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Blueprints lets you take control of your Publish Layouts and take Member Groups out of the equation. It is designed let you create Publish Layouts based on templates, not Member Groups. No longer will you have to tell your client "Ignore this custom field, it won't display in Template A, but works in Template B" or, "Ignore all these templates in the drop down, just use Template B or Template C for this Channel". Nor will you have to create different channels for different page layouts. You can create a single "Pages" channel, assign it custom fields, and use that one channel for all your page types.

Why I made Blueprints

It was common practice for me to create a single Pages channel, assign it a group of fields, and use that channel for several different page layouts. For example one page type might be a two column layout, and the other a one column. In order to not confuse the client, the 2nd “Body” field would be include in it’s instructions that it’s content did not render in the One Column layout, but only in the Two Column layout. Or I would create 2 or more channels and field groups for each layout, which was time consuming, redundant, prone to error, and more difficult to maintain. I also had clients incorrectly assign a template to a page, because there were 30 in the drop down, then call me wondering why their site was broken.

The Solution

Create Publish Layouts that are assigned to templates. New entries and existing entries honor the template and Publish Layout assignments. Choose which fields are shown, and in what order on a per template basis. One channel can have unlimited Publish Layout options. ¹

Blueprints lets you modify which templates are available in the Structure or Pages publish tab. For each Channel on your site you can select the templates that are available to the user.

If you have a small project, or don’t want to go through the hassle to create multiple Publish Layouts, don’t worry, you can still use Blueprints. The first option in the settings screen lets you turn off the Publish Layout “Hi-jacking” that happens. With this turned off, you will still be able assign preview thumbnail images to a template, and restrict which templates are available in the Structure or Pages template list.

¹Each channel has a default template assigned to it. A revision must be saved for an entry before the the Publish Layout is changed when you change it’s template.

Requirements:
ExpressionEngine 2.1, PHP 5, Structure or Pages Module

Blueprints Demo from Brian Litzinger on Vimeo.

Blueprints Links

• BoldMinded.com
• Documentation
• Follow @boldminded on Twitter

This entry was last updated May 8, 2012, 3:34 pm.

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