Template Basics

When using templates, you define the graphical display in one place, called the master template. You then use this master template many times in your project on multiple windows, thus making a number of template instances. Any changes made to the master template are then instantly reflected in all of the template instances. Using templates early in your project development for any repeating displays, can save a significant amount of time later on.

Without templates, the only way to do this is to copy-and-paste the components each time you want to represent lets say, a motor. This is simple, and it works, but it can cause major headaches and time consuming corrections later on. Because if you ever want to make a change to how motors are represented, you're stuck making the change to each copy of the group.

Template Properties

Because the primary use of templates are the ease of maintaining repeated user interface elements, correct use of parameters is of high importance. Parameters allow each template instance to reference different data elements of repeated data configurations.

This is very similar to the concept of Parameterized Popup Windows. In that case, any Custom property on the Root Container of the window is used as a parameter, and is passed into the window when it is opened. Templates take this idea one step further.

Template Parameters and Internal Properties

When you open the Custom Properties window (right-click the checkered-box of the template and select Customizers > Custom Properties), you'll notice it is different than all other components. There are two kinds of custom properties here, as follows:

  • Template Parameters
    These parameters appear on each template instance, allowing each instance to be configured differently. Commonly, this is some sort of indirection. For example, if you have a template representing motors, you might have MotorNumber as a parameter property. Then you can use that property as an indirection variable in other bindings within the template. Parameter properties are not bindable from within the template master design. When you use the template to create a template instance, the property becomes bindable. This ensures that the property only has a single binding configured for it.

  • Internal Properties
    These properties cannot be used as parameters. It shows up when designing the template master, but it does not show up on the template instances. Internal properties are bindable from within the template master design. These properties are intended to be used for the internal workings of the template.

Indirection and UDT Tags

There are two primary ways to achieve indirection when using templates. Let's continue to use the example of a motor. Your system has many motors in it, and your template is used to display the status of the motors and control the motor's running mode. The goal is to be able to drop instances of the template onto your windows, and configure them in a single step to point to the correct motor's tags.

If the tags representing the datapoints of each motor are arranged in an orderly way in folders or with a consistent naming convention, you can use standard indirection to configure your template. You can add a parameter such as MotorNum to the template. Then you configure the contents of the template using indirect tag binding, where the value of MotorNum is used for the indirection.

If your motors are represented by a custom tag data type, you can save some effort and use a property of that tag type directly. Make your indirection property the same type as your custom data type. Then you can use simple property bindings to configure the components inside your template. When you create a template instance, you can simply bind that property directly to the correct Motor tag, and all of the sub-tags of motor are correctly mapped through the property bindings.

The Drop Target Parameter

When you specify parameters in the Custom Properties window (right-click the checkered-box of the template and select Customizers > Custom Properties), you can set one of the parameters as the Drop Target. This allows you to drop tags onto your template instances to facilitate even quicker binding. For example, let's say that you have a parameter that is an integer and you've made it the drop target. If you drop an integer tag onto a window, your template appears in the menu dropdown list of components which is displayed. Choosing your template creates a template instance and binds that parameter to the tag.

This also works for UDT tags. Lets say you have a custom data type called Motor and a template with a Motor-typed parameter set as the drop target. If you drop a motor tag onto a window, it creates an instance of your template automatically. If you have more than one template configured with Motor drop targets, you have to choose which template to use.

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