Hi
Is there a way of editing or updating a design templates HTML outside of designer?
To give you an example, lets say we wanted to edit a template at a basic level via a web browser, can this be done?
Thanks
Liam
1 Like
You can copy/paste html from a web page (or any editor you want to use) into your template by using the Source tab at the bottom left. You’ll have to make adjustments for resources but it should basically stay the same, depending on how complex the source HTML is.
Hi Liam,
I’ve done this a few times, editing HTML files outside of Connect and simply copying the source HTML into a Connect template. Because we’re using perfectly standard HTML, there’s no problem in that. Additionally, Snippets can be edited outside and even called from Designer from outside locations (on the drive or a network) so that gives you great possibilities also.
Scripts can also be imported and exported from the Scripts pane allowing you to create libraries that can be re-used in many templates.
You mention editing through a web browser… that can be done (there are plenty of WYSIWYG" editors in browsers) but I personally wouldn’t recommend it - they are often not as powerful as what we offer, and you add additional layer of complexity because web-based HTML editors often refer to, say, images as being in a URL or a different relative path so you’d have to tweak the code when re-importing into Connect. Same for Stylesheets, since CSS is often inline instead of being inserted into a separate stylesheet - that can be annoying to deal with later on.
Here’s what I do: I create an HTML file in a folder, and create specific folders for resources: images, css and js. Referring to those exact folders named that way, when you import the resources into Connect it will work as-is, because when the stylesheet refers to, say, “…/images/mybackground.jpg”, that’ll work fine in Connect.
Also remember that you won’t have the full capabilities of the Connect API when working outside the software you can’t use functions like loadhtml(), you can’t preview your design with data from the record, etc.
Hope this helps!
~Evie
I was more thinking an online template editor that can instantly edit the template (eliminating the need to copy and paste into the template etc) so we can edit templates online and submit them to the workflow…
Hi Evie
Yes great help, we are looking to build a simple editor for our clients who use our web to print solution, this way they can edit their own templates (within reason/set parameters).
Thanks
Liam
At best, you could probably give the ability to edit snippets, not a full template. Because if you could edit full templates outside of Connect and automatically create them without ever opening Designer… then what would be the point of Designer? Just remember they won’t have the ability to use any of the special objects we offer - no barcodes, no charts, no wizards such as the Form and Dynamic Tables. No ability to add placeholders either - in fact, no Scripts ability either.
All in all, you can have limited abilities to edit some standard HTML using Snippets, but in order to really create Connect templates, someone actually needs Designer - otherwise you’re just planning to re-create the software yourself which, personally, I wouldn’t recommend. Because, you know, years of man-hours went into this product 
Hi Evie
It would simply be a case of enabling them to edit a name in a business card or position of a logo, nothing out of the ordinary of a normal web to print system and obviously not creating anything
Thanks
Liam