Add configurable path/filename to secondary metadata source

[qiyundai]

The context: At Adobe Express, we have large batches of pages that share the same page structure & block configuration with different content. With the metadata combination feature originally discussed here, we were able to optimize and maintain our templates/ pages with much ease.

Now, as we add the colors pages, which is another category of large amount of SEO pages using the same default.docx + default/metadata.xlsx structure, we are starting to manage 3 different metadata.xlsx files. It's been flagged by our authors that it starts to get confusing for them. Sometimes they have a hard time realizing they are looking a metadata file that's not the one they are looking for.

The ask: Instead of just the implied metadata location, would it be possible to add a way in the fstab file for use to designate a different file other than the (${resource-path}/metadata.json) to be the metadata source?

Thanks!

[tripodsan]

please note that there are 2 types of metadata sheet mechanisms supported:

1. the metadata based on the folder mapping, i.e. virtual pages below a folder get the metadata of the folder applied. I believe that is what you are referring to above.
2. global metadata, which defaults on /metadata.json but can also be extended to support multiple metadata sheets, configured in config.xslx.

see https://www.hlx.live/docs/bulk-metadata#additional-metadata

[qiyundai]

You are right! We are trying to explore the possibility to be able to rename the metadata sheet file in the virtual pages root folder.

[rofe]

We did discuss an object structure for the mapping definition with freedom to specify the path to the metadata sheet here, but decided to start with the simplest possible solution with an automatically derived path to the metadata sheet.

Looks like we reached a point where we need to add support for both. @tripodsan @davidnuescheler wdyt?

[tripodsan]

yes, as suggested:

mountpoints:
  /: ......
folders:
  /products/de: 
    resource: /products/default
    metadata: /products/default/metadata-de.json
  /products/fr: /products/default
    resource: /products/default
    metadata: /products/default/metadata-fr.json

also, we might want to move the folder mapping from the fstab into the config eventually....maybe for helix5