In Access, a "template" or "target group template" is a stored target group setup which can be loaded into a project during the initial setup of a project or into an existing project. This can for example be useful in situations where you want to quickly create target groups with commonly used setup. Instead of creating a project from start, you can simply load one or several of your predefined templates and quickly get up to speed with your project setup.

In addition to containing the target group setup, a target group template also contains project settings. The reason for this is that the project settings determine which panels are available for selection in the target group setup. An example of this is that certain panels do not accept PII (Personal Identifiable Information) so choosing the project setting "Collects PII" would make some panels unavailable for selection.

A template also contains meta data such as, the country of the target group, creator and a list of updates to the template containing username and the time of update. These are used for filtering and auditing purposes.

Creating a template

A template can be created by clicking on the "+ New project" button, selecting the project settings that will apply to the target group template, then setting up a target group within that project setup.

When you have your target group initiated with wanted settings then press on the options menu on that target group in the right side list or target groups and press on "Save as template". Give your template a name and save.

Using a template

If you would like to load a template into a project, press on the arrow on the right side of the "+ Add new target group" button under the target groups in your project setup and press "From template" in the drop down list that appears. This will bring up a dialog with the list of templates. Press the "Use" button on the template you wish to load.

Template validation

There are situations where panels in a template you try to load are not compatible with your current project settings. This can for example be the case if you have selected panels in your template that does not support PII but you try to load it into a project that is using the project settings option "Collects PII".

If this happens, you will upon trying to load the template, receive a validation message explaining which panels are not compatible with your current project settings and the result of proceeding loading the template. You can proceed loading the template, in which case the incompatible panels will have been removed from the target group, or cancel loading the template.

Templates list

The templates list is opened by pressing on the new "Templates" link in the Projects view and lists all templates that are available to you. Either it's only the templates created by you or it's also including the templates created by someone in the company in which your Access user is connected to.

Templates list filters

The templates list has a few filters which makes it easier to find a specific template, these are listed below.

Filter by name
Filter by country
My templates/All templates

Template options menu

Each template in the templates list has it's own menu button with some different actions.
These actions are listed and described below.

Create project based on template
Creates a new project with the specified template loaded as the first target group.

Edit template
Lets you update the target group setup of your template. Worth noting is that if you would like to rename your template you can do that by renaming the target group after pressing on the Edit template option. After making changes to your template press the "Update template" button in order to save changes. Changing the template name will not create a new template, but only update your existing one.

Show update history
Shows who has updated the specified template and when.

Delete template
Deletes the specified template.