Binding a property to a page field

What binding means

Binding is the link between one schema property and one field on a Sitecore page template. Bind headline to the Title field in the Article Graph, and every page built on the Article template publishes its own title as the headline. The mapping is made once. The pages supply the values.

That is different from typing a value in. Typed values are the same on every page. Bound values change with the page, which is what most properties need.

Binding a property

1. Open the graph, and select the block under Select a block to edit its values.
2. Find the property in the list and choose Page field as its source.
3. Pick the field from the template. The list shows only the fields on the page template the graph is bound to, so you cannot pick a field a page will not have.
4. Save. Open Preview with a real page to see the value come through.

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Match the kind of value

Each schema property expects a kind of value, and the field you bind should supply that kind.

• Text properties such as headline, description and name take a plain text or rich text field. Rich text is flattened to plain text.
• Date properties such as datePublished take a date field, and the app writes the date in the format schema.org expects.
• Image properties such as image and logo take an image field, and the app publishes the full address of the image.
• Link properties such as url and sameAs take a link field or a text field that holds an address.
• Entity properties such as author and publisher expect another thing, not a string. Bind them to a nested block, a shared record or a page field that points at another item, depending on what your content has.

The app shows the expected kind beside each property, and warns when the field you choose does not match.

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When a page field is the wrong answer

• The value is the same everywhere. Your organisation's name, logo and address do not change from page to page. Put them in a shared record such as Organization Mini, and point the property at that. See Blocks, graphs and shared records explained.
• The page already knows. The language, the page address and the publish date come from the page itself. Choose Automatic and let the app set them.
• The value belongs to this graph alone and never changes. Fixed text covers it, but use it sparingly. A fixed value is a value nobody will remember to update.
• The template has no field for it. Do not force it. Either add the field to the template, which is a content model change your developer can make, or leave the property empty. The app leaves an empty optional property out of the JSON-LD rather than publish a blank.

Required values

Some properties are required for a Google rich result, and the block marks them. A required property with no source shows VALUE NEEDED, and the graph is not valid until it has one. A required property bound to a field that is empty on a particular page publishes nothing for that page, and the preview tells you which pages are affected.

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Changing a binding later

Change the field a property points at, save, and publish the pages. Every page built on that page design picks up the change. There is no release, no ticket and no code. The one exception is the @id: changing how it is generated gives the entity a new identity, so set that before you publish and leave it alone. See How it works for the identifier model.