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Learn how to use Dreamweaver templates to design a “fixed” page layout and then create documents based on the template that inherit its page layout.

A templateis a special type of document that you use to design a “fixed” page layout;you can then create documents based on the template that inheritits page layout. As you design a template, you specify as “editable”which content users can edit in a document based on that template.Templates enable template authors to control which page elementstemplate users—such as writers, graphic artists, or other web developers—canedit. There are several types of template regions the template authorcan include in a document.

Note:

Templates enable you to control a large design area and reusecomplete layouts. If you want to reuse individual design elements,such as a site’s copyright information or a logo, create libraryitems.

Using templates enables you to update multiple pages at once.A document that is created from a template remains connected tothat template (unless you detach the document later). You can modifya template and immediately update the design in all documents basedon it.

Note:

Templates in Dreamweaver differ from templates in some other Adobe Creative Cloud software in that page sections of Dreamweaver templates are fixed (or uneditable) by default.

When you save a document as a template, most regions of a document are locked. As a template author, you specify which regions of a template-based document will be editable by inserting editable regions or editable parameters in the template.

As you create the template, you can make changes to both editable and locked regions. In a document based on the template, however, a template user can make changes only in the editable regions; the locked regions can’t be modified.

There are four types of template regions:

An editable region: An unlocked region in a template-based document—a section a template user can edit. A template author can specify any area of a template as editable. For a template to be effective, it should contain at least one editable region; otherwise, pages based on the template can’t be edited. For detailed information in editable regions, see Create editable regions in templates.

A repeating region: A section of the document layout that is set so that the template user can add or delete copies of the repeating region in a document based on the template as necessary. For example, you can set a table row to repeat. Repeating sections are editable so that the template user can edit the content in the repeating element, while the design itself is under the control of the template author.

There are two types of repeating regions you can insert in a template: repeating region and repeating table. To know how to work with repeating regions, see Create repeating regions and tables in Dreamweaver.

An optional region: A section of a template that holds content—such as text or an image—that may or may not appear in a document. In the template-based page, the template user usually controls whether the content is displayed. See the Optional region section for more information.

An editable tag attribute: Lets you unlock a tag attribute in a template, so the attribute can be edited in a template-based page. For example, you can “lock” which image appears in the document but let the template user set the alignment to left, right, or center. See Define editable tag attributes in Dreamweaver for more information.

When you create a template file by saving an existingpage as a template, the new template in the Templates folder, andany links in the file are updated so that their document-relativepaths are correct. Later, when you create a document based on thattemplate and save it, all the document-relative links are updated againto continue to point to the correct files.

When you add a new document-relative link to a template file,it’s easy to enter the wrong path name if you type the path intothe link text box in the Property inspector. The correct path ina template file is the path from the Templates folder to the linkeddocument, not the path from the template-based document’s folderto the linked document. Ensure that the correct paths for linksexist by using either the folder icon or the Point-to-file iconin the Property inspector when creating links in templates.

Server scripts in templates andtemplate-based documents

Some server scripts are inserted at the verybeginning or end of the document (before the <html> tagor after the </html> tag). Such scripts requirespecial treatment in templates and template-based documents. Normally,if you make changes to script code before the <html> tagor after the </html> tag in a template, thechanges are not copied to documents based on that template. This cancause server errors if other server scripts, within the main bodyof the template, depended on the scripts that are not copied. Analert warns you if you change scripts before the <html> tagor after the </html> tag in a template.

To avoid this problem, you can insert the following code in the head sectionof the template:

When this code is in a template, changes to scripts before the <html> tagor after the </html> tag are copied to documentsbased on that template. However, you will no longer be able to editthose scripts in documents based on the template. Thus, you canchoose to either edit these scripts in the template, or in documentsbased on the template, but not both.

Templateparameters indicate values for controlling content in documentsbased on a template. Use template parameters for optional regionsor editable tag attributes, or to set values you want to pass toan attached document. For each parameter, you select a name, a datatype, and a default value. Each parameter must have a unique namethat is case sensitive. They must be one of five permitted datatypes: text, boolean, color, URL, or number.

Template parameters are passed to the document as instance parameters.In most cases, a template user can edit the parameter’s defaultvalue to customize what appears in a template-based document. Inother cases, the template author might determine what appears inthe document, based on the value of a template expression.

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Templateexpressions are statements that compute or evaluate a value.

You can use an expression to store a value and display it ina document. For example, an expression can be as simple as the valueof a parameter, such as @@(Param)@@, or complexenough to compute values which alternate the background color ina table row, such as @@((_index & 1) ? red : blue)@@.

You can also define expressions for if and multiple-if conditions.When an expression is used in a conditional statement, Dreamweaver evaluates it as true or false.If the condition is true, the optional region appears in the template-baseddocument; if it is false, it doesn’t appear.

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You can define expressions in Code view or in the Optional Regiondialog box when you insert an optional region.

In Code view, there are two ways to define template expressions:use the <!-- TemplateExpr expr='your expresson'--> commentor @@(your expression)@@. When you insert the expressionin the template code, an expression marker appears in Design view.When you apply the template, Dreamweaver evaluatesthe expression and displays the value in the template-based document.

The template expression language is a small subset ofJavaScript, and uses JavaScript syntax and precedence rules. UseJavaScript operators to write an expression like this:

The following features and operators are supported:

  • numeric literals, string literals (double-quote syntaxonly), Boolean literals (true or false)

  • variable reference (see the list of defined variables laterin this section)

  • field reference (the “dot” operator)

  • unary operators: +, -, ~, !

  • binary operators: +, -, *, /, %, &, |, ^, &&,||, <, <=, >, >=, , !=, <<, >>

  • conditional operator: ?:

  • parentheses: ()

    The following data types are used:Boolean, IEEE 64‑bpc floating point, string, and object. Dreamweaver templates do not support theuse of JavaScript “null” or “undefined” types. Nor do they allowscalar types to be implicitly converted into an object; thus, theexpression 'abc'.length would trigger an error,instead of yielding the value 3.

    The only objects availableare those defined by the expression object model. The followingvariables are defined:

    _document

    Contains the document-level template data with a field foreach parameter in the template.

    _repeat

    Only defined for expressions which appear inside a repeatingregion. Provides built‑in information about the region

    _index

    The numerical index (from 0) of the current entry

    _numRows

    The total number of entries in this repeating region

    _isFirst

    True if the current entry is the first entry in its repeatingregion

    _isLast

    True if the current entry is the last entry in its repeatingregion

    _prevRecord

    The _repeat object for the previous entry.It is an error to access this property for the first entry in theregion.

    _nextRecord

    The _repeat object for the next entry. Itis an error to access this property for the last entry in the region.

    _parent

    In a nested repeated region, this gives the _repeat objectfor the enclosing (outer) repeated region. It is an error to accessthis property outside of a nested repeated region.

    Duringexpression evaluation, all fields of the _document object and _repeat objectare implicitly available. For example, you can enter title insteadof _document.title to access the document’s titleparameter.

    In cases where there is a field conflict, fieldsof the _repeat object take precedence over fields of the _documentobject. Therefore, you shouldn’t need to explicitly reference _documentor _repeat except that _document might be needed inside a repeatingregion to reference document parameters that are hidden by repeatedregion parameters.

    When nested repeated regions are used,only fields of the innermost repeated regions are available implicitly.Outer regions must be explicitly referenced using _parent.

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You can define template expressions for if and multiple-ifconditions. This example demonstrates defining a parameter named'Dept', setting an initial value, and defining a multiple-if conditionwhich determines which logo to display.

The following is an example of the code you might enter in the head sectionof the template:

The following condition statement checks the value assigned tothe Dept parameter. When the condition is trueor matches, the appropriate image is displayed.

When you create a template-based document, the template parametersare automatically passed to it. The template user determines whichimage to display.

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