Customizing HTML Templates Tutorial

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The usefulness of a custom HTML template file

Before custom HTML templates were available, the steps required to modify a Z and I Emulator for Web desktop page were as follows:

  1. Run the Deployment Wizard to create a set of output files.
  2. Using a text editor, make customized changes to the main HTML file generated by the Deployment Wizard.

This method was satisfactory in most respects but had a big disadvantage: if you needed to run the Deployment Wizard again in order to modify your Z and I Emulator for Web desktop page, for example in order to add an additional 3270 session, then the customized changes that you had made to the main HTML file were lost.

Specifically, the Deployment Wizard would create a new main HTML file that would not contain your customizations. You would have to manually edit the new main HTML file in order to add your customizations, just as you did the first time.

In contrast, with a custom HTML template file the steps required to modify a Z and I Emulator for Web desktop page are:

  1. Add your customizations to a custom HTML template file.
  2. Specify the name of the custom HTML template file in the Deployment Wizard.
  3. Run the Deployment Wizard to create a set of output files.

Because the customizations are kept in a separate file, they are not lost when you run the Deployment Wizard. If you need to run the Deployment Wizard again in order to make a change such as adding an additional session, then the Deployment Wizard will create new output files which include the customizations specified in the custom HTML template file.

You can use a custom HTML template file with virtually any Deployment Wizard configuration, including the following:

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