Templates

Each template can represent one, or more, experiences that a merchandiser can trigger with a rule. Effectively, it is a framework for bringing content to the page in addition to the core results from the engine.

A template can be used for different things, in 2 “kinds” of uses:

No zones - a visual indicator for a “biasing only” or another kind of rule that supports a management function
One or more zones - use different kinds of Zones, which merchandiser populates with content

Templates by themselves don’t do anything – they are triggered for display using rules.

Tip:

You will need to work with your front-end developers to add each template to your front-end experience. Once you build a template, you can reuse it across multiple rules.

For example, you could have a Banner Template, that you could populate with different banners for different landing pages.

Templates can be endlessly flexible by leveraging the different kinds of Zones.

By mixing zones, you can define which items should be “hardcoded” into the front-end logic, and which you can control through Command Center - minimizing IT deployments and giving you extra flexibility in managing your site experience.

How To Create A New Template

A template contains the following elements:

Name - The name you have assigned to the template.
Template Thumbnail Image - A small template image that provides users with a visual preview of the template. This image will be used as the visual indicator for the type of template a rule is triggering in the Rules section. You can upload a full-sized image and it will be sized down. The best practice is to use a small visual indicator that will make it easy to distinguish rules that use a given template from the others.

Sample Images

You can use these images as your template icons, if you don’t want to create custom ones for your Command Center.

The functionality of the template is not determined by which picture you use, but by what your site does when the template is activated. These are here to speed up the creation of new templates.

Why Use These

The small template icons will help you visually manage your Command Center rules in the best way possible (rule names blurred out for this example to show how visually images guide you quickly):

How To Use

Use the -icon version of the images as the Thumbnail image, and the -text version as the bigger image. Alternatively, you can create a more detailed write-up of what the template does as the bigger image.

Template Image - A visual aid that will show you where the zones go and what they control. Can be same as the Thumbnail image. The best practice is to use a larger image that provides additional context to the merchandiser. E.g., the larger image can contain information on how the template will be rendered, or helpful reminders on how to fill out the rule.
Zones - You choose if zones that will be used by the template when it’s picked from within the rule. The name of each Zone should be aligned with your IT team, as it will be used by the front-end application to position the element correctly. You will fill out the content for each zone (as opposed to the name) from within the Rule interface.

Warnings and Errors

Zone Count Exceeded

When there are too many zones in template, the following error will show up:

"Cannot save template. Content zone count of 101 exceeds limit of 100. Rich content zone count of 51 exceeds limit of 50. Query zone count of 11 exceeds limit of 10. Expert query zone count of 11 exceeds limit of 10. Please reduce the number of Zones."

Expert Query Zone Not Working

If your query as entered into the Zone returns any warning, then the Zone will not fire.

Warnings can be checked via command line or by re-building the query within the reference application.