Templates allow for rapid deployment of a Flow Information Platform, as well as for standardization of the “KPI Information Layer”, both within a single Flow instance and across multiple production sites.
Templates extend the functionality provided by the model. The following template entities may be created:
- Template Measures (compare to Model Measures)
- Template Metrics (compare to Model Metrics)
- Template Folders (compare to Model Folders)
Additionally, it is possible to create Folders in the Template Tab, which allow you to organize your template entities, much like how folders are used elsewhere in Flow to structure your configuration.
The icons for each of the template entities are similar to the corresponding model entities.
The creation of template entities is very similar to that of model entities, with templates being configured from the Templates Tab much like how you configure model entities in the Model Tab.
There are certain concepts/options that are applicable to templates only, such as:
- Releasing/Unreleasing templates
- Instantiating template entities
- Deriving template entities
- Locking/Unlocking properties in a template
- Updating instantiations or derivations of templates
- Linking/Delinking from a template
- Show the template to which an entity is linked
Additionally, it is possible to configure a Template Server for your organization, which allows you to host templates that may be accessed and derived by other Flow instances (e.g. plants/sites in your organization).