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Template System

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SECTION 19 — TEMPLATE SYSTEM

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19.1 Overview

The Template System is a micro-app-like functionality (similar to beefree.io email template builder) that allows authorised users to create, manage, and assign reusable templates for any part of their PDF documents. Templates are Organisation-wide entities — not personal documents of individual roles. All authorised users (Teacher, Editor, Sub-member) see a single unified template library from their respective dashboards. Template types are not limited to headers and footers. The system supports:
  • Header templates
  • Footer templates
  • Full-page templates (e.g. a Preface page for Monthly Magazine with pre-written text)
  • Custom individual page templates (any purpose — title pages, section dividers, acknowledgment pages, etc.)
Who can create/edit templates:
  • Teacher: CRUD templates for their own Organisation
  • Editor: CRUD templates on behalf of any Organisation mapped to them
  • Sub-member: View-only access to Organisation templates (cannot create/edit unless Teacher grants explicit template editing permission in the future)
Unified view: The templates are created for an Organisation-wide scope. When a Teacher, Sub-member, or Editor views the template library, they see the same set of templates belonging to that Organisation.

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19.2 Template Builder (Drag-and-Drop Micro App)

The template builder provides a block-based HTML editor with full drag-and-drop capabilities: Pre-made Templates:
  • A library of pre-made branded template layouts (e.g. Channel Branding, Minimal, Educational, Magazine Preface, Certificate, etc.).
  • User selects a template as a starting point or starts from a blank canvas.
Template Configuration: Custom Block Types Available: Customisation Controls:
  • Drag-and-drop block arrangement within the template canvas.
  • Background colour, border, padding controls per block.
  • Font family, size, weight, colour per text block.
  • Alignment (left, centre, right) per block.
  • Hyperlinks on any interactive element.

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19.3 Template Types & Use Cases

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19.4 Scope Controls (Per Template)

Each saved template has scope configuration that determines where and when it is applied:

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19.5 Multiple Templates & Assignment

  • Users can save multiple templates of any type per Organisation.
  • In settings, users assign active templates per document type. Multiple templates can be active simultaneously (e.g. one header template, one footer template, and one preface page template all active for Magazine documents).
  • Template changes apply prospectively — already-generated PDFs are not retroactively re-rendered.
  • Templates created by the Editor on behalf of an Organisation are visible to and usable by the Teacher and Sub-members of that Organisation.

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19.6 Template Injection During PDF Generation

  • During WeasyPrint rendering, the backend:
    1. Looks up the Organisation’s active templates for the document type being rendered.
    2. Renders each template’s HTML, substituting all dynamic placeholders (\{date\}, \{doc-title\}, \{video-url\}, \{page-number\}, etc.) with actual values.
    3. For templates: applies the rendered HTML to the WeasyPrint CSS @page rules for the correct page range based on template scope configuration.
    4. For full-page/custom-page templates: inserts the rendered HTML at the configured position (before content, after content, at specific page index).
    5. Generates the PDF with all templates integrated.

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19.7 Mindmap PDF Template Injection

  • When exporting a Mindmap to PDF:
    • Check if templates are configured for this Organisation and the Mindmap document type.
    • If yes: Mind Elixir exports SVG → SVG is embedded into a WeasyPrint HTML/CSS canvas → template HTML is injected around the SVG (headers, footers, wrapper pages) → WeasyPrint renders to PDF.
    • If no: SVG is converted directly to PDF by WeasyPrint — clean single-image PDF output.