Xerte Community Documentation

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====== Admin panel: Templates (management.php) ======

In this area of the admin panel, you can manage the templates that are available for authors to use.

===== Parent templates =====

By default, there is a parent template for:

  * **Site** - this is a Bootstrap template for website creation.
  * **Xerte** - this is an XOT template for interactive learning object creation.
  * **Decision** - this is a decision tree template.  This is now available as a 'page type' in an XOT project and therefore this template can be hidden if required. Any brand new installations of Xerte will have this default template disabled (**new in 3.13**).

**Note:** The template name for most projects will be either ‘Nottingham’ (for the default XOT template) or ‘site’ (for the default Bootstrap template).

Since Xerte was launched there have been no new 'parent' templates developed.  Xerte administrators generally customise their installations by adding sub-templates (see below), as this is technically more straightforward.  However, it is possible for Xerte administrators to add to this top-level (or Parent) list of templates via FTP (only for brand new parent templates).  Via FTP, the new template files will need to be added to the 'Modules Xerte Templates' and 'Modules Xerte Parent Templates' folder.


===== Sub-templates =====

Xerte administrators also have the ability to add sub-templates. Sub-templates are pre-designed XOT, Bootstrap or Decision Tree projects that form the basis of any newly created projects that use them (example sub-template menu in image below).

{{:sub-templates.png?nolink|Example sub-template menu in Xerte}}

[[https://xot.xerte.org.uk/play.php?template_id=81#v38section3|See the Xerte release notes for instructions on how to create sub-templates.]]  Note that if the sub-template already exists, it will be replaced if you upload a sub-template with the same name.

===== Managing existing templates =====

How the existing templates display to users can be edited in this section.  By clicking 'Show' beside the template you can adjust its settings.

| **Option** | **Description** |
| %%The description for this template is%% | You can edit the description of the template here. It will appear in the right column of the workspace, where the author can create a new learning object. Only applies to Parent templates. |
| %%The template has the following name for users%% | This is the name of the template that the author sees when creating a new learning object.  |
| %%The template has the following example (0 means no example)%% | Enter the id number of the learning object that you want to show as an example of this template. Once added, a link to the example will display ('See example') when choosing a template in the Project Templates panel. {{:example_project.png?200|See example link.}}  |
| %%The following users can access this template (* means everyone)%% | If you want to give everyone access to a certain template, place a * here. If you do not want to give everyone access to a certain template, you can enter the usernames of those who are allowed to use it.  This could be useful if you want a 'team template' for specific groups.  |
| %%The date uploaded for this template is (altering this affects the order they are displayed / most recent first)%% | This shows the date the template was uploaded. You can also use this date to determine the order of the sub-templates.  |
| %%This template is currently set as%% | You can set the template to 'Active' (i.e. visible to authors) and 'Not active' (i.e. not visible) with this dropdown menu.  |
| %%Upload a new version of this template (not for sub-templates)%% | Do not use this function.  This feature was originally included to allow for the introduction of new 'parent' templates but is no longer needed.  This has been deprecated in version 3.13.  |
| Only show the title of the Learning Object on the main node in 'Simple' mode of the wizard. | When 'show title only' is selected, the 'page type' visibility can be set for the template.  Toggling off results in those page types not being immediately visible when the editing workspace is opened.  They can be made visible again, by the author, who can toggle them back on within the editor.  This feature is only available for sub-templates, so if you require a slimmed-down version of one of the parent templates you will first have to create and upload a sub-template. |