Content distribution — the basics
The Templating guide explains how to write a template — the placeholders and helpers. This section is about setting up an actual template that SHIPM8 uses: an export template. An export template is the configured, ready-to-use template that turns a record into a finished document or message and (optionally) sends it.
Open it from Sidebar → Admin → Content distribution → Export templates (the menu is labelled Data export in Dutch).
How the pieces fit together
An export template brings three things together:
- What it runs on — an object definition: the kind of record the template is for (an invoice, a port call, a custom object, and so on).
- What it produces — a document type: the output format and how it's delivered (for example a PDF, an email, or a hand-off to a bookkeeping system).
- What it says — the template body: the text itself, written with the templating engine.
Once those are set, the template appears wherever that record can be exported or sent — for example the export button on an invoice (see the Invoicing guide).
What you can do
- Find an export template — search and open existing templates.
- Create an export template — the core setup.
- Document types — the output format and delivery.
- Template configuration — the optional, advanced settings.
- Test & logging — try a template out and check what was sent.
This is an administrator / power-user area and needs the relevant content-distribution permission. If you can't see Content distribution under Admin, ask your administrator.
A few buttons — Save, New, Add, Search, Edit — show in English even when the app is set to Dutch. This guide uses those English labels so they match your screen.