ProjectConsole Template Builder is the mechanism that you use to create the underlying templates for the Web pages that are displayed in ProjectConsole. You do not need to know SGML or any other tagging format to create templates for the Web pages—ProjectConsole Template Builder does the conversion for you.
Template Builder comes with many predefined templates that are associated with both Rational tools and third-party tools. You can use these predefined templates as is, or you can customize them to fit your specific needs by adding, changing, or deleting portions. You can also build new templates from scratch.
ProjectConsole executes a template when a user selects a ProjectConsole node that is associated with that template.
Generally, when you save a template you do not provide the arguments that identify a particular object in a source domain. The user who is responsible for Web site administration in ProjectConsole provides these values in the form of an Artifact ID when defining a node for the ProjectConsole explorer.
The arguments in an OPEN command in the template and the value for Artifact ID in ProjectConsole perform the same function.
You can use a template that has no argument for the OPEN command multiple times in your ProjectConsole Web site by defining a different Artifact ID for each instance.
You can create a set of templates that are linked together to create a drill-down effect when they are accessed in the Web site.
To do this effectively, one template is the primary point of contact—the primary template. All other templates are secondary to this template—secondary templates.
Secondary templates are referenced either through hyperlinks that you manually set up using the Insert > Hyperlink function in Word or that you establish using the Artifact Page hyperlink option in a DISPLAY command, where you provide the name of the target secondary template.
Generally, secondary templates do not have OPEN arguments. Instead, they receive that information from the primary template.
Template Builder templates for Web pages are Microsoft Word documents (.doc files). You create and modify Template Builder templates in the familiar Microsoft Word environment. The template development and customization processes are completely interactive. You do not need to be a programmer or learn a macro language to make template changes.
§ You use the Microsoft Word interface to specify structure and style.
§ You use dialog boxes to specify the ProjectConsole Template Builder commands.
NOTE: Do not confuse Template Builder templates for Web pages (.doc files) with Microsoft Word templates (.dot files). These are 2 different uses of the word template.
§ Template Builder templates are Word documents (.doc files) that you use to specify what is extracted from a domain and how that information is organized. They are templates in the sense of repeatable patterns.
§ Every Microsoft Word document (.doc) is associated with a Word template (.dot) that provides elements such as styles and macros to the document. Because Template Builder templates for Web pages are Word documents, each is by definition associated with a Word template. The only thing you need to know about Word templates in the context of Template Builder is that the specialized template ProjectConsole.dot is what provides Template Builder functionality to the Word environment.