Using Schema in Modern Campus CMS

When editing either accordion, set Content Type to FAQ. For ordinary accordion content that is not composed of frequently asked questions, leave Content Type set to Standard.

Standard is the default, so existing accordions will continue working without any changes. If a page contains multiple accordions designated as FAQs, Modern Campus automatically combines their questions and answers into a single FAQPage structured-data object.

Older R25 Accordion snippets

Older instances of the R25 - Accordion snippet may not display the Content Type option. If FAQ schema is needed on one of these accordions, add (or ask the web services team to add) the following row to the table head, then publish the page.

<tr>
  <th class="mceNonEditable">
    Content Type
  </th>
  <td data-name="content-type" data-select-list="Standard,FAQ">FAQ</td>
</tr>

Optional department information

Departments can provide optional, additional structured data describing their own organization by using department folder directory variables. This is not required. Pages already receive Stony Brook University, website and webpage schema automatically.

Departments that want to provide additional organizational information can configure directory variables on their department folder. The information then inherits to pages beneath that folder.

Available variables include dept-name, dept-url, dept-logo, dept-logo-width, dept-logo-height, dept-phone, dept-email, address fields and dept-sameas.

Using both department name and department URL is preferred. The department URL becomes the department entity's identifier, and the department is connected to Stony Brook University as its parent organization.

Because this is an advanced, folder-level configuration, editors who want department schema added may want to submit a Web Support request rather than modifying these variables themselves.

Examples of Department Information

Departments can use directory variables to give search engines and other systems more specific information about their unit. For example, a department might configure:

• dept-name: The department's official name, such as Department of Chemistry.
• dept-url: The department's homepage URL, such as https://www.stonybrook.edu/chemistry/. This also serves as the unique identifier for the department in the structured data.
• dept-logo: The URL of an approved logo or identifying graphic for the department, such as https://www.stonybrook.edu/chemistry/images/chemistry-logo.svg.
• dept-logo-width and dept-logo-height: The width and height of the logo image, in pixels, such as 300 and 100.
• dept-phone: The department's main public phone number, such as 631-632-7880.
• dept-email: A general department email address, such as chemistry@stonybrook.edu.
• Address variables: The department's physical or mailing address. For example, dept-address-line1 could be 100 Nicolls Road, dept-address-city could be Stony Brook, dept-address-region could be NY, dept-address-postal could be 11794, and dept-address-country could be US.
• dept-sameas — URLs for authoritative profiles or accounts representing the department, such as its official LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube presence.

For example, configuring Department of Chemistry with its name, URL, contact information and official social profiles allows the structured data to describe Chemistry as its own Organization while still identifying Stony Brook University as its parent organization.

Departments do not need to complete every field. At minimum, dept-name and dept-url are recommended if department-level schema is being configured.

Publishing and schema updates

Schema is generated when a page is published. Therefore, a page must be republished before new schema functionality or changes to its schema settings appear on the public website.

There is no need to republish an entire website solely to receive the schema updates. Pages can be updated naturally as editors make changes and republish them.

Checking your schema

You can check the structured data generated for any published page using the Schema.org Validator.

Enter the public URL of the published page, not its Modern Campus preview URL.

On a standard Stony Brook page, you should generally see:

CollegeOrUniversity → WebSite → WebPage

Additional schema may appear depending on the page's settings and content. For example, FAQPage will appear when an accordion has explicitly been designated as FAQ.

The validator is also useful after changing a page's schema type or enabling FAQ schema to confirm that the structured data appears after publishing.

Most schema work happens automatically. For everyday editing, web editors primarily need to do two things: choose the Page Properties schema type that most accurately describes the page, and mark an accordion as FAQ only when it contains genuine question-and-answer content. For more on optimizing your content, please see our SEO/GEO guide.