Use XML templates

Customize content using XML templates as described in the following sections:

• Customize contents using an XML template
• View the template
• Edit the template
• Manually create an XML template

See also Use templates in a bot.

Customize content using an XML template

When configuring a Send an email, Call a webhook, or Create a new file task, customize content using an XML template by performing one of the following tasks:

• Create an XML template, as described in Create a template.
• Manually create an XML template in your cloud file system and use it, as described in Use an existing template.

For information about customizing the template, see Customize content using templates and the tips provided below.

View the template

After creating or selecting the template, click View adjacent to the template property to view the template.

Edit the template

Edit the template using your preferred method.

To edit the template on your local computer:

1. Download the template file from your data source to your computer.
2. Edit the template file on your computer using the text editor of your choice.
3. Upload the edited template file from your computer to your data source.

For example, to download the template file from Google Drive to your computer:

1. In the AppSheet Editor click View adjacent to the template name.
2. Download the template file to your computer.
   For example, if you are using the Google Chrome browser:
   1. Download the template file to your computer by clicking the Download button at the top right of the browser screen.
   2. You will see the downloaded file in the bottom left of the browser screen. Click ^ to the right of the downloaded template name and select Show in Finder.

To edit the template file on your computer:

1. Open the template file in the text editor of your choice.
   For example, on Windows you might use Notepad.
2. Edit the template file and save your changes.

To upload the edited template file from your computer to Google Drive:

1. In the AppSheet Editor click View adjacent to the template name.
2. If you are using the Google Chrome browser, click More actions in the top right of the browser screen and select Details.
3. Click the folder name link to the right of the Location property to open the Google Drive folder containing the template file.
4. Drag and drop the updated template file from the folder on your computer to the Content folder on Google Drive. The template file will retain its original DocId on Google Drive.

Manually create the XML template

Manually create a XML template file by creating an empty text file, entering valid XML, and saving the file using the .xml extension.

The following provides an example XML file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<records>
   <<Start: Select(MyTable[MyKey], TRUE)>>
      <record>  
         <UpdateMode><<_UPDATEMODE>></UpdateMode>
         <Application><<_APPNAME>></Application>
         <TableName><<_TABLENAME>></TableName>
         <UserName><<_USERNAME>></UserName>
         <LastName><<[LastName]>></LastName>
         <FirstName><<[FirstName]>></FirstName>
         <Age><<[Age]>></Age>
         <Computed Total><<[Qty]*[Price]></Computed Total>
         <ComputedName><<_ComputedName>></ComputedName>
      </record>
   <<end>>
</records> 

After the template file is saved to your computer, upload it to one of the data sources described in Configure the data sources for storing templates.

For example, to upload the template file to Google Drive:

1. Ensure that the Convert uploaded files to Google Docs editor format option is disabled as described in Upload .txt templates to Google Drive.
2. Open Google Drive and navigate to the Google Drive folder where you wish to upload the file.
3. Click New and then click File upload.
4. When the file open dialog appears, navigate to the template file on your computer, select the file, and click Open.

After the template file is uploaded, us it as described in Use an existing template.

Each time you modify the XML template you must upload the template file to Google Drive. Google Drive will retain the original DocId. AppSheet will use the last uploaded version of the attachment template.