Templates

The Designer is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) tool to create templates. This topic gets you started. It explains how to create a template, what is found in a template file, and how output can be generated.

Creating a template

In the Welcome screen that appears after startup, get off to a flying start choosing Browse Template Wizards. Scroll down to see all the Template Wizards. After deciding which output channel – print, email or web – will be prevalent in your template, select a template.

The Template Wizards can also be accessed from the menu: click File, click New, expand the Template folder, and then expand one of the templates folders.

There are Wizards for the three types of output channels, or contexts as they are called in the Designer: Print, Email and Web.
See:

After creating a template you can add the other contexts (see Contexts), as well as extra sections (see Sections), to the template.
It is, however, not possible to use a Template Wizard when adding a context or section to an existing template.

If an Email context is going to be part of the template, it is recommended to start with an Email Template Wizard; see Creating an Email template with a Wizard. After creating a template, contexts can be added to it, but that can not be done with a wizard.

Saving a template

A Designer template file has the extension .OL-template. It is a zip file that includes up to 3 contexts, all the related resources and scripts, and (optionally) a link to a Data Mapping Configuration.

To save a template for the first time, select File > Save as. After that you can save the template by selecting File > Save or pressing Ctrl+S.

When more than one resource (template or data mapping configuration) is open and the Designer software is closed, the Save Resources dialog appears. This dialog displays a list of all open resources with their names and file location. Selected resources will be saved, deselected resources will have all their changes since they were last saved dismissed.

Auto Save

After a template has been saved for the first time, Connect Designer can auto save the template with a regular interval. To configure Auto Save:

  1. Select the menu option Window > Preferences > Save.
  2. Under Auto save, check the option Enable to activate the Auto Save function.
  3. Change how often it saves the template by typing a number of minutes.

Auto Backup

Connect Designer can automatically create a backup file when you manually save a template. To configure Auto Backup:

  1. Select the menu option Window > Preferences > Save.
  2. Under Auto backup, check the option Enable to activate the Auto Backup function.
  3. Type the number of revisions to keep.
  4. Select the directory in which the backups should be stored.

Backup files have the same name as the original template with two underscores and a progressive number (without leading zeros) at the end: originalname__1.OL-template, originalname__2.OL-template, etc.

The Auto Save function does not cause backup files to be created.

Sharing a template

To share a template, you can send the template file itself, or save the template to a package file, optionally together with a Data Mapping Configuration, a Job Creation Preset and an Output Creation Preset. (See Job Creation Presets and Output Creation Settings for more details.)

To create a package file, select File > Send to Workflow and choose File in the Destination box. For the other options, see Sending files to Workflow. The package file has the extension .OL-package.

Generating output from the Designer

Output can be generated directly from the Designer; see Generating Print output, Generating Email output and Generating Web output.

To test a template first, select Context > Preflight. Preflights executes the template without actually producing output and it displays any issues once it's done (see also: Testing scripts).

Sending files to Workflow

Workflow can generate output from a template as well. For this, the template has to be sent to Workflow.

The Send to Workflow dialog sends templates, Data Mapping Configurations and print presets to the Workflow server, or saves them as a package file. Print presets make it possible to do such things as filtering and sorting records, grouping documents and splitting the print jobs into smaller print jobs, as well as the more standard selection of printing options, such as binding, OMR markings and the like. See Job Creation Presets and Output Creation Settings for more details.

To send one or more templates to Workflow:

  1. Select File > Send to Workflow.
  2. Select the template to send. By default the currently active template is listed. Click Browse to select another template. You may select more than one template in the Browse dialog, and each of them is sent to Workflow (or added to a package file). A template file has the extension .OL-template.
  3. Select the Data Mapping Configuration to send. By default the current configuration is listed. Click Browse to select another configuration. You may select more than one configuration file in the Browse dialog, and each of them is sent to Workflow (or added to a package file). A Data Mapping Configuration file has the extension .OL-datamapper.
  4. Use the drop-down to select a Job Creation Preset to send. Click Browse to select a preset that is not in the default location for presets. A Job Creation Preset file has the extension .OL-jobpreset.
  5. Use the drop-down to select an Output Creation Preset. Click Browse to select a preset that is not in the default location for presets. An Output Creation Preset file has the extension .OL-outputpreset.
  6. Finally, choose the Destination: use the drop-down to select where to send the files. The option Workflow machines lists all the Workflow installations detected on the network. Select File to save the files as a package that can be loaded within the Workflow tool.
  
  • Last Topic Update: 10:07 AM Feb-06-2017
  • Last Published: 2019-05-22 : 2:51 PM