Storyline Templates

A storyline template defines rules regarding which story element types may (or must) appear in a storyline. Standard storyline templates are included in the Content Store distribution, but you can modify them and/or create additional ones of your own. Here is an example storyline template:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<template
  xmlns="http://xmlns.escenic.com/2017/storyline-templates"
  xmlns:ui="http://xmlns.escenic.com/2008/interface-hints" name="online">
  <base-story-element>
    <ref-story-element-type name="paragraph"/>
  </base-story-element>
  <required-story-elements>
    <ref-story-element-type name="headline"/>
    <ref-story-element-type name="image"/>
  </required-story-elements>
  <default-story-elements>
    <ref-story-element-type name="paragraph"/>
  </default-story-elements>
  <allowed-story-elements>
    <ref-story-element-type name="headline"/>
    <ref-story-element-type name="lead_text"/>
    <ref-story-element-type name="paragraph"/>
    <ref-story-element-type name="image"/>
    <ref-story-element-type name="video"/>
    <ref-story-element-type name="embed"/>
    <ref-story-element-type name="pull_quote"/>
    <ref-story-element-type name="gallery"/>
  </allowed-story-elements>
</template>

The root template element must contain one base-story-element, and may contain one each of required-story-elements, default-story-elements and allowed-story-elements. These groups of story element type references have the following meaning:

base-story-element

Must contain one ref-story-element-type referencing the storyline's base story element type – the one that gets inserted if the user just presses Enter in the CUE storyline editor. It is typically set to paragraph.

required-story-elements

If present, must contain one or more ref-story-element-types referencing elements that must be present in the storyline. When a storyline is created in CUE, these elements are inserted by default. They are inserted at the top of the story in the order specified and cannot be deleted. Nor is it possible to insert other elements above or between them.

default-story-elements

If present, must contain one or more ref-story-element-types referencing default elements. When a storyline is created in CUE, these elements are inserted by default. They are inserted immediately after any required story elements, in the order specified. Unlike required story elements, default elements can be deleted. It is also possible to insert other elements above and between them.

allowed-story-elements

If present, must contain one or more ref-story-element-types referencing the elements that may be inserted using the CUE storyline editor's insert element menu:

graphics/block-element-menu.png

This menu is displayed by clicking on one of the + buttons displayed after and between story elements (anywhere insertion of a new element is allowed). It allows you to select the element type to be inserted.

The appearance of entries in the insert element menu depend upon how the element types are defined. Elements that have an icon (specified with ui:icon in the story-element-type file) appear as buttons on the right side of the menu bar, those that do not are displayed in the drop down list at the left hand end of the menu bar.

The name attribute of a ref-story-element-type element must exactly match the name of a ref-story-element-type.

For a complete description of the storyline template format, see storyline-templates.