Rails meta tags helpers

Seo and future-proof meta tags for Rails

The meta-tags-helpers gem consists of a set of helpers to setup and render html meta tags in a simple way. It has good customizable defaults that also come with built-in support for open-graph and csrf: all your meta tags in a single call.

Install

gem 'meta-tags-helpers'

Examples

You could use the default meta tags (see below) inserting the following snippet of erb code in your layout.

<%= meta_tags %>

if you don't like the defaults you can override them passing other values as a parameter to the meta_tags helper.

<%= meta_tags(
    :title => "MyBlog - This is a Blog",
    :description => "The blog of mine & a reserved character",
    :og => {:type => "website"}
    :ns => {
      :my_custom_meta => "a value"
    }
    ) 
%>

You can further override these values in your controller, views and partials using the set_meta method (see below).

NOTE: You can set namespaced keys (eg. og:type) either as key-value pairs (eg. :"og:type" => "...") or as nested hashes (eg. :og => {:type => "..."}), both of the syntaxes would address the same meta tag.

What it generates?

The first example above will produce the following html:

<meta name="charset" content="utf-8" />
<meta name="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
<title>MyBlog - This is a Blog</title>
<meta property="description" content="The blog of mine &amp; a reserved character" />
<meta property="og:url" content="(THE CURRENT REQUESTED URL)" />
<meta property="og:type" content="website" />
<meta property="og:title" content="MyBlog - This is a Blog" />
<meta property="og:description" content="The blog of mine &amp; a reserved character" />
<meta property="ns:my_custom_meta" content="a value" />
<meta name="csrf-param" content="..." />
<meta name="csrf-token" content="..." />

NOTE: namespaced meta (eg. og:title) are supposed to be RDF properties and so they are marked using a property attribute.

Setting and overriding meta tags from controller/partials/other views

You can set any meta tag from controller, partials or views via the set_meta method:

<!-- application.html.erb: the global settings -->
<%= meta_tags :og => { :type => "website" } %>

Override it in a controller:

def show
   set_meta "og:type"   => "article"
end

In a view:

  <% set_meta "og:type" => "article" %>

NOTE: set_meta(:og => { :type => "article" }) is exactly the same of set_meta(:"og:type" => "article") so they will both override the current/default og:type meta tag.

You can also customize and read some of defautls (see below) through handy helpers within controllers or views:

meta_title(value = nil)
meta_description(value = nil)
meta_image(value = nil)
meta_type(value = nil)

Defaults

This is the default options hash:

default   = {
  :charset           => "utf-8", 
  :"X-UA-Compatible" => "IE=edge,chrome=1", 
  :viewport          => "width=device-width",
  :"og:url"          => "#{request.url}", 
  :"og:type"         => "article",
  :"og:title"        => opts[:title],
  :"og:description"  => opts[:description],
  :"og:image"        => opts[:"og:image"],
  :"csrf-param"      => request_forgery_protection_token,
  :"csrf-token"      => form_authenticity_token
}

NOTE: You should supply at least the title and the description, using set_meta or directly as meta_tags argument.

---

Copyright (c) 2012 mcasimir

MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.