Steven Zahm@ Patrick
RE: I found that you need to use __ FILE __ instead of FILE. The __ was probably remove from your last Reply #431596.
Odd it does seem the forum is “eating” the double underscore. I did not notice since I was copy pasting the code from my dev environment. They are very important because __ FILE __ is a magic.
RE: Now it looks like I can open the customizer, but it’s not displaying the entry with the “my1card” template, instead it shows the “names” template.
Make sure the active template is your custom template on the Connections : Templates admin page for All, Individual and Organization.
Make sure you are using only the [connections] shortcode with no options, especially the template or list_type options.
Ensure the Directory Home Page setting is set to the page which contains the [connections]
Make sure you have the Single Entry Template option disabled on the Connections : Settings admin page under the Display tab.
Deactivate all other plugins except Connections and your custom template.
Use a default WP theme such as TwentySeventeen.
Remove from the plugins folder or from any instances of the connections-templates folder any custom template or custom template override files you may have created.
Most of this is unnecessary but should limit possible sources of the issue.
RE: Is there generally an issue with the template path?
Nope, I create custom templates all the time, most of which are based on the Card template or one of the other premium template such as cMap. To start my process is to make a copy in the plugins folder with a unique folder name. Open the main template file, change the class name, the template slug and name and then update the file names for the main template file, CSS and JS files. I then begin work on whatever the changes are being requested.
I know others have created their own custom templates, usually based on cMap, none have expressed these difficulties. So I do not know if it just worked for them as it should or if they had to tinker a little.