Wizdom templates and extensibility

The Wizdom product is characterized by being highly and easily customizable. This is due to the concept of templates and extensibility in Wizdom. In this article, we will present you to these concept and show you how you can use, respectively, templates and extensibility to customize your intranet.

In this article

• Introduction to Wizdom templates
• Employing predefined templates
• Creating own custom templates
• The concept of extensibility

Introduction to Wizdom templates

Wizdom templates offer a simple way to define the look, feel, and functionality of Wizdom modules and web parts so they will meet your exact needs. Each template is made of CSS, JavaScript, and HTML that defines a module and its web parts. 

Most of Wizdom’s modules include one or more templates that each offer different options for functionality, look, and feel of the module and it’s web parts. E.g. one template for the Corporate News web part will show five highlighted news at a time while another will only show one, one template will make the highlighted news slide while others offer a static view.

Example of two different templates for the Corporate News web part

You can either employ a predefined template or create your own. In Wizdom Configuration Center you will have an overview of all templates defined for Wizdom’s modules.

Go to the ‘Modules’ section in the Wizdom Configuration Center. Clicking on a module and then the ‘Template’ tab within that module, you will see all templates available for the particular module.

Templates for Wizdom on the modern experiences have its own tab in the module administration of all Wizdom modules. This tab is called ‘Modern Templates’.

Often the different parts of a module will have a template of its own.

E.g. the Noticeboard module have a template that defines the look, feel, and functionality of news users meet when they have opened a news to read it, a selection of templates to choose between that defines the look and feel of the list of news seen in the news feed, a template that defines the look, feel and functionality of the interface users meet when they are writing news, etc.

In this way, all or parts of a module and its web parts can be configured to meet unique needs by the means of templates.

Employing predefined templates

Each Wizdom web part employed on intranet pages uses one or more templates that define the look, feel, and functionality of the particular web part.

To define which template a web part should employ, take the following steps:

1) Start by editing the page by pressing the edit icon in the utility navigation.

Some browsers will not show the edit icon. If this is the case for you, you can edit the page by pressing the setting wheel and then click ‘edit page’.

2) Press the ‘Settings’ button in the web part.

3) In the Window that appears, click the small triangle under ‘Template’ and select the template you’d like to employ. Remember to click ‘SAVE’ before checking in and publishing your changes. The web part will now use the template you have selected.

Creating own custom templates

By the means of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript you can create own templates to customize Wizdom’s modules and their web parts. This is done from Wizdom Configuration Site.

To create own custom templates take the following steps:

1) Go to the ‘Modules’ in Wizdom Configuration Center (modules in the ‘Admin’ section does not include templates). Clicking on a module and then the ‘Template’ tab within that module, you will see all templates defined for the particular module.

Templates marked with a blue sign with the text ‘System’ are predefined templates that comes with the Wizdom product. Templates marked with a green sign with the text ‘Created’ are predefined templates custom created for your organization.

2) Select a template and press ‘Save as’. This will create a copy of the template you have selected. This means, it pays to select a predefined template that resembles the result you wish to achieve. If you wish to start from scratch, just delete the code in the template.

3) Write the HTML, CSS, and/or JavaScript you wish for the module. You can write the CSS directly in the template, but a better practice is to write the CSS in Wizdom’s ‘Design & Branding’ module using the Custom Styling tool and call it by a class in the template.

4) Click ‘Save’ and you have created a template with your own custom features and styling that you can now employ in a web part.

The concept of extensibility

Wizdom extensibility allows for more advanced customizations than Wizdom templates does. 

Even though Wizdom includes a wide selection of features, some businesses have very unique needs that is not met by the product out-of-the-box. Perhaps an organization wish to add custom features to some of Wizdom’s modules, to develop own custom modules for their Wizdom application, or maybe the organization have 3th party business applications they would like to integrate with their digital workplace based on Wizdom and SharePoint. That could e.g. be a document management or a time management system.

The concept of extensibility in Wizdom allows these organizations to easily customize Wizdom to meet their needs. The customizations made will be fully supported and compatible with future Wizdom and SharePoint updates.

The extensibility concept in Wizdom is based on standard web technology, like JavaScript, REST API, and webhooks. Developers with these skills can customize and extend the Wizdom product for their organization using a coding language they are already familiar with.