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Creating a Compound Page Template

In Outbound E-mail, a Compound Page Template is used to transform a Page into an email used in a Mailing. The Page Template specifies how to visualize page-level information.

Before you begin

To create a Compound Page Template for Outbound E-mail, you need the following:

  • Template Builder is installed.
  • You have Template Management rights.
  • You have write permissions for the Folder in which you intend to create the template.

About this task

A Compound Page Template is composed of other Template Building Blocks. You create a Compound Page Template using the Template Builder, an environment for creating, modifying and debugging Compound Templates.

Procedure

  1. From the Windows Start menu (or from the Tools menu of the Content Manager Explorer), open Template Builder.
  2. Click New Compound Template to create a new Compound Template:
    The New Compound Template dialog opens.
  3. Select the location, name and type of your Compound Template in the New Compound Template dialog:
    • Under Content Manager, specify the Content Manager in which you want to create this Compound Template by selecting or typing the URL of the Content Manager Explorer website. Click Go to see the list of Publications in this Content Manager (Template Builder may prompt you for a user name and password at this point).
    • Under Select Location, select a Publication and navigate to a Folder in that Publication in which you intend to create the Compound Template and select the Folder.
    • Under Name, enter a name for your Compound Template, for example OutboundEmailPageTemplate.
    • Under Type, select Page Template.
    • Click OK.
    The Template Builder creates and opens a New Compound Template of type Page Template.
  4. In the Template Builder Building Blocks, drag the Outbound E-mail Template Building Blocks into the Outbound E-mail Page Template:
    • Outbound E-mail PreProcessing
    • Your Dreamweaver Template for generating HTML versions of the email (for more information, see Separating HTML format and plain-text format)
    • Your Dreamweaver Template for generating Plain Text versions of the email (or, for testing purposes, the GeneratePlainTextEmail Template Building Block to produce a plain-text version of your email message from the HTML version)
    • Outbound E-mail PostProcessing
    • Default finish actions (from the default templates)—If not loaded already, you can load the Content Manager default building blocks by selecting Tools > Create Default Building Blocks.
  5. Select the Outbound E-mail Pre-Processing Template Building Block and enter Parameters as described in Default Template Building Blocks.
  6. Select the Generate Plain Text E-mail Template Building Blocks and enter Parameters as described in Default Template Building Blocks.
  7. Select the Outbound E-mail Post-processing Template Building Blocks and enter Parameters as described in Default Template Building Blocks and Adding binary content.
  8. Run the Compound Template by doing one of the following:
    • Press F5.
    • Click the Run button in the toolbar.
    • Select Debug > Run from the main menu.
  9. If this is the first time you are running this Compound Template since you started Template Builder, you are prompted to select a Page to run the Compound Template against. Navigate to a Structure Group in a Publication that contains a Page you want to run this Template against, and select that Page.
    During and after the Compound Template run, Template Builder displays:
    • An item called Input above the first Template Building Block in the sequence
    • Next to the Template Building Block it is now executing, a yellow bar next to it with the text Running... over it
    • If a Template Building Block was successfully executed, a green bar next to it
    • If a Template Building Block failed to execute successfully, a red bar next to it
    • The time spent executing each Template Building Block

Results

You have created a Page Template for Outbound E-mail.

What to do next

Users can use the Page Template in a Page used to assemble content for a Mailing.