Application template vs component (device) template
The term component template also represents the device template.
Similarities
- Application templates and component templates are installed (deployed) to a station in a similar way.
- Application templates and component templates can be edited and configuration properties can be defined.
- When deploying component templates or installing application templates, the defined configuration properties can be set.
- Application templates and component templates can contain graphics and subtemplates.
- The subtemplates of both application templates and component templates must be component templates.
Differences
- Component templates can define inputs, outputs, and references; these options do not exist for application templates.
- The target for a component template can be any container, but the user must select a container that is appropriate for the
components of the template. In contrast, an application template can only be installed to the root Config folder of the station.
- The root component of a component template is given a user-assigned name when it is deployed. The names of components installed
by an application template are fixed.
- Deploying a component template always adds a new component tree to a path that did not exist before; the name may be modified
during the deployment to make its path unique. For an application template, existing components in the station will be deleted
first to ensure that no functionality from the old application remains; also it confirms that there will be no naming conflicts
in the resulting station.
- Multiple deployments of a component template can be created in a station; an application template has one installation in
a station and there is only one application in the station
- Bulk deployment of application templates is not available. They can be deployed to a single station manually, or can be deployed
to multiple stations by using provisioning.
- The bulk deploy spreadsheet for a component template includes columns for parent path, component name, display name, and location.
None of these columns are relevant for application templates.
- Bulk deploy can create many uniquely-named instances of a component template in the target. Since a target can only have one
application template, bulk deploy for these is perhaps a contradiction, but the spreadsheet is a way to uniquely configure
the one instance that can be created.