Programmatic Templates

Most users will design templates visually in the drag-and-drop editor. But sometimes you need to create templates in code -- seeding default content, building templates from API data, or generating emails programmatically on the server.

Templatical provides factory functions for every block type. Use them to build templates in code, then pass them to init() or render them directly with the renderer.

Blank template

import { createDefaultTemplateContent } from '@templatical/types';

const content = createDefaultTemplateContent();
// { blocks: [], settings: { width: 600, backgroundColor: '#ffffff', fontFamily: 'Arial' } }

createDefaultTemplateContent() accepts an optional font family string:

const content = createDefaultTemplateContent('Georgia, serif');

Building a template

Every block type has a corresponding create*Block() function. Each accepts an optional partial object to override defaults. All factory functions auto-generate a unique id for each block.

import {
  createDefaultTemplateContent,
  createTitleBlock,
  createParagraphBlock,
  createImageBlock,
  createButtonBlock,
  createDividerBlock,
} from '@templatical/types';

const content = createDefaultTemplateContent();

content.blocks = [
  createTitleBlock({
    content: '<h1 style="text-align: center;">Welcome aboard</h1>',
    level: 1,
  }),
  createImageBlock({
    src: 'https://example.com/hero.jpg',
    alt: 'Welcome hero image',
    width: 'full',
  }),
  createDividerBlock(),
  createParagraphBlock({
    content: '<p>Thanks for signing up. Here is what happens next.</p>',
  }),
  createButtonBlock({
    text: 'Get Started',
    url: 'https://example.com/dashboard',
    backgroundColor: '#1a73e8',
    textColor: '#ffffff',
    borderRadius: 6,
  }),
];

Block factory reference

Title

createTitleBlock({
  content: '<h1>Welcome, {{name}}!</h1>',
  level: 1,
  textAlign: 'center',
})

Paragraph

createParagraphBlock({
  content: '<p>Thanks for signing up. Here is what happens next.</p>',
})

Image

createImageBlock({
  src: 'https://cdn.example.com/hero.png',
  alt: 'Hero banner',
  width: 560,
  linkUrl: 'https://example.com',
})

Button

createButtonBlock({
  text: 'Get Started',
  url: 'https://example.com/signup',
  backgroundColor: '#6366f1',
  borderRadius: 8,
})

Divider

createDividerBlock({
  lineStyle: 'dashed',
  color: '#e5e7eb',
  thickness: 2,
})

Spacer

createSpacerBlock({ height: 40 })

HTML

createHtmlBlock({
  content: '<div style="text-align:center;">Custom markup</div>',
})

Social Icons

createSocialIconsBlock({
  iconStyle: 'circle',
  iconSize: 'large',
  icons: [
    { id: crypto.randomUUID(), platform: 'twitter', url: 'https://x.com/acme' },
    { id: crypto.randomUUID(), platform: 'github', url: 'https://github.com/acme' },
  ],
})

Menu

createMenuBlock({
  items: [
    { id: crypto.randomUUID(), text: 'Home', url: 'https://example.com', openInNewTab: false, bold: false, underline: false },
    { id: crypto.randomUUID(), text: 'Blog', url: 'https://example.com/blog', openInNewTab: false, bold: false, underline: false },
    { id: crypto.randomUUID(), text: 'Docs', url: 'https://docs.example.com', openInNewTab: true, bold: false, underline: false },
  ],
  separator: '-',
})

Table

createTableBlock({
  hasHeaderRow: true,
  rows: [
    { id: crypto.randomUUID(), cells: [{ id: crypto.randomUUID(), content: 'Plan' }, { id: crypto.randomUUID(), content: 'Price' }] },
    { id: crypto.randomUUID(), cells: [{ id: crypto.randomUUID(), content: 'Starter' }, { id: crypto.randomUUID(), content: '$9/mo' }] },
    { id: crypto.randomUUID(), cells: [{ id: crypto.randomUUID(), content: 'Pro' }, { id: crypto.randomUUID(), content: '$29/mo' }] },
  ],
})

Video

createVideoBlock({
  url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ',
  thumbnailUrl: 'https://img.youtube.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg',
  alt: 'Product demo video',
})

Countdown

createCountdownBlock builds a countdown block, but countdown GIFs need Cloud or a blockRenderers.countdown override — the OSS renderer emits a placeholder.

Section

createSectionBlock({
  columns: '2',
  children: [
    [createParagraphBlock({ content: '<p>Left column</p>' })],
    [createImageBlock({ src: 'https://cdn.example.com/photo.jpg' })],
  ],
})

The columns property accepts: '1' (single), '2' (two equal), '3' (three equal), '2-1' (two-thirds / one-third), '1-2' (one-third / two-thirds). See Sections and Columns for full details.

Custom

createCustomBlock takes a CustomBlockDefinition (not a partial block). It generates field values from the definition's field defaults. See Custom Blocks for defining custom block types.

Utilities

Generic factory

Create any block by type string:

import { createBlock } from '@templatical/types';

const block = createBlock('title'); // TitleBlock with defaults

Cloning

Deep-clone a block with a new ID:

import { cloneBlock } from '@templatical/types';

const copy = cloneBlock(existingBlock);
// copy.id !== existingBlock.id

Type guards

Narrow a Block union to a specific type:

import { isTitle, isParagraph, isImage, isButton, isSection } from '@templatical/types';

if (isTitle(block)) {
  console.log(block.level); // TypeScript knows this is TitleBlock
}

if (isParagraph(block)) {
  console.log(block.content); // TypeScript knows this is ParagraphBlock
}

if (isImage(block)) {
  console.log(block.src);
}

Every block type has a corresponding guard: isTitle(), isParagraph(), isImage(), isButton(), isDivider(), isSpacer(), isHtml(), isSocialIcons(), isMenu(), isTable(), isVideo(), isSection(), isCountdown(), isCustomBlock().

Template settings

Template settings control the global properties of the email:

const content = createDefaultTemplateContent();

content.settings.width = 640;
content.settings.backgroundColor = '#f5f5f5';
content.settings.fontFamily = 'Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif';
content.settings.preheaderText = 'Your weekly digest is here';
content.settings.locale = 'en';
content.settings.direction = 'ltr';

Setting	Type	Description
width	number	Email width in pixels
backgroundColor	string	Outer background color
textColor	string	Default text color inherited by all text blocks; per-block colors override. Defaults to #1a1a1a
linkColor	string	Document link color applied to every link (rich-text and menu); links inherit the text color when unset. Optional
linkUnderline	boolean	Underline body (rich-text) links. Defaults to true
fontFamily	string	Default font stack
preheaderText	string	Preview text shown in inbox list
locale	string	BCP-47 content language (<html lang>)
direction	'ltr' | 'rtl'	Writing direction. Unset follows the content language

For default values and how to customize them, see Block & Template Defaults.

Loading saved content

Pass previously saved JSON back to the editor:

const res = await fetch('/api/templates/123');
const saved = await res.json();

const editor = await init({
  container: '#editor',
  content: saved,
});

You can also update content after initialization:

editor.setContent(newContent);

Next steps

• Block Types -- properties reference for every built-in type.
• How Rendering Works -- the JSON → MJML pipeline.
• Custom Blocks -- define your own block types.