Templates and the store

A template is a ready-made building block of boards, record types, tags, scripts, roles and menu entries. You pick it in the store and add it to your tenant — instead of creating every object by hand.

A template adds and never replaces. What your tenant already has stays as it is. That is the difference to loading a saved state, which replaces everything (see Backup & restore).

You find the store under Settings › Templates. The area is reserved for administrators. Three tabs sit at the top: Catalogue, Installed and Own.

The catalogue

The catalogue shows each template as a card with name, short description and badges: Free or Paid, Purchased, Installed, Update version and, for a bundle, Package. A badge such as needs TrakState … or Plugin not available tells you on the card that the template cannot be added here.

• The search box “Search templates” filters by name and description.
• The categories next to it narrow the list; All clears that, Packages shows the bundles of several templates.
• If the catalogue cannot be reached right now, Installed and Own keep working.

A click on a card opens the detail page: pictures and video, the description (switchable between German and English), version, publisher, price and what will be created after adding — counted as boards, record types, tags, scripts, menu entries and roles. Requirements lists what the template needs: plugins with a minimum version, the TrakState version, other templates and, for paid ones, the unlock. Each line says whether it is met, will be installed or is missing.

The detail page offers Add and, for a paid template without a purchase, Buy / Unlock (see Buying and unlocking).

Adding: the wizard

Add opens a wizard with four steps.

1. Name & place

• Namespace. It is a prefix put in front of every name in the template: with the namespace OEE, the line Line in the template becomes OEE.Line in your tenant and a tag Output becomes OEE.Output. Two templates — or two lines of the same template — therefore never collide. Letters, digits and _ are allowed (at most 32, starting with a letter). The wizard suggests a namespace and shows under Final names what comes out of it. If it is taken, it names the colliding object and offers a free one. Operators see names without the prefix in the menu and on boards. The namespace of an installation cannot be changed later.
• Where in the menu? New menu area (a folder of its own at the top), In existing folder, or Not in the menu. If you opened the store from the “Add to navigation” dialog, the folder chosen there is preselected.
• Parts that are there already (packages). If you have added a template of the package on its own before - also master data that came along as a dependency - the wizard proposes Take over the existing installation: it becomes a part of the package with its namespace, its data, its links and your changes; nothing is created. The other parts link to the master data taken over. Install additionally under a new namespace adds a second installation instead. If the template is there on its own more than once, you choose which one is taken over. If the existing version is older than the package’s, you can update it in the same run: after adding, Check the update opens the package update with its preview and reconciliation. A newer version stays.

2. Data sources

Here you decide where the data comes from. For each placeholder of the template you choose Manual entry (an entry board is created with it), an existing tag, a connection to the controller (OPC UA, Beckhoff ADS or TCP) — for lists an existing list or a new one. An existing object is only linked and never changed; the wizard checks that its type fits. A connection that does not exist yet is not created by the wizard — credentials do not belong in a wizard. Create it under Settings › Connections; until then values are entered by hand.

3. Options

Template-specific questions, such as a shift model or a target value, and the switch for sample data. Options can be changed later (see Updating and removing).

4. Check

The plan is built without changing anything and shows what would happen: the plugins (with install or update), the objects under their final names, the menu folders and your licence quota with numbers — for example Tags 120 + 76 = 196 of 500, fits. What prevents adding is listed under Cannot be added yet: a taken namespace, a TrakState version that is too old, a missing plugin, an insufficient quota, a missing unlock. Please note lists hints that do not prevent adding. If the state changed between checking and confirming, the wizard shows the new plan and you confirm again.

Add runs it. TrakState takes a restore point automatically beforehand. If a part fails, everything already inserted is removed again. A template may be added to the same tenant any number of times, each with its own namespace.

Origin

TrakState remembers for every object which template it came from. In the administration lists the prefix appears dimmed, next to a badge from template version. Changed means someone adjusted the object after it was inserted. Own marks objects without an origin. The Origin filter (all · from templates · own) narrows a list. Origin is the basis for update and removal: it is the only way TrakState knows what is yours.

Installed

The Installed tab lists every installation with template, version, namespace, menu, source (catalogue, own, file) and status: up to date, Update available, n objects changed by you or — after an interrupted run — failed, in which case Remove cleans up. Each row offers Check update, Edit and Remove; more in Updating and removing.