Template components

Templates include default data, and different components that you create and manage. Template components are modular, reusable structures that help you meet the needs of the users who create instances of different types of marketing objects.

To work with templates and template components, click Settings > Plan Settings > Template Configuration to open the Template Configuration page.

Fields

A field is a data entry for a piece of data. For example, fields can record the phone number of the marketing manager, or the data type of an attachment. In Unica Plan, you use attributes to define the fields (or other controls) that display in the user interface.

Fields can be standard or custom. For more information, see Attributes.

Shared attributes

Shared attributes are specialized fields. Each attribute has a specific format for collecting data, such as Yes or No, Single-Select from a predefined list or from a database lookup table. For more information, see Attribute types list. After you define shared attributes, you can import them into different forms.

To create an attribute, on the Template Configuration page click Shared Attributes. For more information, see Attributes.

Forms

A form organizes groups of fields for collecting data. After you define the standard and custom fields that you want in a template, you use a form to layout the fields.

You can then add the form to the Summary tab of a template. For some types of templates, you can add the form to the template as a custom tab. You add custom forms to templates on the template Tabs tab.

In marketing object templates, each tab contains one or more forms. You can use a form across marketing object templates; for example, in both project and program templates.

To create a form, you create the attributes that collect data and combine them into a form definition: on the Template Configuration page click Forms. For more information, see Forms.

Rules

A set of verification functions that can be applied to a form automatically to assure that entered data is valid. For example, you can add rules to automatically approve budget line items or send them for approval.

You use an XML editor to create a rules file, then add it to Unica Plan: on the Template Configuration page click Rules. For more information, see Grid validation.

Metrics

Metrics measure the performance of the object. Metrics are user-entered or computed numbers. Typical financial metrics include cost and revenue, while performance metrics can track the number of contacts and the number of responses in a particular marketing campaign.

Metrics are assigned to metrics templates, which you can associate with a plan, program, or project template. If you associate a metrics template with an object template, instances of that object include the Tracking tab.

You can configure metrics in the following ways.

  • Set up metrics that calculate based on other metric values. For example, metrics can calculate that the Profit of a campaign is the Revenue minus the Cost.
  • Group metrics.
  • Define both the metrics and their groups.
  • Roll up metrics from projects to programs, and from programs to plans.

To create and edit metrics and metrics templates, on the Template Configuration page click Metrics. For more information about metrics, see Metrics.

Workflow

Stages, tasks, milestones, personnel, dependencies, and other data that organize and schedule the work that is needed to complete a project. Workflow is used in project templates only.

To create or edit a workflow template, you define a workflow on the Workflow tab of a project template or in any project instance. You can then save that work as a separate workflow template. A workflow template can then be imported into the Workflow tab of any project template or project instance to replace any previously supplied values.

To disable, enable, or delete workflow templates, or to export them to or import them from another Unica Plan instance, on the Template Configuration page click Workflow. For more information, see Project template Workflow tab.

Data Mapping

If Unica Campaign and Unica Plan integration is enabled, a data mapping file establishes how the metrics for tracking and roll-up established in each system correspond.

You use an XML editor to create a data mapping file, then add it to Unica Plan by clicking Data Mapping on the Template Configuration page. For more information, see Data Mapping Definitions.

Icons

Images that represent marketing objects in the user interface. You use image-editing software to create icon images, then add them to Unica Plan by clickingIcons on the Template Configuration page. For more information, see Icons page.

Attachment folders

You add folders to the Attachments tab so that users can organize their attachment files into meaningful categories. When users add an attachment, they can add it to a folder. For example, a user might add a brochure as an attachment and file it in the Creative Ideas folder that is provided by the template. Users cannot add their own folders to the Attachments tab.

Tabs

Tabs organize information. Different kinds of tabs can contain forms, rules, metrics, workflows, data mappings, icons, and attachment folders. Templates have some standard forms; in addition, some types of templates can have custom tabs. For those templates, you can compile several forms into a custom tab.Adding tabs to templates.

After these template components are defined and available, you assemble them into templates.