Templates

Author: Shaurya Sharma

The Email Service uses HTML and CSS templates stored in email_templates/. Each template consists of:

• An .html file (e.g., button_template.html)
• A corresponding _styles.css file (e.g., button_template_styles.css)

These templates are uploaded into MongoDB via upload_templates.py. The script:

• Reads each .html file.
• Checks if a corresponding _styles.css file exists.
• Generates and stores a hash to detect changes.

How Templates Work

1. Storage: Templates are inserted into the templates collection, alongside fields such as template_name, content, and css.
2. Retrieval: When sending an email, the service fetches the template from the database using template_id.
3. Rendering: The HTML is rendered with Jinja2, then CSS is optionally inlined for better email client support using a library such as premailer.

Updating or Adding Templates

Note: Please ensure the each template name(Template file name) is unique.

To update existing templates or add new ones:

1. Place the .html and _styles.css files (with matching base filenames) into the email_templates/ directory.
2. Run the upload_templates.py script.
   • If the hashes differ, the content is updated.
   • Otherwise, a new template document is created if it doesn’t exist.

Example Use Case

• An admin wants a new layout for newsletters. They create newsletter_template.html and newsletter_template_styles.css.
• They run python upload_templates.py.
• The new template is now stored in MongoDB and can be referenced when generating email content for the new newsletter.