Templates

Using Process Designer, you can automatically populate the fields on the window that appears when a user clicks an action. For example, the window could appear with the title already entered, or with some dynamic data such as the name of the current user already entered. For more information, see Specifying dynamic values for automatic actions.

However, to add data automatically to the process's main window, you need to create a template using the Template Designer. You can then associate this template with a specific process to enable you to provide a standard structure and degree of automation for the process.

Templates provide a quick way of logging common types of processes, such as Incidents relating to forgotten passwords, or server crashes.

Creating a template

Before you can create a template, you need to make sure that the appropriate window has been designed in Window Manager. In the Template Designer, the default window is displayed; however, when you run the template with its associated process, the appropriate window specified in the View in Window Manager appears.

For more information about Window Views, see Publishing windows.

The Template Designer component enables you to set up a template only for the initial window (top-level business object). All actions and extra windows must be populated within the related process.

To create a template:

1. In Template Designer, expand the Templates tree.
   
2. Select the process object against which you want to create a template, then in the Actions list, click New Template.
   The Details window appears. This is your template window.
3. Complete the required details on the Details window, then expand the Properties grid.
   .
4. Alongside the Title property, type a name for the template.
5. In the Template Process list, select the process that want you the template to use.
6. Set the Overwrite? property to True if you want the value set in the Template Designer to overwrite the Default Value set for the attribute in Object Designer.

You will often need to set this to True. In Object Designer, look for attributes on the template that have a Default Value set – if you set the Overwrite? property to False, then the default values from Object Designer will be used, irrespective of what you set in the template.

7. Click to save the template.
   You now need to add an instance of the template to the shortcut bar.
8. Add a new Workspace component to the shortcut bar, containing the relevant information for the template you created, then click OK.
   When you click the newly created Workspace component, the template appears and follows the process that you selected.

If you want to use a window other than the default window for your process, you need define a View to set the relevant process where you want the window to appear. You do this using Window Manager.For more information, see Publishing windows.

You cannot delete templates if they have been used by analysts.

The template populates only the main window for the process. You can populate the other windows used by the process using Process Designer.

To populate any windows in a specific process:

1. Start Process Designer.
2. In the relevant process, click the Action Instance, Automatic Action Instance or Assignment element for which you want to populate the window, then click .
   The Properties list appears.
3. In the Action Instance Data attribute, click to view the window for the selected item.
4. Type in any information that you want to show on the window when this process is used, then click OK to close the window.
5. Click to save your changes to the process.

Changing templates

When you create a process that you have set up to allow changing of processes on a particular status, then when it reaches the particular status, the Reinitialise action appears in the Actions list. You can also use Reinitialise to switch templates.

For information about configuring the Reinitialise action, see Reinitialise: switching between processes within a module.