sethLabels/docs/TEMPLATE-STYLE.md

gLabels Product Template Style Guide

This file describes the prefered style for product template submissions. See PRODUCT-TEMPLATES.md located in this directory for detailed systax documentation.

Organization

Template files are located in the templates directory. The following is the naming convention for these files:

brand-class-templates.xml

Where brand is the lowercase brand name, and class is the media size class (currently iso, us, and other).

Templates should be sorted in natural order by part number within each file. An exception to this rule is to group equivalent templates directly below their referenced template. For example:

  <Template brand="Avery" part="5126" size="US-Letter" _description="Shipping labels">
    <Meta category="label"/>
    <Meta category="rectangle-label"/>
    <Meta category="mail"/>
    <Label-rectangle id="0" width="8.5in" height="5.5in" round="0in" x_waste="0in" y_waste="0in">
      <Markup-margin size="9pt"/>
      <Layout nx="1" ny="2" x0="0in" y0="0in" dx="0in" dy="5.5in"/>
    </Label-rectangle>
  </Template>

  <Template brand="Avery" part="5526" equiv="5126"/>
  <Template brand="Avery" part="8126" equiv="5126"/>
  <Template brand="Avery" part="15516" equiv="5126"/>
  <Template brand="Avery" part="18126" equiv="5126"/>


  <Template brand="Avery" part="5159" size="US-Letter" _description="Address labels">...

When creating a new template file, it must be added to the variable template_files in the CMakeLists.txt file in this same directory.

Template Node Attributes

brand Attribute

This is the brand name or manufacturer of the product. It must match one of the vendors in the vendors.xml file. Add a new vendor line if it does not currently exist.

part Attribute

This is the actual part number of the product. This is usually a short set of numbers and/or letters. This is not a description or name of the product. The following are examples of part numbers:

• 5160
• WL-102
• J8435B

Sometimes a product includes multiple label types, either as separate sheets or different types of labels on the same sheet. In these cases, providing a short suffix to part number is acceptable. For example:

• 3274.1, 3274.2, and 3274.3
• 5931-Disc, and 5931-Spine

_description Attribute

• Descriptions should be short. They should describe what the product is in very simple terms without being too detailed. They should not describe details such as size, quantity, layout, color, or material. The description should not include brand or part number information. Size, quantity, layout, brand, and part number are described by other elements of the template - do not repeat them in the description.

• If at all possible, try to reuse descriptions from other templates (this keeps the number of unique strings that need translation to a minimum).

• Don't repeat the brand or part number in the description.

• Only capitalize the first word of the description.

The following are good bad descriptions:

description	Good/Bad	Notes
Address labels	✅
Address Labels	❌	Capitalized second word of description.
Business cards	✅
Multipurpose labels	✅
CD/DVD labels	✅
19mm x 30mm labels	❌	Don't include size information.
Labels 15 per sheet	❌	Don't include layout or quantity information.
Dymo continuous labels	❌	Don't include brand or part number.

Meta Node Attributes

category Attribute

• All templates should include all appropriate <Meta category=... nodes.
• Categories must match one of the existing categories in the categories.xml file. Do not add new categories!
• All templates should include either a <Meta category="label"/> or <Meta category="card"/> node.

product_url Attribute

Unfortunately, manufacturer websites are constantly being updated and rearranged, rendering such deep URLs obsolete very quickly. Therefore, use of this attribute is deprecated.