The following topics are covered in this section:
A template is a set of formatting instructions you can associate with a source document. When you check a document into Content Server, you either associate it with a default conversion template, or you can create a new customized template.
The following template options are available:
HTML Conversion templates: These are the newest template types, which can be configured in a cross-platform editor.
Classic HTML Conversion templates: These were previously known as GUI templates. There is no direct migration path from the GUI templates to the HTML Conversion templates. If you select a Classic HTML Conversion template, you may also select a Classic HTML Conversion layout.
Script templates: These run with default settings, and can be edited with a text editor.
After you have chosen a template type to associate with your document, and named the template, you can edit the template. There are two template editing utilities for customizing the appearance of native documents converted to an HTML format. These template editors are used to control the look and feel of the web pages you create.
The HTML Conversion Editor is used to edit the HTML Conversion Templates.
The Classic HTML Conversion Editor is used to edit the Classic HTML Conversion Templates and Classic HTML Conversion Layouts.
To turn a source document into a web page, you can use the default settings to perform a conversion. Alternatively, you can create a template, associate it with the document, and then edit the template, using one of the two template editor options.
The Classic HTML Conversion Editor provides a graphical user interface (GUI) to control the template settings available. It is downloaded onto the client machine the first time the Edit Template button is clicked on either the Edit Templates page or Template Selection Rules page. It is an ActiveX control that must be run on Microsoft Windows with Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher present.
Note:
The Classic HTML Conversion Editor software is installed in the following location:C:\Program Files\Oracle\Content Server\Template Editor\11gR1.You work with the template associated with a document to create a set of instructions that will determine how the source document will look when turned into a web page. Some instructions are applied to the template itself. Most are applied to the individual elements that reside in each template.
There are four options for editing templates:
Element Setup: This option allows you to manage elements. You can create new elements, ranks, styles, or patterns; and create metadata to include information about your source documents in the Web pages you create and in the Head of your output HTML. You can change the relationships between elements and the ranks in your template (and any styles or patterns you may create). See Chapter 2, "Element Setup" for more information.
Formatting: This contains numerous options for formatting the text in your source document. When you create Web pages, you'll spend much of your time in the Character and Paragraph tab dialogs, in particular, formatting each element in the template. Additional formatting options are available in these two tab dialogs when Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are turned on. See Chapter 3, "Formatting" for more information.
Navigation: This option is where you set links for the pages of your Web page, either for Web pages (Page Button Bar and Page Text Bar tab dialogs) or individual elements (Element Button Bar and Element Text Bar tab dialogs). Optional navigation buttons include the ability to open the source document used to create a Web page in its native format. See Chapter 4, "Navigation" for more information.
Globals: These settings are generally for the Web page as a whole, and include inserting an address to appear at the end of your Web page. Some settings in the Options tab dialog are template-based, for example, whether or not to allow CSS in your template. See Chapter 5, "Globals" for more information.
The HTML Conversion Editor's primary goal is setting options that allow you to produce faithful representations of source files using the HTML, GIF, JPEG, and PNG formats. You can use the HTML Conversion Editor to set various options that affect the content and structure of the output.
The HTML Conversion Editor is Java-based and can run in any browser instance where a JRE is present. It is downloaded onto the client machine when the Edit Template button is clicked on either the Edit Templates page or Template Selection Rules page. With some browsers, such as Firefox, you may be prompted for how to handle the file dc_hcmapedit.jnlp. The correct way to open this file is with Java(TM) Web Start Launcher (default).
Here are some of the advantages of the HTML Conversion Editor:
When launching within Content Server, the parent browser window can navigate away, yet the HTML Conversion Editor stays open, and can still save changes to the template.
HTML Conversion Templates are generated as XML files; the Tools menu option provides a view of the Template XML being generated by the editor front end.
HTML Conversion Templates can have multiple layouts. One template can provide different layout types for different document types.
Native doc metadata and optional custom properties can be placed in a converted document's body or metatags.
The HTML Conversion Editor's Navigation Elements are greatly improved over the default navigation elements in the Classic HTML Conversion Editor. They allow navigation to be linked directly to particular styles.
The HTML Conversion Editor enables you to set an external CSS file.
The HTML Conversion Editor gives you broad control over how a template interprets a source document and converts it to HTML.
There are four main HTML Conversion Editor pages for editing templates:
Document Formatting: This page contains several tabs that allow you to customize the formatting of your converted files according to file type. See Chapter 6, "Document Formatting," for more information.
Document Properties: This section of the HTML Conversion Editor allows you to specify predefined and custom document properties to be placed in the head or body of the document. See Chapter 7, "Document Properties," for more information.
Generated Content: Generated content is made up of two kinds of elements: Text Elements, which define special formatting in the output; and Navigation Elements, which help automatically generate navigation links. See Chapter 8, "Generated Content," for more information.
Output Pages: The Output Pages section contains options for defining HTML Output, including markup items, and formatting of text, page layouts, and navigation layouts. See Chapter 9, "Output Pages," for more information.