# Is there a way to see if a template exists in the vision client? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Tags:** vision, ignition80\ **Created:** [January 6, 2021, 3:29am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-if-a-template-exists-in-the-vision-client/41988 "2021-01-06T03:29:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DaveRNeal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/53a042/32.png) [@DaveRNeal](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/DaveRNeal)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 3:29am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-if-a-template-exists-in-the-vision-client/41988/1 "2021-01-06T03:29:27Z")
Good Evening, I’m working in Ignition 8.0 and attempting to use a dynamic binding on a template path. What I’d like to do is fall back to a default template if the dynamic one does not exist. Is there a decent way to do this in 8.0? I’ve found [this link](http://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/check-to-see-if-template-path-exists/25081) but that solution seems to only apply to version 7.9 and earlier. Should I be using [system.gui.getQuality()](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC80/system.gui.getQuality)? If so what propertyName should I check to see if the template exists? ---
**Author:** ![chasondeshotel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/chasondeshotel/32/20032_2.png) [@chasondeshotel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/chasondeshotel)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 6:36am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-if-a-template-exists-in-the-vision-client/41988/2 "2021-01-06T06:36:35Z")
imo the best improvement of 8.0 is that resources are flat text files so I’d imagine you could do something like ```auto def template_or_default(template_name): import os.path # or whatever the actual file location is template_path = 'install_dir\data\projects\project_name\resources\' + template_name + '.json' return template_name if os.path.isfile(template_path) else 'default_name' template_or_default('foo') ``` I don’t have an Ignition instance handy to test right now so ymmv ---
**Author:** ![kcollins](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kcollins/32/19646_2.png) [@kcollins](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/kcollins)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 3:30pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-if-a-template-exists-in-the-vision-client/41988/3 "2021-01-06T15:30:05Z")
You might have some success looking at the `.loadedTemplate` property of the template component. You could pivot off of that when it goes to `None`. Here is a visual example: ![Loaded Template Example](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/5/5/5554ebf4f3f6088fdb592c03c7a048a4139b84e3.gif) Note that, with this reactive approach, you will produce a warning in the log when the template component attempts to load a missing template. Unfortunately, there isn’t an equivalent for templates to [`system.gui.getWindowNames()`](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/system.gui.getWindowNames) that would allow you to proactively (in an easy manner) determine whether the loading of a given template will succeed. ---
**Author:** ![chasondeshotel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/chasondeshotel/32/20032_2.png) [@chasondeshotel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/chasondeshotel)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 6:15pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-if-a-template-exists-in-the-vision-client/41988/4 "2021-01-06T18:15:33Z")
> Note that, with this reactive approach, you will produce a warning in the log when the template component attempts to load a missing template. That's easy to fix--wrap the call to `.loadedTemplate` in `eval()` ```auto component = event.source.parent.getComponent('foo') component.templatePath = 'foo' # returns None or the name of the template print eval("component.loadedTemplate") ``` That's a more elegant and portable solution than reading the filesystem but is there a way to hide the ugly "template doesn't exist" box? (edit: I know we'd be quickly defaulting to another template but I'd be surprised if it didn't flash) ---
**Author:** ![kcollins](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kcollins/32/19646_2.png) [@kcollins](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/kcollins)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 6:55pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-if-a-template-exists-in-the-vision-client/41988/5 "2021-01-06T18:55:41Z")
It isn’t the reference to `.loadedTemplate` that is broken and causing the warning, but that the loaded template is invalid (and thus legitimately `None`); the use of eval is unneeded. EDIT: In other words, setting the `templatePath` to something invalid is what actually generates the warning. ---
**Author:** ![DaveRNeal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/53a042/32.png) [@DaveRNeal](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/DaveRNeal)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 7:17pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-if-a-template-exists-in-the-vision-client/41988/6 "2021-01-06T19:17:44Z")
Thanks so much for the help, you two! I ended up going with the .loadedTemplate route. I’ve got a fallback/default template hidden behind the dynamically loaded one, then use a simple runScript expression on the dynamic template’s visibility, setting the visibility bound to: ```auto !isNull(runscript('self.loadedTemplate', 1)) ``` ---
**Author:** ![chasondeshotel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/chasondeshotel/32/20032_2.png) [@chasondeshotel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/chasondeshotel)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 7:35pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-if-a-template-exists-in-the-vision-client/41988/7 "2021-01-06T19:35:28Z")
Yeah, you’re right. I was looking at the log wrong. So `Vision.Components.TemplateHolder` is actually generating the error, so you’d have to load it from that end to catch that warning The implementation of `.getResourcesOfType` changed. This works for me on 8.0.16 ```auto def template_exists(template_name): """ Syntax: template_exists(template_name) Parameter: template_name: A string of the template's name. If in a directory prefix with the directory name: path/to/template Return Type: This method returns a Boolean value of class bool. This method returns True if the template exists otherwise returns False. """ from com.inductiveautomation.factorypmi.application.model import TemplateManager context = event.source.getAppContext() project = context.getProject() resources = project.getResourcesOfType(TemplateManager(context).RESOURCE_TYPE) paths = [str(resource.getResourcePath()) for resource in resources] if 'com.inductiveautomation.vision/templates/' + template_name in paths: return True return False print template_exists('foo') ``` ---
**Author:** ![chasondeshotel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/chasondeshotel/32/20032_2.png) [@chasondeshotel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/chasondeshotel)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 7:54pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-see-if-a-template-exists-in-the-vision-client/41988/8 "2021-01-06T19:54:12Z")
That’s a nice, concise solution @DaveRNeal. If you don’t see the bad template overlay then I think that’s definitely the way to go