A template is a saved set of user-field values you apply to many users at once. Instead of editing each user one by one, you define the values on a template and apply it to a batch of users and groups.
Overview
A template has two parts: the field values and a per-field Override toggle that decides whether each value is actually pushed.
What it does
The Override toggle separates "this value is set on the template" from "this value should overwrite the target's value".
| Override state | What happens on apply |
|---|---|
| On | The template's value replaces the target user's value. |
| Off | The target user's current value is preserved. The template's value is ignored. |
Override is off by default on most fields. Use it liberally in the off state: the point of templates is to push the deltas, not the defaults. A focused template with three fields toggled on is easier to reason about than one with thirty.
Choosing the targets
A template is applied to the users you name, the members of the groups you name, or - with the Apply to all users switch - to everyone on the PBX. Targets are resolved when you run the apply action, not when you save the template, so a group that gains a member, or a user created after the switch was turned on, is covered by the next apply without touching the template.
Turning the switch on hides the two target lists but keeps them: turn it off and the previous selection comes back.
Apply overwrites the marked fields on every target user with no per-user opt-out and no rollback, so confirm the targets and the override list first. Templates are batch operations, not standing policies: nothing is applied until you run the apply action.
Applying
Apply on a template opens the preview page, which shows what the apply would change. The apply itself is confirmed there.
Small applies run while you wait and report the exact number of users changed. Past 20 targets the run is handed to a background worker instead, and the toast says it has started rather than that it has finished. Either way you land on the apply history with the run on it, and the Last applied column on the template list shows when the run finished and who started it.
Preview
The list on the left shows every override that changes somebody, with the number of targets it actually changes: "20/48" means twenty of the forty-eight targets end up different. Overrides that turn a switch off for somebody carry a red dot. Overrides every target already matches are folded into one line at the bottom, which expands to list them.
Click an override to show only that field in the table; click it again, or All fields, to show everything. This filters the view only: Apply always writes every override on the template.
The table lists each person, then their changes under Field, Currently and Will be. Values are shown by type:
- switches as Yes / No
- choices by their label, as in the form
- groups, languages, tags and other lists as one badge per item, with removed items struck through and added items highlighted
- phone buttons position by position, with the positions that change marked on both sides
People the template changes nothing on are listed last, marked as unchanged. The first 100 people are listed; the counts cover every target. Find a user narrows the table by name.
Apply asks for a short confirmation that repeats the numbers: how many users, how many fields change, and any switches turned off, values removed or phone button layouts replaced. Existing values are overwritten; the apply history keeps what they were.
Only one template is applied at a time in a PBX. While another apply is queued or running, the preview says so, links to its progress and keeps Apply disabled; the same goes for Retry.
If the template is edited, or the set of users it targets changes, while your preview is open, applying is refused rather than writing changes you never reviewed. Reload the preview and check it again.
History
Apply history on the template list records every run: when it was requested, who by, how many users it reached of how many it aimed at, and an outcome that carries the status, whether it ran immediately or in the background, and how long it took. A run that failed shows why underneath. A run no worker picked up within 30 minutes, or whose worker stopped partway, is marked failed automatically. On a failed run's page, Retry finishes it for the users it did not reach; users it already updated are skipped. Retry is not offered once the template has been edited since the run; apply the template again from its preview instead. The list can be filtered by status and by template. Changes on a run opens its detail, laid out like the preview: the same field list and user search, with each person's values Before and After. Users that were targeted but already matched the template are listed too, marked as unchanged.