[ic] Templating in 5.3.1

[Andreas Grau]

I am struggling to understand the templating in 5.3.1. The catalog 
building tutorial outlines some ideas how the parts fall together, and 
"The Foundation Store" also shows the principles. But when trying to 
align this knowledge with the standard store in 5.3.1, I fail to 
completely identify the relationships.


What I have found, starting from pages/index.html:

index.html references a ui_page_template "leftright" - I assume this is 
include/layout/leftright ?

index.html also references a ui_template_name "leftright" - this is 
templates/leftright ?

The variable reference @_LEFTRIGHT_TOP_@ and @_LEFTRIGHT_BOTTOM_@ in 
pages/index.html is a leftover (which could be used by defining them in 
variables/) and is not used. Right ?


templates/leftright has references to ui_template_layout LEFTRIGHT_TOP, 
UI_CONTENT, LEFTRIGHT_BOTTOM - these are in templates/regions/ and the 
html-content from pages/index.html ?

Below the [comment] section and two [set] tags is some html code that 
shows nowhere - are these artifacts and no longer used ?


templates/regions/LEFTRIGHT_TOP has a eg. [output name=breadcrumbs]..." 
etc. that defines variables which are later used as {{BREADCRUMBS?}} in 
include/layout/leftright - right ?

Below are a couple of [component group=vertical output="[control output 
left]"] (which are referred to as 'Slots') in the admin - what do they do ?


include/layout/leftright has all the html stuff and fills in the 
variables defined in the regions/ like {{BREADCRUMBS}}.

{{:DEFAULT}} is the content from pages/index.html ?
Where do {{Top}} and {{BOTTOM}} come from ?

To summarize:
- include/layout/leftright is the actual template which glues all together
- pages/index.html gives the contents for UI_CONTENT
- templates/leftright is used to identify the regions - nothing more
- templates/regions/LEFTRIGHT_TOP etc. fill variables to be referenced 
in include/layout/leftright


Am I halfway right ? Can someone please fill my black holes ?

TIA,
Andreas