About Page Templates

What Is a Page Template?

A page template is a portal page that is copied and provided to all of the users in a group. Once the template is in place, the page created from the template will be available to users the next time they log on. Each user in the group has his or her own instance of the page which the user can edit. Edits that are made by a user do not affect any other users' pages.

Who Can Create and Share Page Templates

If you are authorized as a group content administrator, then you can create page templates and share them with the respective group. If you are a content administrator for the Public group, then you can create page templates and share them with the Public group (all portal users).

How Page Templates Are Created, Shared, and Used

If you are group content administrator, then you can create a page template. You first create a page, and then convert the page to a template and share it with a group. For detailed instructions, see Create and Share a Page Template.
When you share the template, you can specify one of the following share types:
Default
The next time each user in the group logs on to the portal, a page is created for the user based on the template. The new page is added to the user's portal.
Users can edit the new page and remove it from the personal portals. However, users cannot permanently delete the page from the portal environment.
Persistent
The next time each user in the group logs on to the portal, a page is created for the user based on the template. The new page is added to the user's portal.
The user can edit the new page, but cannot remove it.

Identifying Pages That Were Created from a Template

In the upper right corner of pages that are created from templates, the following label appears: Created from [group] [Default or Persistent] Template. In the label, [group] is the name of the group that the template was shared with, and Default or Persistent indicates how the template was shared.

Who Can Edit or Delete Page Templates

Once you have created a page template, you cannot edit it. However, you can delete the page template and then create it again. The new template that you create does not affect any pages that were created based on the previous template.
You can delete a page template only if you are a group content administrator for the group with which the template was shared. When you delete a page template, you can specify whether you also want to delete all of the pages that were created from the template. This deletion includes pages in the portals of other users in the group with which the template was shared. For details, see Delete a Page Template.

How Page Templates Differ from Shared Pages

The following table summarizes the differences between shared pages and page templates.
When you share a page with a group:
When you share a page template with a group:
Metadata creation:
The page definition is moved from your personal metadata to the group's metadata.
The page template definition is placed in the group's metadata.
A new page, based on the template, is created and added to the metadata of each user in the group.
Types of portlets that can be contained on the page:
The shared page should not contain a Stored Process Alerts portlet, a Bookmarks portlet, a Publication Channel Subscriptions portlet, or any of the predefined navigator portlets. If you share a page with these portlets, users in the group are not able to see or use the portlets on the shared page.
The page can contain any of the portlets that are included with the portal. (For a list of these portlets, see About Portlets.) New instances of the portlets are created for each user in the group, if the portlets do not already exist.
Viewing the page:
All users in the group can see the same shared page in their portals.
Each user sees his or her own page that was created from the template.
Editing the page:
The shared page can be edited only by a content administrator for the group. The changes are visible to all users in the group.
Users can edit their own pages that were created from the template. The changes are visible only to the user who makes the edits.
The page template cannot be edited.
Removing the page:
Users can remove the shared page from their portals, if the page is not "Persistent."
Users can remove the page that was created from the template, if the page is not "Persistent."
Deleting the page or page template:
The shared page can be deleted only by a content administrator for the group.
Users can delete the page that was created from the template, if the page is not "Persistent."
The template can be deleted only by a group content administrator.
The group content administrator can also choose to delete all pages that were created from the template.