What is the relationship between Inline Templates and Contexts?

There are a number of Out of the Box templates in the Inline Editor as well as Out of the Box contexts in the Dashboard. You can also create your own templates and contexts which will exist locally in your Learning Management System and Dashboard accordingly.

It is important to understand the relationship between templates and contexts so that you effectively build successful content inline as well as maintain a clear list of contexts in your Dashboard.

Inline Templates

Templates are defined using Impact's Inline Editor feature, which uses sets of conditions also referred to as recognition rules to identify pages and page elements within the Learning Management System. Messages and monitors can easily connect inline through the templates.

How are templates created?

Free select mode disabled

Templates are defined by combining recognition rules accessed through the Inline Editor. When the Free Select Mode is not activated, you can find Out of the Box pre-defined templates that will be highlighted when you hover over these elements, as you move around the page.

Free select mode activated

You can also create your own templates on pages and elements by activating the Free Select Mode. They do not have to be defined to create your own template.

Multiple Templates

Multiple Templates

In some cases, more than one template can exist on the same page or a page element, as different recognition rules are applied to each.

What are Contexts?

Contexts are generated in the Impact Dashboard as a result of an action taken on a template in the Inline Editor; they can be connected to messages, monitors, walkthrough steps, support center articles, and categories. Within the Contexts Overview area of the Impact Dashboard, you can see a list of all existing contexts, including the ones you have generated locally and those provided as Out of the Box, as well as what is connected to each of them. To make any changes to specific contexts, you can click on one and take action inside the page of that individual context.

What are Contexts

Information such as context behavior, conditions, type, and screenshots help users understand the location and functionality of each context both inside the overview and inside each context page.

Relationship between Templates and Contexts

Inline templates are first created inside the Inline Editor within the LMS. If no action is taken on a template inside the Inline Editor, then no new context will be generated inside the Dashboard.

Once an action is taken (e.g. adding a message or a monitor) through the Inline Editor, a corresponding context is generated inside the Impact Dashboard. Whenever something is assigned to an inline template inside the Inline Editor, it is automatically connected to the corresponding context inside the Dashboard, considering that the recognition rules of both are identical.

The major difference between contexts and inline templates is that there may be up to four different context types generated from the same template. This happens in cases such as page elements, as these contexts can correspond to one template: on every page (e.g. every course), restricted to a specific page (e.g. only quizzes), on click/hover, or on page load.

Context (and context monitors) names are automatically pulled from their corresponding templates. If more than one context is generated from the same template, they need to be manually renamed on the Dashboard based on their specific conditions/behavior.