To get started, click on Site Templates in the Sites section of the Control Panel. Here, you can add, manage, or delete Site templates. You can also configure the permissions of Site templates. As long as a Site is linked to the Site template it was created from, changes to the Site template’s pages, apps, and app configurations are propagated to the Site. Changes to a Site template’s content, however, are not propagated to existing Sites that are linked to the Site template. You’ll learn about the propagation of changes between Site templates and Sites in more detail in the section on Site template use cases below.
To manage a Site Template’s pages,
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Click on Site Templates in the Control Panel.
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Select the Actions icon (
) and then Manage for an existing template.
If you open the main Menu on the left side of your screen (if necessary), the Site Template is selected in the Site Administration dropdown menu. You’re provided similar options as a regular Site, including Build, Content, Configuration, and Publishing. By default, the Manage Interface opens Build → Pages. From here, you can add or remove pages from a Site Template or select themes and layout templates to apply to the Site Template. You can also configure each page to have any theme, any layout template, and any number of applications, just like a page of a regular Site. As with Site pages, you can organize a Site Template’s pages into hierarchies. When you create a Site using a Site template, the configuration of pages and apps is copied from the template to the Site. By default, all changes made to the Site template are automatically copied to Sites based on that template.
The Content section offers separate repositories for content related apps based on your Site Template. For instance, by clicking Polls from the Content section, you can create a poll question that is only available for that specific Site template. Assets created within your template’s Content section can only be accessed by Sites using the template.
The Configuration section includes Widget Templates and Mobile Device configuration options for your Site Template. Also, nested in the Configuration section is the Site Template Settings. This edits the template’s name and description while also offering boolean options for activating your Site template and allowing Site administrators to modify pages associated with your template.
The following figure displays the form shown when editing the Department template’s settings:
Figure 1: Site templates have several configurable options including the option to allow Site administrators to modify pages associated with the Site template.
By default, the following Site templates are provided:
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Intranet Site: Provides a preconfigured Site for an intranet. The Home page displays the activities of the members of the Site, search, a language selector, and a list of the recent content created in the intranet. It also provides two additional pages for Documents and Media and external News obtained through public feeds.
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Community Site: Provides a preconfigured Site for building online communities. The Home page of a community Site provides message boards, search, a display of a poll and statistics of the activity of community members. The Site will also be created with a page for a wiki.
Now that you know the basics for creating and managing your Site templates, you can learn about propagating changes next.