Base Templates: Build Every Event of a Type the Same Way

A base template is the event template that every event of a type is built from. When someone creates an event of that type, the template sets up its starting structure, such as collaborators, areas, activities, and tasks, so the event begins with the same shape every time.

Setting a base template on each type is the recommended way to work. Your team no longer has to remember which template goes with which kind of job: a Rental is always built from the rental template, and a Full production from the production template. The type and its template also share data through template inputs, so a detail entered once on the event can feed the template instead of being typed twice.

Templates themselves are built from Templates › Event Templates in your organization's sidebar. This page covers connecting a template to a type.

Choose a type's base template

The change saves when you pick. It applies to events created from then on. Events that already exist were built when they were created and are not rebuilt.

Map template inputs to attributes and roles

Template inputs are the values a template asks for when it builds an event, such as a load-in date or the person running the show. Once a type has a base template, the template's inputs appear under Inputs in the Template section, each showing Not mapped until you connect it.

Mapping an input connects it to an attribute or role placed on the type. When an event of the type is created, the input is filled from that attribute or role, and the create-event flow no longer asks for it separately. Your team enters the load-in date once, as an attribute on the event, and the template uses the same value.

The picker offers only compatible sources from this type:

If nothing on the type matches, the picker shows None available, and its tooltip names what to place on the type first. To disconnect an input, open its picker and choose Clear mapping.

An input you leave unmapped is asked for on the Setup step when someone creates an event of this type. If the template needs a mapped value to be present, consider marking its attribute or role as Required on the type, so the event cannot be created while it is empty.

What a base template changes when an event is created

When someone creates an event of a type with a base template, the event is built from that template. The Setup step of the create-event flow shows only the template inputs that are not mapped, and the template's default collaborator becomes the event's default collaborator.

When a type has no base template, the event is created without one, and the Setup step asks for a Default collaborator name instead. Only events created with No type (freeform) can choose a template during creation, under Template (optional). See Creating an Event for the full flow.

Settings that depend on the base template

Several other settings on a type point at parts of its base template:

• A default assignee can join one of the collaborators the template builds, instead of the event's default collaborator.
• The Add occupant to the event effect can add people into one of the template's collaborators.
• The Don't build part of the template effect skips a part of the template when the event is created.

If you change or clear the base template, those settings have less to choose from. An effect that points at a part the current template no longer has shows No longer on the template, so you can pick a new target. With no base template, default assignees and added occupants join each event's default collaborator, and there is nothing for Don't build part of the template to skip. See Effects for both effects.