Creating a custom activity template from scratch

You can create a custom activity template in the Activity Builder to use as a starting point for your web or dialog activities. You can then create new activities based on the template, making any required changes, additions, or deletions to the new activity.

WebSphere Commerce ProfessionalWebSphere Commerce EnterpriseDialog activities are available only in the Professional and Enterprise editions of WebSphere Commerce.

Before you begin

If you already have an existing activity that you want to copy and use as a template, see Creating a custom activity template from an existing activity.

This procedure assumes you know how to create an activity using the activity builder in the Marketing tool. If not, see Creating a web activity or Creating a dialog activity. Depending on the type of custom activity template that you are creating, you might need the following defined for your store:

About this task

You can build as much or as little of the activity as you want in the template. For example, if each activity you plan to create from the template will have a different start and end date, you can leave these properties blank in the template.

Procedure

  1. Open the Marketing tool.
  2. From the toolbar, click the arrow on the right side of Create New Create New; then select either Web Activity Template or Dialog Activity Template.
    The work area displays at the top of the page, with the properties pane beneath it.
  3. In the properties view, complete the following properties for the template:
    PropertyDescription
    Name Type a name for the template. This name displays in the list of templates you can choose when creating a new activity. The template name cannot be the same as the name of any activity.
    Description Type a description for the template. This description displays in the list of templates you can choose when creating a new activity.
  4. Complete any additional activity properties that you want saved in the template.
  5. Continue to build the template as you would build an activity; for each element you drag onto the work area, complete any properties that you want saved in the template.
  6. Click Save Save to save the template, or click Close to save the template and close the page.
    The custom activity template is added to the folder that contains Custom Templates that you can select when creating an activity. The custom activity template is also added to the Activity Templates folder in the explorer view.