In the Pipeline Studio, you can create plugin templates, which are customized versions of a plugin that are reusable, and can contain pre-configured settings.
Setting can be locked so that they cannot be altered when they are eventually used.
Once a plugin template has been created, it can be edited and deleted at a later time.
Changes to a plugin template do not affect any pipelines created using that template, as those pipelines are created from the artifacts as specified in the plugin template at the time of creation of the pipeline.
To create a plugin-template, follow these steps:
In the Pipeline Studio, hover your mouse over the plugin you would like to use for your template, such as the BigQuery source plugin.
In the on-hover menu that appears, click the + Template button.
The window that appears will allow you to specify the version of the plugin to use. Once you do, the window will expand to allow you to specify the particular properties of that plugin.
The template will require a name that uniquely identifies it.
You can lock individual properties of the configuration so that they are not editable when the template is used.
When the plugin template is successfully saved, it appears with the other plugins, with an additional "T" icon to indicate that it is a template.
Templates can be either edited or deleted after they are created, using buttons that will appear in their on-hover menu.
Once created, you can use the plugin template just as you would any other plugin, with the advantage that it can be pre-configured with settings that you re-use or require.