#defines in Items & Sitemaps?

Setup, Configuration and Use Items & Sitemaps
1

Is there a way to have C-like #defines in Items & Sitemaps?
I would like to centralize f.e. my date format string of choice ([%1$ta, %1$td.%1$t…) and be able to change it for all occurences.
Any ideas?

2

I am not aware of any define functionality. Lacking this, I generate all my things and items files from templates and some shell scripts, so it is easy for me to have consistent formats…

3

Thanks for your reply - that’s what I was afraid of…
How to you manage to keep a consistent format when changing things then if you use templates?
Aren’t you consistent during file generation then?
What if you want to change date format, number format (number of fractions…) of temperatures or energies after generation?

4

Basically, I program my setup. This means, that whenever I need to change something on my items, I just modify the templates and re-run the generator scripts.