Starting from a template

A template is a whole project made for a kind of business: a CRM, an online shop, a blog. Starting from one builds everything it holds into your new project at once:

• Models with their fields, links between them, filters and forms (see Models), and the components they use (see Components) — a component your project already has with the same address is kept as it is.
• Pages with their content blocks and search titles, and the site’s settings (websites — see Websites).
• The sidebar in sections, and a dashboard of counts, charts and lists.
• Roles for the people who’ll use it, added to your organization.
• The public API and webhooks an app or site needs (see Public API).
• Sample records so you can see it working, if you want them, and a set-up checklist on the project’s home page.

What it builds is your project’s own copy. Rename anything, add fields, delete what you don’t need: it all changes like something you built yourself. A later version of the template never changes a project already made from it.

In Projects → New project, pick the kind (app, website or API). Start from then lists that kind’s templates, with what each builds. Pick one, or Set it up yourself, or neither and decide on the next page. The project’s name defaults to the template’s if you leave it empty.

A new project opens on Get started. If you picked a template, its questions are waiting there; if not, Get started shows the same templates, and Set it up yourself next to them.

• A template only goes into a new project: one with no models of its own yet. A website’s own pages, SEO and content blocks don’t count.
• One template per project. To try another, make another project.
• Picking a template in New project builds nothing yet. If you change your mind, choose differently on Get started.

Most templates ask something first: your business’s name, the currency you sell in, your brand colour, the email your site shows. The answers go into page text, search titles, field hints and site settings, so the project starts with your details instead of placeholders. Questions marked required need an answer before Use this template works; the rest have sensible defaults.

What you get lists the template’s pages, models, sidebar sections, dashboard and roles before you commit. Include sample records (on by default) adds example records to every model, so the tables, dashboard and API show something straight away. Switch it off to start empty.

After Use this template, a progress screen shows until the build is done. You can leave the page: it carries on, and Get started shows where it is when you come back. When it’s ready you see what was made (pages, models, sidebar sections, dashboard widgets, roles, sample records) and Open the project.

If something goes wrong, nothing is kept: the project is left as it was, the screen says why, and you can try again.

• The set-up checklist on the project’s home page walks through what to fill in first, each step linking to its page.
• Sample records are ordinary records: select them in each table and delete them when you’re ready (see Records).
• Roles join your organization’s roles. One you already have with the same name is left as it is.
• Webhooks that need your server’s address are made switched off when you didn’t give one. Add the address on the Webhooks page, send a test, and switch them on.
• Read-only fields: on models your customers write to (orders, bookings, contact forms), fields only your team should set — an order’s status, a payment reference — are read-only on the public API. Whatever a request sends for them is ignored.