The publication date is a date that convey when your article was written and released to the public.
This date is written in the date_published metadata.
You can set the published date with the metadata manager.
The date prefix is a prefix of the last name of the page path that follows the iso date pattern at the day level.
Example: the page with the below path would have a published date of 2022-05-25.
:namespace:2022-05-25-path-name
By default, the published date is in order
If the published date is set in the future, the article will not be visible by the public. See What is the Late Publication Protection feature ?.