Defining an article template for opening HTML articles with Smart Connection 9

When creating a multi-component HTML article in Content Station and subsequently placing it on a layout in InDesign or opening it in InCopy, an InCopy template is used to map the styles used in the article with the style information from the template. This ensures that the styling information added to the article shows correctly on the layout.

The article template to use is defined through the <template> tag in the componentDefs.xml file.

The following attribute is used:

• url. The absolute or relative path to the template.

Configuration for all Brands versus configuration for specific Brands

The template tag is itself placed between the <brand> </brand> tags. These carry an ID by which you can define to which Brands the settings apply.

When only one Brand is defined, the ID is set to "default" and all settings are used across all Brands:

<brand id="default">

To make the settings specific to a Brand, we can replace "default" by the Brand ID:

<brand id="1">

Typically, you would have settings set up for a default Brand, plus additional settings for each specific Brand.

<brands>
   <brand id="default">
      <components>
         ...
      </components>
      <paragraphstyles>
         ...
      </paragraphstyles>
      <characterstyles>
         ...
      </characterstyles>
      <template url="articletemplates/ihcdefault.wwcx"/>
   </brand>
  
   <brand id="1">
      <components usedefaults="false">
         ...
      </components>
      <paragraphstyles>
         ...
      </paragraphstyles>
      <characterstyles>
         ...
      </characterstyles>
      <template url="articletemplates/ihcdefault-web.wwcx"/>
   </brand>
</brands>