---
title: "Templates & Variables"
id: "1853"
type: "page"
slug: "templates"
published_at: "2026-09-21T00:23:49+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-10-22T16:38:23+00:00"
url: "https://xedant.com/agents/portal/docs/templates/"
markdown_url: "https://xedant.com/agents/portal/docs/templates.md"
excerpt: "Often there are many pages of the same kind, differing only by a value —…"
---

# Templates & Variables

[https://xedant.com/agents/portal/docs/templates/.md](https://xedant.com/agents/portal/docs/templates/.md)

Often there are many pages of the same kind, differing only by a value — “Python news” and “Go news”, say. Instead of creating a page for every variant, one sample page is enough. The value is substituted into it from the address.

## The sample page

A sample is a folder whose name is written in square brackets, for example `[tag]`. One such folder serves any number of addresses: `news/python`, `news/go`, `news/rust` — all of them open the same page, but with different values inside. No new folder is needed for each variant.

- **A static page always beats the sample.** If a separate `news/press-releases` folder exists, that is exactly what opens at this address, and the sample keeps serving the other values.
- **An edit “at the sample’s address” changes the sample itself.** When the agent saves a page at an address like `news/python` and no separate folder exists, the changes land in the shared sample — and that is right: a text fixed once immediately improves for every value.

## Where values come from

- **From the address.** In the link `/p/news/python` the value `python` lands in the variable by itself.
- **From the link.** A value can be passed at the end of the address after a question mark, for example `news/[tag]?tag=python` — then the value is substituted right on navigation. This works on the sample page that declares the variable; on a regular page without variables such a tail is simply ignored.
- **From a choice on the page.** When a variable has several possible values, it can be picked right on the open page.

## When the value is missing

When a sample is opened without the needed value, the portal does not guess what to substitute. Instead, a **Path variables** box with a choice list appears at the top of the page. Beside it the **Resolved path** is visible — the address that will result — and the **Apply** button opens the page at that address. No wrong choice is possible: the portal first shows where it leads.

## Where the values go

The variable’s value is substituted into every text field of the page: the page title, its description, block headings, button labels, redirect addresses and the texts themselves. That is why a sample page looks like a normal page, not like a template with holes in it.

## When a template is faulty

There are two cases. When a text mentions a variable that does not exist, an empty spot stays in its place — the page opens, just without that value. When the template itself is broken — a missing closing element in a substitution, for example — the structure check warns the agent, and it fixes the page. The reader never sees that message. Details are in the [Page Validation](/agents/portal/docs/validation)
 section.

Next: who can see a page — in the [Page Access](/agents/portal/docs/access)
 section; how the public site works — in [Public Site](/agents/portal/docs/public-site)
; how a page is laid out on disk — in [Document Format](/agents/portal/docs/documents)
.

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