By Lee Sykes
September 2007
In this tutorial we demonstrate how to use and create page templates in DotNetNuke.
Page templates allow you to add modules, data, and configuration settings to a page when you first create a new page.
This is a fantastic time saving tool, for instance if you have certain modules that you regularly need to add to a page, you can do this automatically with a page template. If you have content in a Text / HTML module that you always use as a starting point, you can have default content added to a module through a page template.
Page templates are a powerful technique and we have discovered an easy way to create them without needing any specialist knowledge or coding skills.
In these video tutorials we demonstrate how to create a simple page template using a Text / HTML module and then we progress onto how to create a page template with multiple modules using different content panes, different containers and different module settings.
Video 1 - Introduction, default page template, code explanation
- Introduction
- Demonstration of using the default page template
- How to create your first page template with a Text / HTML module
- Locating the templates files in your DotNetNuke installation
- Viewing the code from the Default.page template in Visual Web Developer Express
- An explanation of the code in the Default.page template
- Viewing the code for the Text / HTML module settings
- Viewing the settings for the Text / HTML module in the localhost installation
- Explanation of the ‘easy’ method to create page templates
Time Length: 7min 12 secs
Video 2 - The simple method for creating a page template
- Creating a portal
- Delete all of the default modules
- Add a Text / HTML module
- Configuring the module exactly as we require for the page template:
- Title, Permissions, Header and Footer text, Visibility, Allow Print, Module Container, Cache Time
- Adding default text for the Text / HTML module
- How to export the portal template with the Text / HTML module content
- Locating the exported portal template file
- Opening the PageTemplateExample template file in Visual Web Developer Express
- Explanation of the code that we need to extract to create a page template
Time Length: 7min 44secs
Video 3 - Completing your first page template
- Creating a copy of the default.page template
- Removing the Text / HTML module code from the page template
- Copying the required code from the portal template to the page template
- Removing the module id from the page template
- Creating a new page using the new page template
- Demonstration that all content and module settings have been created
Time Length: 5min 56secs
Video 4 - A complex page template with multiple modules
- Creating a second page template which uses links, text / html, documents, account login modules in different content panes using different containers and module settings.
- Viewing the child portal that we previously created
- Adding and configuring the required modules for the page template
- How to create the portal template for the new modules and their content
- Opening the new Links_Text_Documents_Login portal template in Visual Web Developer Express
- Locating the Home page content and the panes tag
- Explanation of the module content in the various panes
- Creating a copy of the Default.page template (Links_Text_Docs_Login.page template)
- Opening the new page template in VWD Express
- Removing the default code from the new page template
- Copying and pasting the required code from the portal template file
- Remove any references to moduleID from the new page template file
- Creating a new page using the new page template
- Demonstration of the new page with each of the modules, content, and their settings included
Time Length: 10min 58secs
Total Time Length: 31min 50secs