I’m trying to understand how templates in DTPro (v2) work, and am finding what seems like a bug.
I select a RTF document (“Foo”) in my database, and Export it as a Template (to a newly created folder “Bar” in the Templates folder). Now I hilight a group in my database, then select Data > New from Template and then my new template “Foo”. It creates 2 database entries (“Foo-1”) as replicants–one in the selected group, and another one in the same group that contained the original RTF file “Foo”. That was unexpected.
If, instead, I create a new RTF doc and manually place it in the templates folder “Bar”, then this replication doesn’t happen. If I select “New from Template” as above, only one entry appears.
So it seems that using the “Export as template” feature establishes some kind of association between template files and instances of them, and that was unexpected. Is this normal behavior, or a bug?
So, I’ve tried several ways to reproduce the error you report - without success. I notice, however, that if the templated file is created by selecting Data > New from Template > Bar > Foo in the menu bar that each new instance has a suffix that increments (Foo-1, Foo-2 … Foo-n). But, if we use the contextual menu then the new instances are always Foo-1 and the suffix never increments.
That’s another bug, but not one that’s related to your issue, yet I would wonder which menu you are using: the menu bar or the contextual menu, and if your problem reoccurs in each case.
Thanks for trying to replicate this issue. I’m surprised that you didn’t see the problem, so I created a new DB and documented the following steps to reproduce the bug:
File > New Database [Created TestDB on the desktop.]
Click toolbar button “Group”. Renamed it “TestGroup”.
Click toolbar button “Group”. Renamed it “TemplateMasters”.
Selected “TemplateMasters” group/folder. Clicked toolbar button “Rich Text”. Renamed created file “Foo”.
Typed “TestText” into the file “Foo”.
Selected this same file “Foo” again.
File > Export as Template [Created new folder “Bar” in Templates folder, saved template named as “Foo”]
Selected “TestGroup” group/folder.
Data > New from Template > Bar > Foo
RESULT:
File “Foo-1” is created in group/folder “TestGroup”, AND a replicant is created in group/folder “TemplateMasters” (the same folder where the original file “Foo” was stored).
I had an opportunity to follow your steps exactly as you described. I am unable to get the same results. I get Foo-1 in “Test Group”, and the original Foo is in the “TemplateMasters” group. That’s all. Both are duplicates, one to the other. Neither is a replicant of the other. No other replicants were created. I’d suggest that you might want to zip that test database and send it to DT support (go to support at this address) so that it can be examined directly.
UPDATE: Updated to the just-posted 2.0.6 update (I was on 2.0.5), and the previously described bug disappeared. So I guess we can call this topic closed.