Template Workspace

A desktop template editor built with Python, pywebview, and a local HTML/CSS/JS UI. It stores templates as individual JSON files, opens as a standalone GUI window, and can export filled reports to PDF.

Screenshots

Template Builder

Fill & Preview

Install

python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Run Desktop App

python app.py

Or on Windows:

start-template-workspace.bat

Enable verbose desktop logging and pywebview debug output if needed:

python app.py --verbose

Local Packaging

Build a local package for the current platform with:

python scripts/package_release.py build-current --version snapshot --output release-artifacts --clean

Write checksums for local artifacts with:

python scripts/package_release.py write-checksums --version snapshot --output release-artifacts

Typical local output on Windows looks like:

release-artifacts\TemplateWorkspace_snapshot_Windows_x86_64.zip
release-artifacts\TemplateWorkspace_snapshot_checksums.txt

Official releases are tag-driven:

git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0

The GitHub Actions workflow then builds Windows, Linux, and macOS artifacts on native runners, generates checksums, and publishes them directly to the GitHub Release for that tag.

Manual workflow_dispatch runs are also supported for snapshot testing without publishing a GitHub Release.

Packaging Layout

PyInstaller remains the actual app builder, and the checked-in spec files stay the packaging source of truth:

• TemplateWorkspace.spec: Windows/Linux onedir packaging
• TemplateWorkspace.macos.spec: macOS .app packaging

The shared packaging helper used by both local packaging and CI is:

python scripts/package_release.py build-current --version <version> --output release-artifacts --clean

Project Layout

• app.py: desktop entrypoint, template persistence, JS bridge, and PDF export
• web/: frontend loaded inside the desktop window
• web/Report-Template-builder.html: app markup
• web/Report-Template-builder.css: app styles
• web/Report-Template-builder.js: app logic and desktop bridge calls
• report-templates/: saved template JSON files
• requirements.txt: runtime and build dependencies
• TemplateWorkspace.spec: Windows/Linux PyInstaller packaging definition
• TemplateWorkspace.macos.spec: macOS PyInstaller app-bundle definition
• scripts/package_release.py: cross-platform packaging helper used by local packaging and CI
• .github/workflows/release.yml: GitHub Actions release workflow

Features

• Build templates with editable sections, fields, placeholders, select options, and date defaults
• Reorder sections and fields with drag and drop
• Duplicate templates from the sidebar
• Inline-edit field labels, field types, placeholders, select options, and date defaults
• Fill templates and see a live preview
• Copy the rendered report as Markdown or export it to PDF
• Sort templates by recent, A-Z, or Z-A
• Autosave template changes through the Python desktop bridge and browser cache
• Launch without a local web server or browser tab

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl/Cmd + S: save the current template
• Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + D: duplicate the current template
• Ctrl/Cmd + 1: switch to Template Builder
• Ctrl/Cmd + 2: switch to Fill & Preview

Templates

Templates are stored as individual .json files in report-templates/.

The desktop app keeps this storage model unchanged:

• one template per file
• filenames generated from the current template name on save
• duplicate IDs skipped with warnings
• atomic writes when saving

Example manual template:

{
  "id": "incident-report",
  "name": "Incident Report",
  "narrative": "Title: {{Overview.Title}}",
  "sections": [
    {
      "name": "Overview",
      "open": true,
      "fields": [
        {
          "label": "Title",
          "type": "text",
          "placeholder": ""
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

If id is missing, the desktop app will generate one from the filename on load.

Notes

• Use Reload Templates after manually adding or editing template files.
• The packaged desktop app reads/writes report-templates/ next to the executable.
• Bundled starter templates are copied into the executable-adjacent report-templates/ folder on first launch if needed.
• Windows stays onedir because startup is faster than a self-extracting onefile executable.