<!--DXMETADATA type="TypeName" ParameterName1="%%AnotherTypeName:AnotherParameterName=AnotherParameterValue%%" ParameterName2="ParameterValue2"--><!--DXMETADATA end-->

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