[SOLVED] Export Templates: No help available in the documentation
How Do I?
I’m rearranging my templates into better template groups this morning and I notice the action drop-down below the template list has two options: “Delete” and “Export Templates”. I wanted to delete a couple templates since I’d duplicated them in the new group already, so I did. But then I wondered what “Export Templates” would do for me. So I go over to the docs and do a search for “export templates” to see what the explanation of this feature is and what it does, but weirdly there is nothing.
There ought to be a documentation entry on both these functions under Template Overview.
This is just my opinion, but never, ever should you see something in the Control Panel and not be able to find a corresponding entry for that function in the user documentation. Even if it’s as self-explanatory as “Delete”. You’ve got “Creating a Template” in there, you should also have “Deleting a Template” and “Exporting a Template”.
WordPress got as ubiquitous as it is by being moron-friendly. I’m happy to be EE’s resident moron, keeping you all on the right track. lol
Ok, wow, that’s just terrible.
I picked a random unnecessary template to check this out on, since the action drop-down doesn’t even appear unless you have a template checked. So I picked one template, chose “export templates” and hit submit, and it created a zip file to download that has every single template group, template, partial, and variable on my installation. Wasn’t expecting that.
The next question is, why do I have to chose a template and submit, if you’re just going to vomit out everything? Export All Templates should just be a button on that screen somewhere… and hey I just noticed it is, next to the search bar. So that really should not be in the action drop-down.
@Iki. Thanks for the heads up regarding that feature not being in the docs. regarding the functionality, are you using EE 6.0.3? From what you’re describing, it sounds like you’re still in v5 or previous. In version 6, I’m able to export templates without selecting any templates first. Also, when you hover over the Export Templates button, the tool tip is “Export All Templates”
also. updated docs. https://docs.expressionengine.com/latest/control-panel/template-manager.html#export-templates Thanks again for bringing that to our attention
Hey Andy, thanks for adding the entry!
I’ve only ever had EE6.0.3 installed and functioning. Version 3.4 is the last time I tried to make a site with EE, and I just didn’t have the patience to deal with researching every single thing I wanted to do. But now, hey, mastering this software is my new mission in life, and I’m sorry you have to deal with the fallout of that! 😊
Yes, there is the export button you included in your post, which exports all the templates in a .zip, which is awesome.
But when you check a specific template, a dropdown list appears at the bottom that says “-with selected-” with a submit button. To me, that means, whatever I chose to do with the submit button will only effect whatever template I’ve selected. The “delete” function using that submit button certainly works that way. But if I select a single template and chose “export templates”, it exports EVERY template, not just the one I selected.
See what I mean? “Export Templates” shouldn’t be in the “-with selected-” dropdown unless it’s only going to export what I’ve selected.
Is that a little clearer?
sorry. yes, I saw what you meant with the dropdown as well. I’ll open a feature request to remove it as a I agree it’s not needed there. Probably won’t be in the next version, but should be soon.
I figured it was probably some kind of legacy functionality that used to make sense but with all the changes every version, it got lost in the shuffle. No rush, it’s not like it’s a code breaker, it’s just a “well that’s stupid”. 😉
Thanks for all you do, Andy, and keep it up!
well that was pretty quick and painless. I’ve submitted a PR, you can follow the issue here: https://github.com/ExpressionEngine/ExpressionEngine/issues/1068