Creating Liferay Layout Templates

By now, you’ve likely added portlets to a page by dragging them from the Add menu and dropping them into place. Are there times, though, when you find yourself limited by Liferay’s page layout options? Maybe your Feng Shui (pronounced fung SHWAY) senses are picking up on some negative energy? Or perhaps you find yourself adding the same portlets over and over again onto the same types of pages? Don’t despair! Break the monotony by creating your own custom layout templates. Layout template plugins let you design layouts that flow nicely, embed commonly used portlets, and apply CSS, Velocity, and HTML to make your pages visually pop.

In this chapter, you’ll learn everything you need to know about layout templates:

• Creating a layout template project

• Anatomy of a layout template project

• Designing a layout template

• Embedding portlets in a layout template

• Available variables

Let’s create a custom layout template!