To simplify the creation of pages, define pre-configured
pages that can be used as templates when you create new pages.
About this task
You can configure a template page like any portal page
and add pre-configured portlets. Whenever a new page is created from
the template, the page layout, portlets, and portlet configuration
from the template are copied to the new page. You can also associate
a page template with a community in IBM® Connections or with
a site area in IBM Web Content
Manager.
When such an association is present, pages that are created from the
template can automatically create the associated community or site
area.
Important: When a new page is created from a
template, no reference to the template page used to create the page
is maintained. This action means that all changes that you apply to
a template page after pages are created from this template are not
propagated to any of the pages that exist.
Results
After you save your changes, the new template page is available
in the list of templates when you create pages with the Manage Pages
portlet or the site toolbar.
When you create a page from a template,
the following elements are copied to the new page:
- Portlet entities, including portlet preferences
- Page layout and style
- Theme and skin settings
- Portlet wires for communication with other portlets
- Page parameters
- Page descriptions in all languages
- Access Control configuration. This includes role blocks and explicit
role assignments.
Page titles in any language are not copied.
Hierarchical templates: It is possible to
create a hierarchy of templates, for examples, a parent template page
with a child page. If the page metadata ibm.portal.instantiation.page.include.descendants is
set to true on the parent page, then creating a page
from the parent template not only creates a single page but the complete
hierarchy that includes the children.
Web content associations: If the page template
contains a content association to a site area in a web content library,
the following changes take place automatically when a page is created
from the template:
- A new site area is created. The title of the site area is derived
from the title of the new page.
- The site area is created as a child of the site area that is associated
with the parent page of the new page. This support requires that the
parent page have a content association defined.
- All site area properties and all content items are copied over
to the new site area. The copied content also includes any nested
content.
- The default content association on the new page is modified to
reference the newly created site area.
Community associations: If
the page template contains an association to a community in
Connections, the following
changes take place automatically when a page is created from the template:
- A new community is created in Connections, the name
of the community is derived from the title of the new page.
- The community association on the new page is modified to reference
the newly created community.