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Configuring Helper Folders in XpressDox
A Helper Folder is a named shortcut, called an Alias, which is assigned to a folder path in the XpressDox configuration. Instead of writing long or environment-specific file paths in template commands such as IncludeTemplate, you define an alias once in the configuration and reference it by that short name across all your templates.
This keeps template commands concise, portable, and easy to maintain. It is especially useful in Cloud deployments, where absolute paths are not valid and relative paths must be used instead
Any number of Helper Folders can be configured per folder. Common uses include centrally stored letterheads, clause libraries, fax headers, and other reusable shared templates.
Setting Up a Helper Folder
Open the XpressDox Configuration dialog in the XpressDox ribbon, click Settings and select Configure from the dropdown.
Select the correct folder in the Configuration for folder field at the top of the dialog, ensure the correct template folder path is shown. Use the Browse button to navigate to it if needed.
Select the Helper Folders tab in the Configuration dialog.
Click New Helper Folder. A new tab will appear alongside any existing Helper Folder tabs.
a. Helper folder. Enter the folder path in the Helper folder field, type or browse to the target folder. For Cloud deployments, this path must be relative to the configuration folder (e.g., .\System Templates\Letterheads). It would be possible to specify the full file path (absolute file paths are acceptable only when used on the Desktop; relative file paths are required when used on the Cloud because the Cloud does not know about your c drive). In a command such as IncludeTemplate, you wouldn’t want to specify the full absolute file path such as «IncludeTemplate(C:\Documents and Settings\Dev\My Documents\XpressDox\Standard\LetterHead)» or even the relative file path «IncludeTemplate(.\XpressDox\Standard\LetterHead)» every time. It is much simpler to use an alias, the code for which might be «IncludeTemplate(code:LetterHead)»
b. Alias. Enter an Alias in the Alias field, enter a short, meaningful name which will be used in template commands to reference this folder (e.g. letterheads, clauses, code). It is recommended to keep the alias name short and descriptive.
c. Description. Use the optional Description field to enter a note about what this folder contains. This is helpful when multiple Helper Folders have been configured.
d. Allow User Home configuration to override. (Desktop only) When a template is from a folder, the list of helper folders configured for that template folder is joined to the list of helper folders in the user’s Home configuration.
If two helper folders from these two lists have the same alias, then by default the helper folder from the template configuration takes precedence over the same-named helper folder in the User Configuration, unless the ‘Allow User Home configuration …’ check box is checked, in which case the User Home configuration helper folder is allowed to take precedence.
Example
Suppose your shared letterhead templates are stored in: .\XpressDox templates\Live\Letterheads. Without an alias:
- every template that includes the letterhead requires the full path
- running templates from different locations in the library might need to refer to the Header in different ways as the path would differ relative to where that template is being run from
«IncludeTemplate(.\XpressDox templates\Live\Letterheads\Header)»
By configuring a Helper Folder with alias letterheads pointing to that folder, the command is simplified to:
«IncludeTemplate(letterheads:Header)»
When XpressDox runs a template containing this command, it looks up the letterheads alias in the configuration of the template’s containing folder and resolves the full path automatically. If the letterhead folder is later moved or renamed, only the alias path in the configuration needs to be updated, no changes are required to individual templates.
To ensure that point 2 above is never a problem, it is advisable that the following setting is always applied:
