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A template is a file that contains the attributes to be managed, their default values and the automatic value formatting rules. Templates are created from an existing document and later can be quickly customized from the Backstage in the Template Preview Windows or fully in the document editing stage using the Manage Attributes window.

When creating a new project, it is derived from an existing template; if no templates are present, a default template stored internally at the application level is still used. If you create a new project linked to a group or organizational unit that contains existing users or groups, at the creation stage, the existing elements are analyzed by an algorithm that obtains the values of the attributes used in existing records and if these values recur significantly, it creates new default values that will then be used when creating new elements within the project, this ensures that when you add a new group or user into a project, all the most common attributes will be filled in automatically.

 

Root Attributes: In the template it is possible to compute attributes based on others, for example the mail attribute can be obtained from sn, givenName and other static strings, in this example mail is an attribute dependent on the two root attributes sn and givenName, in other words the root attribute is used to generate auto-complete dependent fields. Visually, the root attributes are shown in green in the main grid, in the Set Values Window, in the Attribute Preview Window, and in the Manage Attributes dialog box. Stopping the mouse over the column header of a root attribute displays the dependent attributes.

 

Example to create a custom template: create a New User Project or New Group Project, customize the project with the Manage Attributes command, save the project, and in the Recent Files Window use the Create a Template from this project command.

 

 

See also: Projects