Processwire templates and how to create them

Templates are what you will use to store your fields as well as outputting field data when required.

A few basic principles:

• Templates are used to store fields.
• Templates can be used to create pages.
• Templates can have an associated file which can be used to output a page created using that template (i.e. blog-entry template with a blog-entry.php file).
• Templates can be used to simply store data without an associated page.
• Templates do not need to have an associated file, for example, a 'settings' template which could have fields such as siteEmail, sitePhoneNumber, siteLogo etc.
• Templates can use an alternate file.

Admin > Setup > Templates

Your templates are listed on this page. Notice some have not had the 'label' set so the default label is the template name.

You can choose an existing one by selecting the template name, which allows you to edit various things.

Or create a new one by selecting 'Add New Template' which takes you to the next screen.

When you add a new template, after you name it, you can duplicate fields from another template to save you some time if it is similar to an existing template.

Another thing to note is that you can create multiple templates here by having spaces in-between the words. For example, you wanted templates for 'categories', 'contact' and 'product', edit the name field with these words, then select 'Add Templates'.

You'll see the new templates in the list.

So now you know how to create templates. As mentioned, processwire templates hold fields, so next you could learn about adding fields to templates and removing fields from templates.