Textpattern CMS websites can use inbuilt tags that transform Textpattern-specific stuff into browser markup. In this article, the third in a series of five about Textpattern’s markup tags, I’ll explain how these two tags work:

• page_title
• page_url

Briefly, `page_title` is used to populate the `title` tag inside `head` and `page_url` returns part of the current URL, depending on the attribute.

Starting with `page_title` – frankly, it’s the more easily understood of the two tags for most people – it has a single, optional attribute that provides a method of separating parts of the title text. The output of `page_title` depends on what’s being viewed in the browser:

• Article list (including home page): the site name
• Articles by category: the site name : category title
• Search results pages: the site name : Search results: search term
• Single article page: the site name : article title
• Comments display: the site name : article title

Note the colon (`:`) separator between the site name and the second part of the title. This is a default setting that’s overridden by the `separator` attribute along with a substitute character. Like this:

<title>
<txp:page_title separator="-" />
</title>

Also note that the character can be encoded, like this:

<title>
<txp:page_title separator="·" />
</title>

Overall it’s a fairly straightforward, if a little inflexible, way of generating title text from the various sections of a Textpattern site. It’s not the most efficient method to create SEO-friendly `title` blocks, but if that sort of thing isn’t important to you then you need not spend any additional time thinking about it.

Next up: `page_url`. This one’s more powerful and complex than the last, so now is a good time to get a tasty snack. Go on, I’ll wait.

As a reminder, `page_url` extracts and outputs a component of the current URL, plus some Textpattern-specific stuff that has nothing to do with the URL. It has a single attribute, but it can do a lot of stuff. The `type` attribute specifies which component to retrieve:

• request_uri: current URL, including any query string (default setting)
• id: the current article’s numeric identification (on a single article page)
• s: the current URL’s section
• c: the current URL’s category
• q: the URL’s search query string
• pg: the current page number (in article list mode)
• month: the current page’s month (in time-based article lists)
• author: the current page’s author (in article lists filtered by author)
• status: the HTTP error response
• css: the current style sheet name (where the `css` tag is used)
• page: the current Textpattern page template name

This is much more low-level than squirting an auto-generated title between a pair of `title` tags in `head`. It’s very useful for development, troubleshooting and other situations where diagnostic information is required. I tend to use this tag to output URL-specific stuff in comments toward the end of the markup, a bit like this:

<!-- ****************************** -->
<!-- url: <txp:page_url /> -->
<!-- http: <txp:page_url type="status" /> -->
<!-- section: <txp:page_url type="s" /> -->
<!-- category: <txp:page_url type="c" /> -->
<!-- ****************************** -->

That, combined with the inbuilt debugging mode offered by Textpattern, gives a useful insight into what I’m building and minimises tag spaghetti. Most of the time.

Next time: `css` and `feed_link`. I hope you’ll join me.

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