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This tutorial walks you through creating your first template, uploading and importing your template, and building an issue with your template.
Using your preferred ASCII text editor, create a new text document.
Type the following code (shown in red) exactly as it appears, and save the file as section_default.html.
<dpHeadline>
<dpStory>
<a href="<dpPageForwardUrl>">Page Forward</a>
The code you just typed in contained a combination of HTML and Dispatch tags. The Dispatch tags are <dpHeadline> which represents the headline of the story, <dpStory> which represents the story itself, and <dpPageForwardUrl> which represents the URL of the next page in the issue. Everything else was standard HTML. Note: This tutorial does not cover Dispatch tags in depth. Please view the Dispatch Reference Guide for additional information on Dispatch tags.
Using your preferred FTP client, connect to your Dispatch FTP host. When you connect to your account, you should see a number of folders, including "public_html" and "templates". The "templates" folder is where you will upload your templates for importing by the Template Manager. Go to your "templates" folder and upload the template you created above (section_default.html).
From the main page of the Template Manager, select "Import Templates." If your template has been properly uploaded, Dispatch will find it and give you the opportunity to assign it to a Template Set and associate it with a particular column or section within your publication. If the template was not uploaded correctly, Dispatch will tell you that no new templates were found.
To import your templates into an existing template set, choose "Existing Set" and select an existing set from the drop-down menu. To create a new set, choose "New Set" and type the name of the set in the text box provided. Dispatch allows you to create as many template sets as you want. This is often used for making special holiday sets, or for working out new designs. For this tutorial, choose "New Set" and name the template set "Tutorial".
On the same page, you will be able to associate your new template with a complete section or individual column. From the dropdown list next to the template filename, select "Sect: Default Template". Then press "next" to import the template. If Dispatch is able to import the template successfully, the next page will let you know. From here, you can return to the Template Manager main page, go on to Test Templates, or log out.
From the end of the Import Templates process or the main Template Manager page, select "Test Templates." Choose the "Tutorial" template set and select a single issue to build from the issues listed. Note: By default, the Template Tester lists the ten most recent issues. To select from all of your issues, choose "Full Listing" below the recent issues. Click "next" to begin the build.
You should be able to see the output of your template as it is being built. If you see any messages in red that say "warning", please read the warning to see what needs to be fixed.
When your issue has completed building, you should see a link to the issue you just built. Click the link to browse the issue. Page through the issue and observe how it was dynamically built based on the single template you uploaded.
That's it. Give yourself a hand, this is the hardest Template Manager tutorial to complete! Learning all of the steps such as uploading files, working with text editors, and multiple programs at once takes some time. Once you go through these steps a few times, this process will become much easier. The following tutorials all build upon this template. Thank you for taking the "Creating Your First Template" tutorial!
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