Choose a page template, and what each field means on it

Every content page in the cPanel has a Body Template. It decides the page layout and which fields show. Stock Maropost treats the content fields as plain text slots. This theme gives them jobs, and the job changes with the template. On one template Label 1 is a heading. On another it is a hidden on/off switch. On a promotion page it is a promotion code. Fill the wrong field, or the right field on the wrong template, and the page just looks a bit empty. Nothing tells you why.

Use this page when you create a content page, when you change a page’s template, or when a field you filled in doesn’t show.

Checked against the theme’s development branch and the live site on 21 October 2026. The live site can run a little behind development.

1. Pick the template

Start from what the page is. Most pages should keep the default for their content type: leave Body Template blank.

You are making	Body Template	Notes
A product category or brand page	leave blank (gives category)	Product list, filters sidebar, optional description and image
A blog post or Learn article	leave blank (gives content)	Banner, author and date, body, related cards
A policy or general information page	leave blank (gives content)	Same layout as a blog post
A Learn section page that lists its articles	default	Three child cards per page, with page numbers
A service page (Services content type)	leave blank (gives services)	Hero, description, optional product cards and Typeform
A service page that also needs the “Why Choose Altapac?” block	serviceNew	Same as services plus a fixed block of stats, reviews and links
A Services section page that lists child services	service-parent	Hero, child service cards, description
A Learn section page laid out like a service page (Locations, each store’s location page)	learn-parent	Hero, description, child cards
A store’s individual service page under a location (for example Burwood Bullbars)	services	Has to be typed in. These are Learn pages, whose default is content
A form page under /form/	modal, plus a header template	See Contact forms and enquiry buttons
A promotion page	see the caution below	Promotions content type

Open decision: promotion pages

The two promotion pages (/promotions/rhino-rack-november/ and the inactive test page) use the category body template, not promotions. Nobody has decided which is correct. Until someone does, use category to match the live pages, and check the tables below for fields that only one of the two layouts shows. Run a promotion end to end compares the two layouts side by side.

The rest of the theme’s templates are for one particular page each, or aren’t in use. Don’t put them on a new page without asking the web team: home, contact, brands, promotions-list, products, store_finder, parent-category, builder-content.

2. Set it

1. Open the page in the cPanel content editor.
2. Go to the Template & Design section.
3. In Body Template, enter the template name exactly as it appears on this page, including capitals and hyphens (serviceNew, service-parent, learn-parent). To use the content type’s default, leave it blank. The store accepts any name: one the theme doesn’t have renders as if the field were blank, with no error.
4. Leave Header Template and Footer Template blank unless the page is a form (see Header templates).
5. Leave Search Results Template blank.
6. Fill the fields the template reads (step 3), save, then open the live page and check it. Add ?nc= and any number to the address to get past the page cache.

Unconfirmed: blank defaults

• The older guides say not to touch Template & Design without the Web Master. Treat this page as the reference for what each template does, and still check with the web team before you change the template on an existing page.
• The default for a blank Body Template is set per content type in the cPanel, not in the theme. The defaults in step 1 were worked out by looking at live pages on 21 October 2026: Category and Brand pages render category, Services pages render services, Learn pages and general pages (content type 2) render content, and /form/ pages (content type 9) render default. No blank-template Promotions page exists, so the Promotions default is unknown.

3. Fill the fields the template reads

Live use of each template

Counts are active pages in the Altapac-Content pull of 20 October 2026, plus one Learn article added on 21 October. “Blank” means the page leaves Body Template empty and gets the template as its content-type default.

Template	Active pages	Examples
category	258 (173 categories and 84 brands, all blank; 1 promotion, set by name)	/roof-racks/, /brand/bluetti/, /promotions/rhino-rack-november/
services	41 (28 Services pages blank; 12 location service pages and /tint-warranty-information/ set by name)	/services/wholesale/, /locations/burwood/bullbars
content	21 (14 Learn pages and 7 general pages, all blank)	/learn/about-altapac/, /returns-policy/
modal	11	/privacy-policy/, /zip-own-it-now-pay-later/, most /form/ pages
default	8 (4 form pages blank; 4 set by name)	/learn/guides-faq/, /learn/adventure-hub/, /form/ask-a-question-about-this-product/
service-parent	5	/services/window-tinting/, /services/vehicle-protection/
learn-parent	3	/locations, /locations/burwood, /locations/artarmon
serviceNew	1	/services/accessory-fitment-solutions/roof-rack-installation/
home	1	the home page
contact	1	/contact-altapac/
brands	1	/brands/
promotions-list	1	/promotions
products	0 (1 inactive)	/products/, inactive
store_finder	0 (1 inactive)	/store-finder/, inactive
promotions	0	none
parent-category	0	none
builder-content	0	none

The theme also has 404, search_results and promo_search_results. These aren’t body templates for content pages, so don’t choose them as one. One live page, /form/notify-me/, has Body Template notifyme, which isn’t in the theme at all (see What breaks).

The labels

The core of this page: what Label 1, Label 2 and Label 3 do on each template. “Not used” means the template ignores the field, so text in it changes nothing.

Template	Label 1	Label 2	Label 3
category	Switch. Any text turns on up to 4 Related Content cards below the description. The text itself never shows. Only works when Description 1 is filled	Not used	Not used on the page
services, serviceNew	Heading and switch. Shown as the heading of the service products section. Blank means no product section at all	Not used	Typeform embed ID (the data-tf-live value from the form’s embed code, not the ID in a share link). Embeds that Typeform at the top of the Description 2 block. Only shows when Description 2 is filled
service-parent, learn-parent	Heading above the child page cards, going by the theme source (not yet tested on a real page). Blank means no heading (the cards still show) (not live yet, AUD-87)	Not used	Not used
promotions	Not used on the page (see the next row)	Not used	Promotion length in whole days. Used for the “Promotion Period” line under the heading and the end date given to search engines
Any Promotions content type page, whatever its template	Promotion code. Must exactly match the code on the products. That match makes the promotion banner show on product pages	Not used	Promotion length in days. The page’s card on /promotions works out “Valid”, “Starts” or “Expired” from Date Posted plus this number
builder-content	Not used	Builder.io model name. The page loads the Builder.io entry for this model and the page’s own address	Not used
content, default, brands, contact, home, modal, parent-category, products, promotions-list, store_finder	Not used	Not used	Not used

On a promotion page that uses category, both rows apply. Label 1 is the promotion code, and because it isn’t blank it also turns on the Related Content cards whenever Description 1 is filled. You can’t have the code without the switch.

On service-parent and learn-parent, the theme reads Label 1 before it builds the child cards and prints it as a heading only when it has text. No live parent page has been tested with Label 1 filled, so check the page after you set it.

Not live yet

On altapac.com today, every service-parent and learn-parent page prints an empty heading above its child cards, which shows as a gap (for example /services/window-tinting/ and /locations/burwood). Reading Label 1 at page level and leaving the heading out when it’s blank arrives with the next theme release (AUD-87).

Label 3 must be a number on every Promotions page

If Label 3 is empty, the page’s card on /promotions reads “Expired” from its first day. The promotion page itself shows no error.

Images

Upload Alt image 1 at 450 × 450, square. It’s the page’s site-wide image (menu thumbnails, cards and the side image beside Description 1), so pick one that still reads at menu-thumbnail size, with the subject filling the frame. Upload the Main image at 3:1, for example 1599 × 533. Each template then crops them as below.

Template	Main image	Alt image 1
content	Banner above the heading, cropped to 3:1	Beside Description 1, cropped to 3:2. Only shows when Description 1 is filled. With no Alt image 1, a placeholder sketch shows
default	Banner below the heading, cropped to 3:1	Beside Description 1, cropped to 3:2. Always shows, with the placeholder sketch if there’s no Alt image 1
brands	Banner below the heading, cropped to 3:1	Beside Description 1, cropped to 3:2
promotions	Banner above the heading, cropped to 3:1	Beside Description 1, cropped to 3:2, placeholder sketch if missing
category	Not shown on the page	Beside Description 1, cropped to 3:2. Only shows when Description 1 is filled
services, serviceNew, service-parent, learn-parent	Hero background behind the heading, at least 300px tall, cropped to fill the width. The crop changes with screen size, so keep the subject in the centre	Beside Description 1, cropped to 3:2. Always shows (an empty box if there’s no Alt image 1)
contact	Hero background, at least 500px tall, cropped to fill	Not used
promotions-list	Banner below the heading, at its own proportions (no crop)	Not used
parent-category	Not shown	Not shown. The child category tiles use each child’s own image
home, modal, products, store_finder, builder-content	Not used	Not used

A page’s images also appear on other pages, cropped differently:

• Alt image 1 as a card image. Cards that link to this page use its Alt image 1: a square box on content related cards, a 200px-tall crop on service-parent and learn-parent child cards, and uncropped on category related cards, default child cards and /brands cards. The square on content related cards isn’t a crop: the whole image is squeezed into the square, so a wide image comes out squashed from the sides. The desktop menu panel sizes it at 450 × 300, a 3:2 shape (see Edit the menus). A 450 × 450 square Alt image 1 avoids the stretch.
• Main image of a Promotions page. Shown on its /promotions card cropped to 3:1 (2:1 on phones) and as the background of the promotion banner on product pages. This happens even under the category template, which doesn’t show the main image on the page itself.

Text fields

Template	Short Description 1	Description 1	Description 2	Description 3	Short Description 2 and 3
content	Italic, centred intro under the heading	Left column, beside Alt image 1	Main body, full width	Not used	Not used
default	Italic intro under the date line	Left column, beside Alt image 1	Below the child cards	Below Description 2	Not used
category	Not shown on the page	Left column, beside Alt image 1. Leave it blank and the image and related cards go too	Very bottom, after the product list	Not used	Not used
parent-category	Short intro. With Description 1 also filled, Description 1 is folded away behind a “read more” arrow	Category description. On its own, anything after the first paragraph folds away once it passes 100 words	Very bottom	Not used	Not used
services, learn-parent	Plain-text line in the hero	Beside Alt image 1, under the hero	Bottom section (services: with the Typeform above it)	Not used	Not used
serviceNew	Plain-text line in the hero	Beside Alt image 1, under the hero	With the Typeform above it	Very bottom. Filling Description 2 or 3 also shows the fixed “Why Choose Altapac?” block	Not used
service-parent	Plain-text line in the hero	Beside Alt image 1, below the child cards	Bottom section	Not used	Not used
brands	Italic intro	Beside Alt image 1	Below the brand cards	Below Description 2	Not used
promotions	Plain-text line under the heading. Also used as the offer description in the page’s search-engine data	Beside Alt image 1	Full width below	Below the product sections	Not used
promotions-list	Not shown on the page	Intro under the banner	Below the promotion cards	Below Description 2	Not used
contact	Not used	Subheading in the hero. Keep it to one short line of plain text	Not used	Not used	Not used
home	Not used	Block between “Within Reach” and the category grid	Not used	Not used	Not used
modal	Not used	The whole page. Nothing else prints, not even a heading	Not used	Not used	Not used
products, store_finder	Printed in a row with Short Descriptions 2 and 3	Printed in a row with Descriptions 2 and 3	(with Description 1)	(with Description 1)	Printed after Short Description 1
builder-content	Not used	Printed twice: once above the Builder.io area and once inside it	Not used	Not used	Not used

Short Description 1 is also the card text when another page links to this one with a card: related cards, child cards and /promotions cards (/brands cards show the name only). So fill it even on a template that doesn’t show it on the page. When SEO Meta Description is blank, Maropost also builds the page’s meta description from the Name and Short Description 1.

On default, Short Description 1 and Descriptions 1 to 3 only show on page 1 of the child cards. Pages 2 and up show just the cards.

Other fields

Field	Where it does something
Date Posted	content: shown as “Last Updated” followed by the date. Leave it empty and the author and date line disappears. default: “Last Updated” line, shown on its own. promotions: start of the “Promotion Period”. Any Promotions page: start date for its /promotions card. Ignored everywhere else
Author	content: name badge, only when Date Posted is set. A blank author shows “Altapac Team”. default: “Author:” line, shown whether or not there’s a date. Ignored everywhere else
Related Content	content: up to 4 cards at the bottom, always on (no switch). category: up to 4 cards, only when Label 1 and Description 1 are both filled. promotions: one section per related category (up to 6), each listing up to 6 of this promotion’s products from that category. It also feeds the mega-menu panels, whatever the template (see Edit the menus)
SEO Page Heading	Replaces the Name as the page’s main heading on most templates. Exceptions: products and store_finder always use the Name; home has a fixed heading; modal and builder-content print no heading
Page comments (“allow reviews” setting)	default only: shows a share button, comments and a “Leave a comment” form. Every other template ignores it

parent-category lists parts-finder child pages only when the page’s content type code is part-finder. The store’s code is parts-finder, so that list never appears. No live page uses parent-category, so this doesn’t affect anything today.

Header templates

Leave Header Template blank for normal pages. That gives the full site header, menus and search. The other header templates are for pages that are shown inside another page.

Header Template	What it does	Use it for
blank	Full site header and menus	Every normal page
iframe	No site header. Hidden from search engines, no tracking code	A form that only appears inside another page or the contact modal
empty	No site header. Still indexed by search engines, tracking still runs	The three store forms on the contact page and the two thank-you pages use it today

Pair iframe or empty with Footer Template empty. Contact forms and enquiry buttons has the full list of form pages and their settings.

The theme also has checkout, print, nr_print and empty-main-content headers. No content page uses them. Don’t pick them.

Template names that don't exist in the theme

• /products/ (inactive) has Header Template vue. That header was deleted from the theme in April 2024.
• /form/notify-me/ uses Body Template notifyme, Header Template modal and Footer Template modal. /form/ask-a-question-about-this-product-thank-you/ uses Header and Footer Template modal. None of these three names exists in the theme.

The store renders a name it can’t find as the default, with no error. On 21 October 2026 both form pages showed the full site header and footer, and /form/notify-me/ rendered the default layout (the form-page default). Don’t copy these settings onto a new page.

What breaks

None of these show an error. The page just looks incomplete.

Label 1 on category pages needs Description 1

On category, the description, Alt image 1 and related cards are one block that only shows when Description 1 has content. Label 1 and Related Content do nothing on a page with no Description 1.

Typeform needs Description 2

On services and serviceNew, the Typeform in Label 3 sits inside the Description 2 block. With Description 2 empty, the form doesn’t appear. Put at least a sentence in Description 2.

Service products need a heading in Label 1

On services and serviceNew, a blank Label 1 removes the whole product section. Even with Label 1 set, the section stays hidden until at least one product in the service product feed lists this page’s Content ID. On 21 October 2026 no service page showed products. The feed is set up in the cPanel, outside the theme.

Not live yet

On altapac.com today, setting Label 1 shows the heading over an empty box, because the live theme can’t read the service product feed. Reading the feed, and keeping the heading hidden until a product card loads, arrives with the next theme release (AUD-36).

• Author missing on a blog post. On content, author and date show together or not at all. Set Date Posted.
• Text typed into a label the template ignores. For example, Label 1 on content or Label 3 on category (outside Promotions). Nothing shows. Check the labels table before using a label.
• Moving a page from one template to another. Fields move or disappear. Moving from content to category hides the main image and Short Description 1. Moving from services to service-parent drops the product section and Typeform. Re-check every field against the tables after a switch.
• A mistyped template name. The store accepts it and the page renders as if Body Template were blank. Check the live page after any template change.
• Learn pages under a location need services typed in. A new page under /locations/<store>/ is a Learn page. Leave Body Template blank and it renders as a blog post (content), not a service page.
• Paragraphs in hero text. Short Description 1 on the service templates and promotions, and Description 1 on contact, sit inside a heading or paragraph. Keep them to plain text. Pasted paragraphs or lists can break the layout.
• ”Why Choose Altapac?” appears unexpectedly. On serviceNew, any text in Description 2 or 3 shows the fixed block. Its stats, reviews and links are in the theme, not the cPanel. To change them, ask a developer. On altapac.com today the block is only styled properly on Roof Rack Installation, which carries its own copy of the CSS (not live yet, AUD-86).
• Builder.io page shows a “not found” message. builder-content loads the Builder.io entry for the model in Label 2 and the page’s own address. If no entry matches, the page shows Builder’s not-found screen. The entry’s title also replaces the browser tab title.
• A child page missing from /learn/guides-faq/ and other default lists. These show three cards per page, with page numbers. The child may be on page 2.

Reference

Field	Templates that read it
Label 1	category (switch), services and serviceNew (heading and switch), service-parent and learn-parent (heading), any Promotions page (promotion code)
Label 2	builder-content only
Label 3	services and serviceNew (Typeform embed ID), promotions and any Promotions page (days)
Main image	content, default, brands, promotions, promotions-list (banner); service family, learn-parent, contact (hero); Promotions pages (card and product banner)
Alt image 1	Beside Description 1 on most templates; card image everywhere
Short Description 2 and 3	products and store_finder only
Description 3	default, brands, promotions, promotions-list, serviceNew, products, store_finder
Date Posted	content, default, promotions, any Promotions page
Author	content (needs Date Posted), default
Related Content	content, category (needs Label 1 and Description 1), promotions, menus

For developers

Theme repo Altapac-ReDev, branch development, paths under src/templates/:

• cms/category.template.html: Label 1 gate inside the Description 1 block (109-217), category_ad carousel (223), Description 2 (448-452). No main image.
• cms/content.template.html: related-card images aspect-ratio: 1/1 with no object-fit (inline style, 21-25), so they stretch; banner 3:1 (26-31, 114-119), author only inside the Date Posted test (125-133), Alt image 1 inside the Description 1 test (140-151), related list limit 4 with no gate (158).
• cms/default.template.html: Alt image 1 always rendered (84-86), child thumb_list limit 3 with paging (90-147), Descriptions 2 and 3 (148-155), content_allow_reviews comments (158-229).
• cms/services.template.html and cms/serviceNew.template.html: Label 1 product section fed by /export//service-product.json, filtered on category containing the content ID; Label 3 as data-tf-live inside the Description 2 test. Feed repair and hidden-until-a-card-renders wrapper are c4bfdae (AUD-36). serviceNew “Why Choose Altapac?” block on Description 2 or 3 (308-404), styled by .ap-mod rules from b987e8f (AUD-86).
• cms/service-parent.template.html and cms/learn-parent.template.html: Label 1 captured as children_heading with [%set%] before the content_menu and printed only when non-empty (406e84c, AUD-87; main prints [@content_label1@] unguarded inside the menu’s header param); child menus of type services and learn.
• cms/promotions.template.html: Label 3 in the Promotion Period and validThrough (17, 49); related categories × in-promo products (109-114). Only CMS template that links css/blog-containers.css.
• cms/promotions-list.template.html: content_type=promotions list and date maths (112-133). The main-image banner has no crop rule because this template’s inline styles don’t define _cover-banner.
• products/template.html:2-7 and products/bikeRacks.template.html:7: product banner on promo_id eq content_label1 via content_path type:'promotions'. products/template.html:215 uses parts-finder; cms/parent-category.template.html:320-321 uses part-finder.
• cms/builder-content.template.html: Label 2 to cmsModelLabel; Description 1 printed at lines 2 and 12. Bundle src/content-app/index-DJYEhrs8.js calls builder.get(cmsModelLabel, url: pathname) and renders its 404 when nothing matches.
• headers/template.html:267-276: on category page types, Alt image 1 is also written as a .category-banner background, but no CSS gives it a height, so it renders 0px tall (checked live on /roof-racks/).
• headers/iframe.template.html + headers/includes/head_empty.template.html (noindex, no tracking); headers/empty.template.html + head.template.html.
• Not in the theme: headers/vue (deleted in f0f1e8c, 2024-04-18), headers/modal, footers/modal, cms/notifyme.

Live template use comes from Altapac-Content/pages/**/meta.json (pulled 2026-10-20). Blank-template defaults were inferred from template-specific markup on live pages (21 October 2026), not from cPanel settings. Unknown template names: Altapac-Content/CLAUDE.md and commit 2f26b05 (owner observation, 2026-10-20); /form/notify-me/ and the ask-a-question thank-you page checked live on 21 October 2026. Image upload sizes: Altapac-Content/CLAUDE.md.