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COVID-19 Content inventory tool

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Please check the content inventory before creating new content related to COVID. Consult the Content structure (site map) for a high-level view of the different types of COVID-19 content and which departments are leading these sections.


How to use the tool

You can use the tool to validate and improve metadata.

You can also identify:

  • what COVID-19 content exists for a particular theme or department
  • duplication or overlap
  • out-of-date materials

See examples

Filters and controls

The left side of the page provides the main site filters – theme, department and four types of content:

  1. Main COVID-19 content returns pages that include substantive information on health, economics, restrictions, etc. Generally, pages accessible from Canada.ca/covid19 are “main COVID-19” content.
  2. Alerts returns pages that include a visual and textual alert, with some content related to COVID-19, usually in relation to a service interruption.
  3. Links returns pages that include a link to a page with COVID-19 content
  4. News returns 5 types of news releases and announcements, including:
    • backgrounders
    • media advisories
    • news releases
    • speeches
    • statements

Filter reset will reset the filters if your results are not what you expected

Columns can be rearranged by clicking, holding and dragging them to the position you want.

The toggles at the top of the page give you additional control over what you see.

Generate an Excel report for internal use

To generate an Excel report:

  1. use the filter tool, to get the results you want
  2. click the Excel button
  3. use the comments column in the Excel report to indicate changes or questions for your web team, program area or communications team

This report may be useful for:

  • corrections
  • removal or archiving of pages
  • adding new pages to your cluster

Data sources

The COVID-19 Web content inventory tool relies on data from two sources:

  • Canada.ca search results
  • AEM web crawl

The results are generated daily and include both pages in AEM and those that are not.

Included terms

The inventory looks for specific terms in page titles, level 2 headings and metadata to identify relevant pages:

  • Canada Emergency Response Benefit/Prestation canadienne d’urgence
  • CERB
  • COVID
  • Coronavirus
  • PPE/ÉPI
  • CEWS/SSUC
  • CERB/PCU
  • CEBA/CUEA
  • Travel restrictions/Restrictions de voyage
  • CECRA/AUCLC
  • Temporary Wage Subsidy (TWS)/Subvention salariale temporaire
  • CERCA/AUCLC
  • Reopening/reouverture

If your pages are not appearing in the inventory

If your metadata lacks certain terms, or the search report used to generate the inventory doesn’t include your pages, your page(s) may not appear.

Try validating your pages’ metadata first:

  • Ensure that one or more of the keywords are used in the metadata of the page
  • Ensure the date modified of the page is within the last year
  • Ensure the page/site is indexed by GC Search (You can check this by searching for the page on Canada.ca)


If a page is assigned an incorrect department or theme, check your author and creator metadata. If the metadata is correct then contact the DTO.


If you encounter scripting errors:

  • Do a hard refresh of the page (CTRL + Reload)
  • Clear your cache for the inventory page


If your metadata includes terms listed above, then contact DTO so we can verify the dataset and make corrections. There is a Submit comments button on each row where you can submit comments to the DTO team.


The tool will get better with better metadata. Make sure you’re following the guidance:

Submit comments to the Digital Transformation Office (DTO)

To submit comments about a specific page to the DTO, click the Submit button in the Comments column for that page in the inventory tool. Comments are sent to: dto.btn@tbs-sct.gc.ca

Comments will help us to complete a QA on the tool. Right now we see this tool as an alpha release, there are improvements and corrections required.

Tool use examples

These examples show specific uses for validation of content and updates to metadata.

The Benefits theme lead wants to ensure there are no outdated alerts

  1. On the left side of the page, select Benefits in the theme drop down
  2. Select “alerts” for content type
  3. Click “Filter” button to show results
  4. Click and hold the URL column header and reposition it to the left of the page title
  5. Select each page URL to verify that the alerts are still accurate


The Department of Finance wants to ensure their COVID-19 pages are following the metadata guidance for titles

  1. On the left side of the page, select Department of Finance in the departments list
  2. Click the filter button to show results
  3. Click and hold the TITLE column and move it to the right of the Department column
  4. A review of results shows COVID appears in some cases, but not all
  5. Click the “Excel” button towards the top of the page to download a spreadsheet of these results
  6. Use the spreadsheet to provide clear instructions to the department content manager
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