About Formula Templates

Formula Templates define a set of parameters with default values. Formulas are derived from Formula Templates and allow you to override the Formula Template's parameter default values with values specific for the Formula.

Formula Templates can have one of three states: Draft, Current, or Obsolete. You cannot delete Formula Templates. If a Formula Template is no longer in use, you can set its state to Obsolete. You cannot set the state of a Formula Template to Obsolete unless all the Formulas derived from it are set to Obsolete.

When you click Templates > Formula Templates from the Main menu, the Summary page appears. By default, the Summary page shows the Tile view. The tiles contain the following information about existing Formula Template:

• Name

• State

• Number of Parameters

• Number of associated Formulas

• User who has it checked out (if applicable)

• Upgrade icon (if applicable)

• Keywords (if applicable): The Keywords icon displays a list of Keywords available for the selected entity when you move the mouse over the Keywords icon. In the case of Grid view, a separate column Keywords displays the lists of Keywords available for the selected entity. The Keywords appear in the order in which their individual positions are assigned in the Keywords page.

The total number of Formula Templates appear at the bottom of the summary screen unless you have used filters to limit the number of Formula Templates shown. If you perform a filter operation, the filter icon appears at the bottom of the screen. For more information, see Filtering.

Click the Grid View icon to view the Summary page in the Grid view format.

You can click the tiles (in Tile view) or click View (in Grid view) on the Summary page to navigate to the Formula Templates details page. The Formula Template details page provides the following information:

• Name and description

• Version details

• Current State

• Matches link

• Parameter Groups section which is by default subdivided into system defined General, Input, and Output tabs.

  • General tab - General tab consists of all the Parameters which are part of the General Predefined Group.

  • Input tab - Input tab consists of all the Parameters which are part of the Input Predefined Group.

  • Output tab - Output tab consists of all the Parameters which are part of the Output Predefined Group.

    Besides these nested tabs, additional nested tabs appear under the Parameters tab if you have user-defined Parameter Groups. All Group tabs are displayed even if no parameters are added to the Groups. If a Formula Template contains Parameters of deleted group, then an asterisk (*) appears at the end to indicate that the group is deleted.

• Advanced and Basic filter

• More Details icon - Click the More Details icon to view the Author details and the associated Keywords detail. The Keywords are listed here in the order of position they are set in the Keywords page during configuration.

On the Formula Templates Detail page, the Matches link shows "X of Y" Formulas where:

• Y is the total number of Formulas associated with the Formula Template.

• X is the number of Formulas of the selected version of the Formula Template. For information on upgrading, see Basic Concepts.

For example, if the total count of created Formulas is five, "5 of 5" is shown. After you save a new version of the Formula Templates, and three Formulas are upgraded to the current version of the Formula Templates, “3 of 5" is shown. If you view the previous version of the Formula Templates, "2 of 5" is shown.

When you click the link, the browser navigates to the Formulas summary page, which shows all the Formulas associated with the parent Template.

The Formula Templates detail page also allows you to perform the following:

• Set State of the Formula Template

• View the Version Difference Report

• View the Upgrade Difference Report

• Check in, Check out, or Undo Check out

• Duplicate an existing Formula Template

• Upgrade an existing Formula Template

• Validate the Formula Template against Equipment

• Assign the Keywords

• Print an existing Formula Template

  NOTE: You can view the Version Difference Report only when the selected Formula Template version is greater than 1.