Creating Region Templates

Region templates are the assets that format the data files into HTML. You use region templates to place the content, such as text, images, or other simple items, that would not be inside of an element, and the elements. The region templates are used to arrange the elements (limited by the region definition) into the layout desired to be reused as you see fit in the different places in your Web site.

The region template has available to it only those elements that have element definitions listed in the region definition for the template. However, the region template does not have to use all elements listed in the definition. This allows for a great deal of variety in the different templates available.

It is likely that region templates are the largest number of assets you create for the Web site. Because of this, the naming convention you use in creating the region templates is important. The name should help define what the template does, not where on the page it is used or where in the Web site. A name such as "regtem_titlebodyview" or "rt_bodynoimage" would likely be a more useful name when maintaining the site than would, say "regiontemplate14" or "RT_SupportForum."

Since region templates can contain HTML and images and other assets (for example, a region template-specific CSS) that are not part of the data file that is passed through the elements, the templates can be used to incorporate some information and text that is not editable by the contributor. However, it is important to understand that any of that information is not part of the contributor data file that the contributor edits. This means that as you reuse a region template, the data associated with it displays in the same manner regardless of what data is associated with that region template. It also means that the designer is the only person who would be able to modify that particular data. The contributor would be able to create and edit any data that is assigned to the elements in the region template through the placeholder, but anything that is placed outside of the elements, but still within the region template, would be static.