headingdate

Headingdate is a metadata concept used in some document management and content management systems to tag a specific heading with an associated date. The date can reflect the publication date of the material under the heading, the date of an event described, or a last-revision date for that section. It is not a universal standard, but a convention employed to enhance navigation and organization within a document or dataset.

In practice, headingdate is stored as a date value tied to the heading, often in ISO 8601 format such as 2025-04-12, with optional time information. In markup, the value is typically held in a data attribute, a separate metadata block, or within the system's schema rather than embedded in the visible heading text.

Uses include chronological sorting of sections, generation of timelines or calendars from a body of content, and improved filtering in search interfaces. Headingdate can support versioning by allowing editors to distinguish content that dated differently within the same document.

Limitations include lack of a universal standard, potential ambiguity about which date to apply, and time zone or locale challenges. Its usefulness depends on a consistent implementation within a given platform.

See also: metadata, date, publication date, last modified, timeline, versioning.