Customizable Activity Templates (CATs)
Last updated: September 28, 2023
Customizable Activity Templates (CATs) allows site authors greater flexibility with the arrangement of Activity Page details. It is an optional, client-facing feature that must be turned on by Super Admins site-by-site.
This page will cover the capabilities, recommended usage, and restrictions of the feature.
This feature regularly relies on or interacts with the Sidebar. Be sure to understand that tool or read its standalone doc before applying CATs.
Summary
Before September 2023, FareHarbor Site activity pages needed to use a standard layout to ensure activity information updated automatically across the site. CATs now allows all elements of activities to be rearranged on mobile and desktop views without impacting the automated price, taxonomy, text or imagery updates to activity previews.
| Before CATs | After CATs |
|---|---|
| Activity Pages appeared very similarly across sites | Activity Pages may appear vastly different site-by-site |
| Sidebar content restricted to specific order and block types | Sidebar content may include any content in any order |
| Sidebar position was locked on desktop | Sidebar may change position on desktop |
| Sidebar content (pricing, media, etc) was automatically placed into page content on mobile | Sidebar may change position on mobile |
Enable CATs
The feature is not enabled by default. It must be turned on by a Super Admin from Admin Settings in the Admin Site Options section.
Customizable Activity Templates are editable by Admin users (clients) once enabled. It’s strongly encouraged for Project Coordinators/Managers to educate clients on site maintenance for builds launching with CATs.
Template Creation
To allow templates to apply to both new and existing activities, they are created as standalone page layouts from the new Activity Templates tab. These layouts can then be applied to individual activities from their Layout tab.
Template vs. Activity Information
Activity Templates allow for detailed control over which settings/content should be set page-by-page and which settings/content can be standardized.
Template Options, Template Background, and Options tabs for Rows, Blocks and the Sidebar will ask the site author to specify whether the content is controlled on the “activity level” or on the “template level”.
All content is template content by default, unless using a row or block that references activity details (see Blocks below for more detail).
| Activity Content | Template Content |
|---|---|
| The template tells the content where to appear | The template tells the content where to appear |
| The activity page fields/Layout tab hold what to display | The template holds what to display (like Preset Content) |
Using the template level option will reduce the need for Preset Content.
Example scenario:
The site author needs photos in their layout to change per-activity, but the same FAQ content is needed on multiple activities.
Set Up:
- The site author places the Photo Gallery block and selects “Set Content on Activity” from the Options tab
- The site author writes the FAQ in a Sectioned Content block and de-selects “Set Content on Activity” from the Options tab
Result:
- The Photo Gallery block will be placed on each activity in the same location, but with no content (it must be filled from the Layout tab).
- The FAQ will be placed in the same location, with the same content, on every activity.
Where to Create Templates
Template creation begins in the new WordPress sidebar tab: Activity Templates
Press the Add New button to bring up the layout editor or select an existing template to revise.
Adding Content
The layout editor here is nearly identical to the Layout tab in any Activity page’s editor, including the use of activity-specific rows/blocks like the Default Activity Content row and Activity: Calendar block.
Rows
All rows available for the standard Activity page’s Layout tab are available in the Activity Template editor.
Important Note: Using the Default Activity Content row will lock other elements of the template in place. Only use this row if you don’t plan to customize the Sidebar.
Site authors may place rows in whatever order they see fit.
Blocks
All blocks available for Multi Column rows are available in the Activity Template editor.
Activity-specific blocks are available, allowing site authors to build templates which change their content depending on which page they’re applied to.
For a list of what fields each activity-specific block references, expand the section below:
Activity-Specific Blocks
- Activity: Badges
- Displays the Badges field from the Description tab
- Activity: Buttons
- Displays the blocks from the Buttons tab
- Activity: Calendar
- Displays the Calendar normally generated from the FareHarbor tab
- Activity: Upsell
- Displays the full Quick Details section
- Activity: Metadata
- Displays the taxonomies only
- Activity: Photos
- Displays the Slideshow Photos field from the Media tab
- Activity: Pricing
- Displays the Customer Types and Prices fields from the Pricing tab
- Activity: Tagline
- Displays the Tagline field from the Description tab
- Activity: Title
- Displays the Activity title field from the top of the activity editor
- Displays the Custom Title field from the Description tab (if completed)
- Activity: Video
- Displays the Video field from the Media tab (if completed)
Sidebar
The Activity Template sidebar editor is identical to the sidebar editor on activity pages.
Sidebar content can be standardized by customizing the template’s Sidebar Layout tab or left to page-by-page customization (each page’s sidebar is customized from its own sidebar tab) by toggling “Set Sidebar Options on Activity”.
Even when Set Sidebar Options on Activity is checked, sidebar blocks can still be standardized by Activity Templates.
Applying Templates
Once your template is finished, name it something which explains what activities it will control (like “Jet Ski Template” or “Global Template”).
Navigate to the first activity you want to format.
From the Layout tab, a “Custom Activity Template” dropdown hosts all the template options.
Selecting the template will not apply it – only saving the page draft or Updating the page applies templates.
When applied, Activity Templates transfer their layout and content to the activity’s Layout tab to customize any “Set Content on Activity” elements as needed.
Any block/row/setting in the template marked as “Set Content on Activity” will be left empty.
Supporting Templated Activities
It’s highly recommended that LSS check the Layout tab when a site’s activities differ in any way from the standard template.
Updating an Activity Template will post changes automatically to each controlled activity page, so long as the content is controlled at the template level (“Set Content on Activity” is toggled off for that row/block/setting).
Are All CATs Requests Extended Updates?
No. For sites with less than 10 activities, please treat requests to enable CATs/reformat all activities as regular tickets.
For requests that will reformat 10 activities or more, please treat it as an Extended Update.
If A Page Needs to Differ From The Template:
Applying a template copies the layout and template content to each Activity’s Layout tab, but will lock content edits in the Layout tab for elements with Set Content on Activity: Off.
Adjusting content control from the template editor after applying them to activity pages will not remove any content brought over from applying the templates initially.
This means you can edit only the pages that need to differ afterwards with no risk to the activities that should follow the original template content.
Feature Restrictions
- There is no way to save an existing layout as a Template.
- There is no way to preview Templates without at least applying to an Activity draft and previewing that page.
- There is no way to see which activities are controlled by each template.
- If there is no content for an Activity-specific row/block on the applied activity, the space will remain empty.
- Changing an existing element to “Set Content on Activity: No” will override previous changes made at the activity level if unique content was placed in Layout.
- Similarly, applying a template where an activity already had Layout content will not save the previous content.