Summary

The QuickTemplate plugin is a wrapper plugin for multiple extensions to JiveSBS that enable fast content contribution.

QuickTemplatesWidget - A widget that works in conjunction with social-tags to allow customer-enabled template driven content creation.  Add/Remove your desired user-defined "template" tag to add/remove templates from a given container. Single-click a template from the Widget to start a Document Draft in your current container (where the Widget is placed)!  Configuration options exist to copy Tags, Categories, and Content from template Document.

Requirements

Jive SBS 4.x and above

Installation

Plugin install through Admin Console.

Next Features

The following are a list of features I know I want to put into the plugin.  If interested, please suggest features and demands, but please note that this is a less than 5% of my time effort, so probably wont have much to deliver above my "Next Features" for a while.

1. QuickTemplatesWidget
   1. Ability to create a templated Blog Post from a template (working, but need to polish UI) (added 01/04/2010 - RR) - Available in RC2
      
   2. Copy Categories Feature to Work. (added 01/08/2010 - RR) - Available in RC2
   3. Explicitly deal with Embedded Images / Configuration to Copy/Strip from Template (right now, just avoid) (In Progress)
      1. Looking to either replace the images out with a placeholder image of same dimension and/or remove references all together.
   4. Cleaner UI, since I'm not a UI guy this is always last.
      1. Bullet-Proof Error Handling and Clean UI experience when occurs

Configurations

Getting Started

1. Install the QuickTemplate Plugin, and restart system per SBS instructions.
2. Create a New Collaborative Document (or use an existing document) in a given Container (XYZ).
   1. Add or determine the tag that you want to use to identify template entries in your Container (i.e. template).  Make sure this tag exists on the document you would like to use as a template.
3. Customize the Dashboard of the Container, and add the Content Templates Widget to the screen
   1. Configure the Widget, and update the Template Tag field accordingly (i.e. template, or whatever was selected above in 2.1)
   2. Specify if you want the Widget to perform the following:
      1. Minimize On Load - Will minimize the Widget to preserve Dashboard space (used for lots of Templates) 
         1. Note:  Currently there is no UI that draws attention to the OnClick Maximize behavior.  Simply click on the "Template" tag to maximize the Widget
      2. Copy Tags - Will copy all tags on the template document to the new Document (except the tag specified in "Template Tag")
      3. Copy Categories - Will copy (if available) any and all categories on the template document and make sure they are on the new document.
   3. Save Widget Configuration
   4. Save Dashboard
4. You should now see your template show up in the Widget.
   1. Click on the Document icon to create a document in the current container from that Template
      1. Note:  Titles must be unique for Documents in a Container, as such, you will need to type in the new Title.  Still need some error checking around New Documents being created with duplicate names.  Be aware of errors you may see here (Added 1/13/2010 RR)
   2. Click on the Blogpost icon to create a Blog Post in the current container from that Template
      1. Note: Subjects of Blog Posts in a Blog must be unique by Day...in the event a BlogPost is created with a duplicate inital name, a random string will be added to the end of the BlogPost to make it temporarily unique.  Be aware of errors that may occur here. (Added 1/13/2010 RR)
5. Your done, enjoy simple user-controlled template driven content creation
   

Screenshots

QuickTemplatesWidget - Personalized Homepage, Space/Community, Social Group, Project

Minimized

Maximized - Updated view to reflect RC2- 01/10/2010 - RR

Click on the Document Icon to Create a Document from the Template, or the Blog Post Icon to create a Blog in your Personal Blog

Note:  If you do not have Create permissions for either Content-Type in the current container, the icons will not appear respectively, as well as, the Widget will not show if neither are permitted.

Widget Configuration

Copyright and License

Copyright 2009 Ryan Rutan under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.