Predefined Layouts

In this article, we will be taking a look at how Predefined layouts are created, published, and submitted.

A predefined layout is a sharable layout where an end user can complete a form to modify a layout’s display and then submit the shared layout with their own custom data.

Predefined layouts by default require approval before being available to publish to your screens. This can be configured as well, to allow an auto approval route.

To create a predefined layout, we first need to navigate to the layouts page. On the layouts page, click on the second button after the create layouts button. This will take us to the predefined layouts page.

1. Once we are on the predefined layouts page, you will see two buttons at the top: Add Predefined Layout and Sharing options. Selecting Add Predefined Layout will take you to the layout builder where you can customize your own layout as well as create fields where your end user custom data will appear. Sharing options will be discussed more after the next couple of steps.
2. After selecting Add Predefined Layout, you can now give your layout a name and tags. Select create to enter the builder.
   1. When adding tags, this is very important because each child layout that gets created from the form will inherit the parent tag. This can then be used dynamically to schedule content dynamically based on tag.
      1. For instance, a dynamic playlist is configured to be looking for content tagged ‘birthday msg’. Similarly, you set up a predefined layout with the tag ‘birthday msg’. Now, when a layout is submitted based off that parent, the child will have the tag ‘birthday msg’ and will start displaying automatically within that playlist as soon as the new layout is published.
3. In the builder canvas, we want to treat our layout as a template where we can set up the core layout and add some templated element. We can keep these elements empty or add placeholder content after adding them since our end user will be filling these elements when they submit the form. Templated fields/elements do not have to be in the form of text either, we can add various elements from the builder that can be templated. Such as audio and video.
4. Now that we have added our text note, we need to modify some of the element properties so our layout will recognize this element as a templet item for our end user to have an option to enter their custom content when the layout is shared with them. To edit the properties, click on the gear symbol in the top right corner of the element and select Properties.
5. In the properties pop up, select the attribute tab. In the tab, we need to change two parameters to give our end user the ability to enter custom data. Enter text for the label field that describes what the text element is for. In this example we will say “Enter a greeting” for this text element so the end user will know that the label will input a greeting.
6. Next select the Templated checkbox, this will enable our element to be added to be modified by end user when a layout is shared with them.
   1. You can also set a max character length for each text element, so a user cannot submit text that will be too long which can affect how the content is displayed.
7. Images and Videos can be configured as well. Go to the same element properties and go to the attribute tab. Here you will see options to make this element templated.
   1. Media library option – you can force the end user to only be allowed to select images from a specified folder in your media library.
   2. File upload option – you can allow the user to upload their own image from their computer.
   3. Max Resolution – this option enables the element to force limits on the image resolution. This can help keep images that are too large from being added to the layout.
8. After setting up your elements to display custom content, click on the publish button where we can then share our template to end users.
9. Now that we have published our layout, we can share our layout with either a link or an embedded iframe. You will notice that we have two buttons for sharing, once share button for our layout in table view and another in our top bar.
   1. Sharing Options – This is a general sharing option where an end user is not given a particular predefined layout in their template form, but they can select what layout they want to submit data in.
   2. Individual share button – This will appear under actions for each template in the table and this will share a template for to a user where the selected template is the default.
10. The other method for sharing predefined templates is to share via folder. Open folder view for the page and select the share icon. By sharing a folder, the end user will have access to all templates inside this specified folder. They can choose which template they would like to use, based off of which templates they have access to(what layouts are in the folder).
    1. When you share by folder, you can specify users who will receive a notification when a new layout is submit from the form. Note: when sharing the other methods, it is a global notification setting for all layouts submitted.
11. In the sharing options popup, we can now grab a link or embedded iframe to share with our end users.
12. Once an end user accesses the link, they will be taken to a template form where they can now include their custom content on the layout we created. The form has a couple fields we should fill out to successfully submit a layout with custom data. The first four fields in the form will let us describe who is making the submission and what the layout is for, but they will not change what is displayed in the layout. (Note, these are custom fields and can be defined in the settings. See end of article)The select layout template field will display the name of the template we want to add custom data to. We can change the layout to another predefined layout from our tenant, but we will stick the Greetings Card we created.The next set of fields are our custom form fields that we set up in the builder. The content entered in these fields is what we will see show up in our layout once submitted. We can put in “Welcome to Hawaii!!!” for the first field and our name in the second field. After these changes we can now preview our layout and submit it.
13. Now that we have submitted, our layout will appear in the layouts page with our custom user data on top of our predefined layout. The layouts will get submit in ‘Draft’ status by default, to approve and display simply publish the layout. Please consult the layouts and advanced layouts knowledge base articles on publishing and previewing a layout.
14. The final layout that has been submitted by our user should now appear like the image below:

Custom Configuration of Predefined Layouts

1. Navigate to settings and click on the ‘Predefined Layouts’ tab along the top
2. On this settings page, your admin user will have access to
   1. Configure submission notifications – this is a general setting that applies to all layouts being submitted(does not include the folder based notification configuration mentioned above in step 11a.
   2. Custom Form Fields – the fields can be configured to your liking. Required fields can be set here as well.
   3. Custom Form Style – the form can be customized to your branding.
   4. Auto Publish – You can enable the layouts to not need the approval workflow.