Template prototype is like a master page template. Anything you configure in the prototype is applied to all page templates. The prototype makes configuration efficient as you only need to do it once. For example, add an area to the prototype to make it available on all pages. You can override the prototype at the page definition level if needed.
Best practice
Put commonly used things in the template prototype. If most pages on your site have the same areas then define those areas in the prototype.
Do I need a prototype?
No, it is not necessary to use a prototype. You can configure a separate page definition for each page template instead. This works fine if you have a small number of templates that are very different from each other.
Prototype is an optional templating mechanism that offers a number of benefits:
Ensures uniformity across templates
Avoids repeating and duplicating configuration
Creates similar templates quickly
Prerequisites
Site module. You need to install the Site module and configure a site definition in order create a prototype.
Configuring a prototype in JCR
Configure a prototype in a site definition, under the /templates/prototype node. If you have the Multisite module (EE Pro) you can configure a different prototype for each site or use the same prototype for all sites.
Example: Prototype in the Travel Demo site (partial example).
which means it supports the same properties as page definition, including common template properties. However, typically you don't use them all. Here are the typical use cases:
areas
optional
Common areas such as footer or navigation that are used on most pages. Each child node is an area definition. Define the areas in the prototype so you don't have to repeat them in each page definition.
templateScript
optional
The templateScript property allows you to define a common page template script for the whole site. For a page to inherit its template script from the prototype you must also define renderType=site in the template definition.
A page template script typically starts with an opening <html> element and ends with the closing </html> element when rendering HTML output. See main.ftl in the Travel Demo.
Example: The travel demo demo defines a template script in the prototype. This common script is used for all pages. It is also the reason why no YAML page definition in the demo has an explicit templateScript property. The page definitions set renderType=site to inherit the script from the prototype, see home.yaml for example.
. You only need a custom class if you want to add your own nodes and properties in the prototype. Implement corresponding methods to operate on those properties in the definition class.
(Git) is a custom definition class used in the Travel Demo. It adds support for a jsFiles node which allows you to define JavaScript files in the prototype the same way a theme defines them.
Configuring a prototype in YAML
Magnolia 5.4.8+
It is not possible to configure a site completely by YAML, but the prototype can be defined with YAML. You have to edit the JCR configuration of the site and create a YAML file.
1. Edit <your-site>/templates in JCR configuration
Remove the prototype node from the JCR configuration of your site (<your-site>/templates/prototype). You may want to keep the node until you have created the prototype YAML file.
Set the <your‑site>/templates@class property to info.magnolia.module.site.templates.ReferencingPrototypeTemplateSettings. This class allows you to use a prototype defined in YAML.
Set the <your‑site>/templates@prototypeId property to the YAML file which actually defines the prototype. The syntax of the property value follows the template ID notation <module-name>:pages/<name>, for instance travel-demo:pages/prototype.
Example: JCR site definition used together with a YAML defined prototype. This example is from the travel demo.
Since a site prototype definition is a page template definition, the YAML file for the prototype is just a page template definition written in YAML. However it requires a special value for the class property which must be info.magnolia.module.site.templates.PrototypeTemplateDefinition (or a subclass).
When a user requests a page Magnolia merges the prototype with a page definition. The result is a merged template definition which is then used to render the page.
The merged definition is virtual. You won't find its configuration anywhere. It is created dynamically at the time of rendering. However, you can access the merged definition in a template script using the defrendering context object.
Example: Merging a prototype (configured in JCR) with a home page definition (configured in YAML)
Prototype defines the mainarea type as list. Page definition adds availableComponents for the area. The result contains both.
Prototype defines a templateScript. Page definition says nothing about script. The result is that the home page uses the script defined in the prototype.
Prototype defines the footer area as not editable. Page definition overrides this decision by allowing footer editing on the home page. The result is that the footer can be edited on the home page only.
Magnolia 5.4.8+