Feature Pack 6 - Page layout A Quick View

Prerequisites

      -> Your workspace should be in  the same version given below

      IBM WebSphere Commerce Version                  7.0.0.0

      WCS Fix paack Version 7.0.0.13 or above

      Feature pack Version 6.0.0.0

      -> Publish Aurora Starter store

Let me explain the quick way to implementing the page layout with new template

a) Create new file(MyNewHomePage) by copying form Stores/WebContent/Aurora/Layouts/HomePage.jsp

b) You can add or delete the widgets on this file.Make sure you are not braking the flow

c) Update the PAGELAYOUT  table with your query 

d) updaet Struts-config-ext.xml with your new view say - MyNewHomePageLayoutView with <forward> and <action>

e) Do acpload for above view

f) Open management cetner and check the newly crated teamplate

g) Assign the newly created template to the template type (HomePage). Provide necessary start date and end date

h) Refresh your Aurora store


Note:
FEP 5 also come with page layout .It is better to go with FEP6 due to enhanced features and bug fixing
WCS fixpack 13 or above and Feature pack 6 itself it enough for enabling the Page layout tool
Once you installed the FEP 6, make sure you enable the following components
enableFeature.bat -DfeatureName=management-center
enableFeature.bat -DfeatureName=store-enhancements
enableFeature.bat -DfeatureName=foundation

Each template contains multiple widgets which will help you to keep your images/artifacts etc. Widgets are basically div tags - a place holder for business users to place there images and other text content. It is IT developer responsibility to create widgets . Make sure your widgets size is compatible with images and other content For better practice : Keep  widget in data area and UI area

Page Review option in the FEP 6 is closing working with Page layout. This will help the business users to edit there content easy