Expertsystemen

Layout templates

Layout templates let you define how to show new items such as questions and texts on the interface. Remember that publishing your model will override your custom layout with a presentation layer. See branding for more information.

You may define all kinds of standard lay-outs. You define here how xxllnc Expertsystemen creates questions, texts, answering sets and such. Although it is possible to divert from the standards set in the Templates, they save you a lot of manual labour on the interface.

Name

should have a distinctive name for easy selection from within the Interface.

Has title

tells xxllnc Expertsystemen whether or not to automatically add a title to the Node.

Style

defines whether questions should be placed to the bottom or to the right of the previous question on the same node. You probably do not want to add to the right here.

Question

defines the dimensions and positioning of the question.

Input

defines the dimensions and positioning of the answer.

When publishing to the web where a designer defines looks of your application, the only setting you should be concerned with here is the Has title checkbox – everything else will be ignored by the web designer anyway.

Using layout templates

Templates are used to position new interfaces on the preview window. If you publish a model to the internet, this layout will be discarded. Only the order of the interfaces is preserved. Therefor, giving to much attention to the preview is not recommended.

You may apply Templates both before and after creating items on the Interface. The Publisher has two templates predefined; standard and bigstandard. Bigstandard is used for bigger Interfaces like a grid.

Selecting a template beforehand

Any time you add a question or other kind of item from within the Actions panel you may define its layout in the Interface panel. The selector is on [Layout > Template]. Select the template you want to use in the drop-down list:

Apply a template afterwards

It is also possible to apply a template on an existing item on the Interface. It goes like this:

1. Select another Template from the list (where Standard has been selected).
2. In Interfaces, select in the popup menu (right-mouse-click) the option Re-apply current template or press [Alt+F3] to reapply the template.

Adding Layout templates

Add templates as follows:

1. Select the input field, in this case the frame with the Yes and No answers.

2. Perform a contextual (right) mouse click and choose Add to template.

   

3. This will open a window called Templates.

   

4. The template will be called ‘New position template’ by default. Pick a more fitting name. In the above example a fitting name would be inputyesno.

5. A template can have a title, select if you want a title on your template (default is yes)

6. Click OK to confirm.

The management of templates can be done by going to [Resources > Templates]. The template definitions are stored on your computer. The templates can be used for all the models you open with your account.