The Template System
How does it work?
- New trackers that are created from a template inherit the structure of the template when they are first created.
- After the tracker has been created it is "separated" from the original template so that changes made upstream do not get automatically pushed down to project-admins. This avoids high-level "template administrators" messing up projects downstream which were loosely based on the template.
- Template users can chose to "pull down" changes made to the original template in a variety of ways:
- Through the "Re-instate default documents" drop-down in the credit-document admin menu. This searches for documents in the original template and pulls down documents which are not already in the credit. This allows template-administrators to create/add/edit documents in a template which project-administrators can then chose to pull down into their project at any time.
- Through credit objective/description text. If a project-admin has not already over-written the objective/description text for a particular credit then changes made to the credit objective/description will be automatically passed-down to project-users that are using the default template-text.
- If however the project-admin has already edited the objective/description fields by clicking on "edit local copy" at the bottom-right of the credit text then it is assumed that the changes are project-specific and should not be overwritten. Changes made upstream in the template are NOT passed down in that case.
- If the project-admin has edited the objective/description and would like to "pull down" the original template text then they should click on "edit local copy" and delete all the text in the objective or description fields. By making these fields blank the text will default to the original template-text which is editable by the template-administrator only.
Why would I want to use a template?
- When any of us have a real project we can spawn a spin-off of this central repository along with all comment history (that has been labelled as “public”) so that it can be
used to manage the new project
- Remember that when you are developing a template for inheriting IP into future projects there is a rather subtle but important consideration with regards to how you
approach the information you enter into the system
- The idea behind the templating system is that all information that goes into any particular project is re-usable for all future projects
therefore no piece of information is ever lost and total documented
knowledge with regards to any package or document is preserved in an
ordered way and grows with every project.
- New projects may be constructed in the future using a combination of the best / most appropriate packages.
Can a template-administrator accidentally delete project information?
No. Once a project is created the project is isolated from the template so that changes made at a project-level cannot be overwritten by template-level changes unless the project-administrator specifically chooses to do so. This is the reason for allowing only changes to be "pulled" into a project rather than "pushed" by a template administrator.
What if a template-administrator wants to push to all projects?
The best way to achieve this is to notify project-users that changes/updates to the template have been provided. Project users will then have to pull the changes into their project ensuring that there are no conflicts with their pre-existing project-specific edits.