Template Archive?

[AmberDa2]

Does anyone know if/how you can archive old templates so that they are no longer visible or able to be used? I don't want to delete them because it will delete the past information on projects they were used with. Thanks! Amber Dallapiazza

[VickyFi]

Hi @Amber Dallapiazza We have recently done this with some of templates that we no longer want people to be able to use, we have removed all sharing permissions from them and that way people can't see them to attach them. Hope this helps Vicky Fitzgerald Telegraph Media Group Limited

[VicAl]

Hi Amber, If you're talking about Project Templates, you shouldn't lose any information on Projects created with that Template. Once the project is created it stands on it's own. But you should be able to change the Template Sharing to remove everyone so they don't see it.

[SkyeHa]

There's (at least?) one piece of information in the project that's lost when a template is deleted after it was used on a project. It's the template field, and we can use it in reporting to find out which projects are using which templates (it provides metrics, helps focus my attention on template usage and can help narrow down problems). -skye

[VicAl]

Yeah that's the only piece I could think of, but didn't mention it because I didn't think it was a big deal since we rarely use the link to the template. Poor assumption on my part. Obviously other people have other use cases where it might be prevalent. But I'm pretty sure (97.6%) that is the only thing you lose by deleting the Template.

[William--]

That raises an interesting point, Skye. Is Template Name worth preserving in a project form's calculated field, e.g. "Template Version"? I'm leaning towards yes, especially if your templates regularly evolve. Our instance is fairly young, so our templates are still very fluid. Something like below, combined with a template taxonomy (e.g. "Ad Hoc Email Launch v5.4") would effectively stamp a project with the template used to open it, along with a version number. You could then filter using contains to display projects made with any version of the template, or equals to display those opened with a specific version. IF(ISBLANK(Template Version),Template.Name,Template Version) Taking it a step further, with each template revision, you can open a project from the template into a "template archive" program in order to preserve each version of the template. This would allow you to roll back template changes; restore deleted templates; or use for reference. I think I've talked myself into doing this. Any suggestions or other template best practices out there to share? William English Disney Destinations

[SamanthaWi1]

You are able to delete Templates with out affecting any prior or active projects being affected. However, custom forms are not the same and if you delete them that affects prior and active projects. So feel free to delete any template. If you want to resurrect it in future, just do what Vicky suggests and "un-share" them. Samantha Senior Specialist, Creative Services 817-424-2186