A template defines the properties of a content item and also the interface that enables a content administrator to configure the properties.
You
define properties within the
typeInfo element in the template. For each property, you
specify a name and a property type. You can optionally specify a default value
for a property within the
defaultContentItem element..
You associate editors with properties to enable the content administrator to configure their values within Experience Manager. Properties are generally primitive types such as Strings, Booleans, or Lists. Another type of property is a section, which allows content administrators to insert and configure another content item.
You can choose not to expose a particular property in Experience Manager and simply specify a default value to pass to the Assembler and ultimately to the client application. This is useful for values that do not need to be configured by the content administrator, but are needed by the Assembler for content processing or by the client application to determine how to render the content.
You can define the
properties of a content item within the
typeInfo element. You can define the default values for
these properties in the
defaultContentItem element.
Cartridge properties are typically used for one of the following purposes:
The property values may be intended to be used directly by the client application. For example, the content administrator may be able to enter text to use a heading or link text, or she may supply a URL to an image. Property values can also contain information such as meta keywords that are part of the page but do not affect its display.
The values may be intended for the relevant cartridge handler in the assembler to use for processing, for example, parameters for a query to the MDEX Engine (or another external resource) to return the actual content that the application should display.
Occasionally, a cartridge has no properties (and therefore no configuration options in Experience Manager), but exists only as a placeholder to indicate that a certain functional component should be included on a page. The Assembler inserts the necessary information for this cartridge at query time.
Each property must have a name that is unique within the template. If the property is to be passed through directly to the renderer, this can be any name that makes sense for your application. However, some properties are part of the configuration model for the cartridge. In this case the associated cartridge handler depends on the presence of specific properties in the template.
You specify the property type by adding an element of
@propertyType in
typeInfo.
The following example has three property elements nested within the Results List typeInfo item. The property elements are boostStrata, buryStrata, and sortOption.
"typeInfo": {
"boostStrata": {"@propertyType": "List"},
"buryStrata": {"@propertyType": "List"},
"sortOption": {"@propertyType": "Item"}
}
The following example lists the default values for the sortOption property in the Results List defaultContentItem item.
"defaultContentItem": {
"sortOption": {
"@class": "com.endeca.infront.navigation.model.SortOption",
"label": "Most Sales",
"sorts": [{
"@class": "com.endeca.infront.navigation.model.SortSpec",
"key": "product.analytics.total_sales",
"descending": false
}]
}
},After you have defined the content properties in your template, you can define how those properties can be configured by the content administrator in Experience Manager.
You add content
editors inside the
editorPanel element in the template. The
children editors under the
"editor":"editors/DefaultEditorPanel" element let you
specify individual property editors that display in Experience Manager and
associate them with a particular property.
For example, this excerpt from a sample template defines a property
named
boostStrata:
{
"editor": "editors/BoostBuryRecordEditor",
"buryProperty": "buryStrata",
"label": "${property.boostBury.label}",
"propertyName": "boostStrata"
}Editors are defined in templates with the
editor namespace. By convention, the
propertyName is a required attribute and specifies the
property that this editor is associated with. The property must be defined in
the
contentItem part of the template, and must be of the
appropriate type for that editor. If you define a content editor for a property
that does not exist, or that is of the wrong type, a warning displays in
Experience Manager when a content administrator attempts to configure the
content.
Property editors do not have to be defined in the same order as the
properties in the template. The
"editor":"editors/DefaultEditorPanel" renders the
editors in a vertical layout in Experience Manager, in the order in which you
define them in the template. If you do not want a property to be exposed in the
Experience Manager interface, do not define an editor associated with it.
It is possible to create more than one editor associated with the same property. However, be aware that all editors that you define in the template are displayed in Experience Manager, which may be confusing to the content administrator. When the value of a property is changed, any other editors associated with that property are instantly updated with the new value.
Related links
You can configure default values for Experience Manager editors across the entire application by modifying cartridge templates.
This configuration applies to all instances of a specific editor created based on that template. For details about configuring the core editors packaged with Oracle Commerce Tools and Frameworks, see the "Template Property and Editor Reference" Appendix.
