How-To: Configure Creative Studio Templates

Overview

This tutorial explains how to set up & configure a new template file in Creative Studio.

Questions?

Tool Owner	Creative Studio team
Slack Channel	#alli-creative-engine
Author	Brent Aydon

Prerequisites

Creative Studio leverages layered HTML5 template files to manage dynamic content inputs. Please refer to the technical documentation before setting up a template file to upload to Creative Studio.

Creating A New Template

To create a new template in Alli Select the New Template action at the top of the templates & variants page

Give your template a name & select the asset type you would like to set this template up for
Drag or upload your formatted HTML5 template file into the Upload Template File section
Confirm the template file successfully loads & hit Save Template

Creative Studio will throw an error code if your template file is not configured correctly. If you receive an error code, reach out to the support team to troubleshoot the template files setup.

[Optional] Adding Supplemental Feeds

Supplemental feeds enable you to manage bulk creation with ease by connecting data from Alli to elements in your template file. Think headlines that automatically pull product names from your product feed, or images that populate with hotel snapshots from a hotels feed.

Select your supplemental feed type. Creative Studio currently supports two feed types:
1. Alli Data Source: Pulls data from Alli data (including data from Alli Products)
2. Upload: Upload a static file (useful for quick testing or adding data values that do not change)
Give your supplemental feed a name
Select the Primary Column from your supplemental feed
Click Update Supplemental Feed to save the feed configuration

The Primary Column must contain a unique value such as a product SKU or unique ID. Ensure that you have at least one column that can be used to uniquely identify each data row throughout Creative Studio.

[Optional] Supplemental Feed Column Mappings

Columns from Supplemental feeds can be used to automate bulk creation inside your Creative Studio template. Mappings enable you to connect data to specific inputs in your design files.

Setting Up Column Mappings

Each column from your primary feed (Creative Studio design elements & columns) will appear on the left side of the mapping & you will select the items from your supplemental feed data sources on the right.

Select which feed you will be mapping the column value to
Select the column from your supplemental feed that you would like to assign to the Creative Studio element

Not all columns need to be mapped to a column from your supplemental feed. When using supplemental feeds only assign the values you want to replace with data-driven inputs.