Portal, Express Beta Version 6.1 Operating systems: i5/OS, Linux,Windows

Component reference element

You use a component reference element to store a reference to a component.

You can use component reference elements in two ways:

• A component-reference element can be added to an authoring template. This then allows content creators to select an existing component from the component library rather than build the component themselves.
• By referencing a component-reference element in a presentation template or another element, the component being displayed can be changed without having to change the presentation template or element design.

  For example, If you referenced a component-reference element called "Featured Product" in more than one presentation template the element referenced within the component-reference element can be changed without having to edit the presentation templates.

Creating a component reference element

To create a component reference element, you can either add a component reference element to an authoring template, site, site area or content item, or create a component reference component.