Create an Opt-in Overlay

Sometimes you need to create template specializations that are not tied to a particular publication. You might, for example, want to modify some aspect of the layout in certain sections of one publication, or in the same section of several publications (but not all of them). You also might want to be able to easily turn such specializations on and off. You can do this by creating opt-in overlays. Creating an opt-in overlay is almost the same as creating a publication overlay: the only difference is that the overlay key you choose when naming the overlay must not match the name of any publication that uses the blueprint, otherwise it will be used by that publication as a publication overlay.

Once you have created an opt-in overlay, it will only be used in publications or sections where it is actively selected. If you have created a Sports section opt-in overlay called overlay.worldcup.config.default.section.sports, then in order to activate in a particular publication you would need to:

  1. Start Content Studio and log in as a user with editor or journalist access to the publication you are interested in.

  2. Find the Sports section (config.default.section.sports) in the section tree and right-click on it.

  3. Select Edit from the displayed menu.

  4. Click on the Section parameters tab in the opened editor.

  5. Look for the parameter wf.overlays in the Section parameters field.

  6. If you find an existing wf.overlays parameter, add worldcup to its list of values (comma-separated). If you can't find a wf.overlays parameter, then add it yourself:

    wf.overlays=worldcup
  7. Save and close the section.

Whatever specialization you defined in your worldcup overlay should now be visible in the Sports section of the publication you modified (and all the Sport sections' subsections), but not in the Sports sections of the other publications that share the same blueprint. You can, however, add it to other Sports sections by adding the wf.overlays=worldcup setting to them as well.