Using custom properties in Modern Site pages

Copper Contributor

Hi all,

 

I was very excited to see the recent(ish) announcement that MS had released the ability to add meta data (properties) to Modern Site Pages and then allow you to filter by this in the highlighted content webpart, but I've been having problems actually using it.

 

I followed the instructions at https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/view-edit-and-add-page-properties-778018d3-8269-4fd2-a55d-8... to add a property but I'm not able to see it in the places where it's telling me it'll be displayed including the page properties panel and the options within the highlighted content webpart.  On closer inspection it appears that the new properties aren't being added to the "Site Page" content type, only the other available content types including wiki pages etc.

 

Does anyone have any advice of how to get this working?  I've tried on several different tenants (as it's needed everywhere) but it's not working on any of them.

 

Thanks,

 

Sam

8 Replies

Hi Sam, not resolving your issue but adding additional details.

 

I had a multi-month support ticket with Microsoft when it came to creating views and surfacing them as document library web parts for modern pages. They views would constantly surface errors in the form of a dropped ice cream cone or broken bicycle with little help. I'm not surprised that the highlighted content web part isn't work for you since it is not as powerful as the Content Query Web Part (CQWP) of previous SharePoints.

 

Are you able to pull using a classic page and a CQWP to make sure the data is at least pulling correctly? Not resolving your issue but at least would confirm you have set up your site page columns correctly

Hi Ryan,

 

Thanks for your reply.  My problem is actually before you even get to looking at the Highlighted Content webpart - as I couldn't enter any data to the columns I added, I never bothered looking at the webpart.

 

Having now looked, the columns that I've added aren't showing in the webpart's list of possible properties to filter by either.  I can't help but think it's got to be because the columns I'm adding aren't being associated with the Site Page content type, but I am following the instructions exactly.

 

Sam

Unfortunately I think you are in Microsoft Support territory if you aren't able to get that far with the instructions :(

Did you ever get this resolved? I'm having the same issue on my tenant.

 

It's a classic site collection using the modern UI. I added a bunch of columns to all content types in the pages library and they don't show anywhere on the front end, not in the properties pane, not in the page details area, not in the page properties web part :(.

 

Hi Rebecca,

 

Yes, I did, after lots of painful sessions on the phone with MS showing the problem again and again.

 

It turned out that the Site Page content type was "sealed" so no additional properties were being added to that type.  You can unseal it using the script at https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Unseal-sealed-content-654ac401 then you'll have to recreate all of your additional properties (or get them applied to the Site Page content type).

 

Be aware that, if you add a "yes/no" column it can't be used for filtering in the highlighted content webpart.  Apparently this is "by design", but it seems a very strange design to me, so I've added it to UserVoice at https://sharepoint.uservoice.com/forums/329214-sites-and-collaboration/suggestions/36117193-allow-ye....

 

Sam

Sam,

Knowing how to unseal the SitePages content type was quite helpful. Thanks for sharing! Prior to that the Page Properties simply was not useful.

 

Alas, what some of us is looking for is a way to surface the site pages lib default metadata, like created, created by, modified, and modified by. Even tried calculated columns and lookups to the root [created] etc and no joy.

I mention it here in case Microsoft is reading this. Seems in my research that *many* people have been wanting this function for years. If page properties gets any engineering focus, this would be nice to have!

Thanks Sam! I'll give this a go :D 

I altered the script to make it tidier and also so it just runs against the Site Page content type, not all content types. See here for script: http://bexgordon.com/2019/03/cant-add-properties-to-modern-sharepoint-pages/ 

 

I still can't get it to show all properties on the actual Page properties webpart on the page - it seems to only show single line text fields? I also tried multiline and yes/no. It does let me set these fields in the page libraries information panel though, whereas before I couldn't see them.

 

Did you get all of your properties to show on the Page properties webpart Sam?