Features

Typed Front Matter

Front matter is YAML metadata at the top of a markdown file, surrounded by triple-dash lines (---). Prezet parses and validates this metadata into strongly typed objects for consistent content management.

Example:

---
title: My Blog Post
date: 2024-05-06
category: Features
excerpt: A short description of the post
image: /prezet/img/example.png
contentType: article
draft: false
author: jane_doe
tags: [markdown, content]
---

#How It's Used

  • Content Display: Title, excerpt, and metadata are rendered in views
  • SEO Optimization: Drives meta tags, Open Graph data, and JSON-LD
  • Content Organization: Category, tags, and draft status enable filtering and organization
  • Content Type: Determines how content appears in structured data (article, video, category)

#Validation

Prezet validates front matter using the laravel-validated-dto package. You can view the default class here: FrontmatterData.php.

#Default Fields

Field Type Required Default Description
title string Yes - Document title
excerpt string Yes - Short description (also accepts description as alias)
date Carbon Yes - Publication date
category string No null Content category
image string No null Path to image
contentType string No article Content type: article, video, or category
draft boolean No false Draft status
author string No null Author identifier
slug string No null URL-friendly identifier
key string No null Unique identifier
tags array No [] Array of tag strings

#Field Mapping

Prezet automatically maps common field name variations:

  • description → excerpt
  • content_type → contentType

This allows you to use either naming convention in your front matter.

#Validation Errors

When you run php artisan prezet:index, Prezet validates all markdown files. If validation fails, you'll see clear error messages:

Common validation errors:

  • Missing required fields (title, excerpt, date)
  • Invalid data types (string where date expected)
  • Invalid contentType value (must be article, video, or category)
  • Malformed YAML syntax

#Customization

Extend or modify the FrontmatterData class to add custom fields. See Customizing Front Matter for details.

#FrontmatterData vs DocumentData

You may notice some properties appear in both FrontmatterData and as top-level properties in DocumentData (like category, draft, slug, and key). This duplication is intentional:

  • FrontmatterData: preserves your original markdown metadata
  • DocumentData: elevates certain properties to database columns for efficient querying

This separation provides strong validation while maintaining fast database lookups.