What is a Template?

A template is an app which adds the capability to create, edit, preview, publish, and play out a new type of content.

Templates consist of:

• HTML5 code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript).
• Static assets, such as graphics, images, fonts, and animations.
• A manifest.

The manifest describes the editable data fields exposed by the template, as well as other properties of the template such as its name.

Once a template has been added to the system, the CMS allows users to create new content objects based on the template.  Content objects, also known as messages or template instances, consist of:

• A link (reference) to its template.
• Dynamic data entered by the user, according to the template's manifest.
• Metadata, such as name, creation date, creator, and location/folder.

More often than not, a template's primary function is to show something visual on the screen.  This code may be very simple, just populating the HTML page with the data.  In other cases, the code may do more complex formatting, animation, data processing, or even communication with external APIs to fetch live data.

Some templates may not show anything visual, but are apps containing code for data processing, external API or device communication, etc. Usually these types of apps run in the background.  It is possible to communicate and pass data between templates and affect the flow of the play-out through triggers.