Structured data

The helper can output JSON-LD for breadcrumbs, articles, and organizations. Set the data before the layout calls out().

Breadcrumbs

$this->Meta->setBreadcrumbs([
    ['name' => 'Home', 'url' => 'https://example.com/'],
    ['name' => 'News', 'url' => ['controller' => 'News', 'action' => 'index']],
    ['name' => 'Latest update'],
]);

The list must contain at least one item. Every item requires a string name; url is optional and accepts a string or a CakePHP URL array. Route arrays are built with a full base URL. String URLs are retained as supplied. Positions start at one in iteration order, regardless of the input's numeric keys.

Article

$this->Meta->setArticle([
    'headline' => 'Our latest update',
    'author' => 'Example author',
    'datePublished' => '2026-01-15T09:00:00+00:00',
    'dateModified' => '2026-01-16T12:00:00+00:00',
    'image' => 'https://example.com/img/update.jpg',
    'description' => 'A description of the update.',
]);

headline must be a string. A string author becomes a Person object; you can also supply an author array. The other supported keys are datePublished, dateModified, image, and description. Supply formatted date strings and suitable schema values; the helper does not format date objects or validate the full article schema.

Organization

Merge defaults into config/app.php:

'Meta' => [
    'organization' => [
        'name' => 'Example organization',
        'url' => 'https://example.com',
        'logo' => 'https://example.com/img/logo.png',
    ],
],

Then activate the organization data from a template:

$this->Meta->setOrganization([]);

An explicit value replaces a configured value. The merged data requires a string name. Supported optional keys are url, logo, contactPoint, and sameAs. Configuration alone does not activate JSON-LD output.

Output and validation

out() appends a script for each activated schema. Alternatively, output the individual getBreadcrumbs(), getArticle(), and getOrganization() results; they return null until their setter has been called.

The helper adds @context: https://schema.org, escapes characters that could terminate the script, and pretty-prints JSON when debug is enabled. Invalid UTF-8 characters are replaced with the Unicode replacement character. Other encoding failures, such as unsupported values, raise JsonException. Missing required helper fields raise InvalidArgumentException.

This validates the helper's required fields, not every schema rule. Check the result against Schema.org and your search provider's requirements before relying on it for search presentation.