NOINDEX of sort pages

Bit of a strange one for you all. How does the NOINDEX tag for pages such as sort order, alpha filter etc work? By that I mean there is a piece of code in the head that checks the meta tags file and if the URL extension is in list of pages to block then it serves NOINDEX but are these the only 2 files involved or does it reference to the database etc.

The reason I ask is that I have a new website (not zencart) and I can't figure a way to NOINDEX my sort pages so I would like to code in the same method zencart uses as it works great.

Any help as always is much appreciated.

Edit the file /includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/meta_tags.php (if it doesn't exist, copy it from /includes/languages/english/meta_tags.php first) and add the name of the page you don't want indexed to the list:

// Define which pages to tell robots/spiders not to index
// This is generally used for account-management pages or typical SSL pages, and usually doesn't need to be touched.
  define('ROBOTS_PAGES_TO_SKIP','login,logoff,create_account,account,account_edit,account_history,account_history_info,account_newsletters,account_notifications,account_password,address_book,advanced_search,advanced_search_result,checkout_success,checkout_process,checkout_shipping,checkout_payment,checkout_confirmation,cookie_usage,create_account_success,contact_us,download,download_timeout,customers_authorization,down_for_maintenance,password_forgotten,time_out,unsubscribe,info_shopping_cart,popup_image,popup_image_additional,product_reviews_write,ssl_check,shopping_cart');

Thanks for the reply but my site is no longer a Zen Cart site. I want to know how to add this function to my new site.

Well, since we know nothing about your new site and the software it's using, this is not the place to discuss those specifics. This forum is for discussing Zen Cart.

Simple suggestion which gives you all the information you need: Display your old site's page whose content you want to use, right-click and choose View Source. You'll find there everything you need to replicate to accomplish the things you desire. Repeat as necessary.

There are lots of online resources explaining how to set up specific metatags to guide search engine spiders as they visit your site.

Meanwhile, perhaps the software you used to build your new site has a support forum where you can ask these same important questions so they can help you use their software as you desire? If not, it makes one wonder why you made the change in the first place.

The software is magento. The reason I commented on this forum is because I used to have a zencart site and used this forum frequently and always found everyone very helpful, I was also asking about the system that zencart uses to display there tags to find out how it works and see if I could transfer it accross.
Magento do have a forum but nobody seems to have an answer for it, seems to be the case with most magento faults. I just want to know how zencart does it.

lat9 told you the reference point that Zen Cart uses to determine whether a particular page should get a noindex header tag.
As you said, Zen Cart looks at that list and tells the template whether or not to output the tag.

And you might want to reconsider your move from Zencart to Magneto, considering.

Haha I can live with it, just takes longer to fix problems but the fact my conversion rate has doubled means it was the correct decision.