Templates

Templates are pre-built applications that turn a Goop2 peer into a specific kind of site -- a blog, a quiz, a game, or anything else. Each template bundles HTML, CSS, JavaScript, a database schema, and optional Lua logic into a package that works out of the box.

How templates work

A template lives in a directory with the following structure:

templates/
  my-template/
    manifest.json      # Metadata (name, description, icon, category)
    schema.sql         # SQLite schema (tables, indexes)
    api.json           # Virtual API endpoint declarations (optional)
    index.html         # Frontend UI
    post.html          # Detail page (optional, query-param driven)
    css/style.css      # Template-specific styles
    js/app.js          # Client-side logic
    lua/functions/     # Server-side Lua logic (optional)
      api.lua          # Virtual REST API (reads api.json)

When you apply a template, Goop2 copies the template files into your site/ directory and initializes the database schema. You can do this from the viewer's Create > Templates page.

Built-in templates

These templates ship with every Goop2 peer and are always available:

Blog

A personal blog where you and invited co-authors can write posts. Visitors see a read-only feed.

• Category: Content
• Insert policy: group for posts, owner for blog config

Enquete

A simple survey application. Visitors answer questions and responses are collected in the owner's database.

• Category: Community
• Insert policy: email for responses

Tic-Tac-Toe

A multiplayer tic-tac-toe game with server-side Lua enforcing the rules. Visitors can challenge the host or play against the computer.

• Category: Games
• Insert policy: open for game creation

Clubhouse

A real-time group chat room. Uses the groups protocol for live messaging between peers.

• Category: Community

Template store

Additional templates are available through the template store on a rendezvous server. Store templates are served by the templates microservice -- a separate service from the goop2-services repository. Templates are loaded from disk by the templates service, not embedded in any binary. The rendezvous server proxies requests to it when templates_url is configured with use_services enabled.

Templates can be browsed and installed from the viewer's Create > Templates page or from the rendezvous server's /store page.

graph LR
    V["Viewer"] -->|"browse and install"| GW["Goop2 gateway"]
    GW -->|proxy| TS["Templates service :8803"]
    TS -->|read| D["templates on disk"]
    TS -->|"price check"| CS["Credits service :8800"]

Current store templates include:

When a credits service is also configured, store templates can be priced. Peers need sufficient credits to download priced templates.

Local template store

If you don't want to run the templates microservice, you can serve templates directly from a local directory by setting templates_dir in your rendezvous config:

{
  "presence": {
    "templates_dir": "templates"
  }
}

Each subdirectory needs a manifest.json. This fallback is used when templates_url is empty or use_services is false. Local templates are always free.

Store API

The rendezvous server proxies these endpoints to the templates service (or serves them from the local directory):

Insert policies

Templates define who can write data to each table:

The policy is defined per table in the template manifest:

{
  "tables": {
    "posts": { "insert_policy": "group" },
    "comments": { "insert_policy": "email" },
    "games": { "insert_policy": "open" }
  }
}

Remote data

Templates work the same whether a visitor is viewing the site locally or remotely. The goop-data.js client library detects the context and routes data operations accordingly:

• Local (/site/index.html): Data operations go directly to the local database.
• Remote (/p/<peerID>/index.html): Data operations are proxied over a P2P stream to the remote peer's database.

The same template code handles both cases transparently.

Creating a custom template

To create a template for the store, create a directory in the templates service's templates_dir:

1. Add a manifest.json with metadata and table policies.
2. Write your index.html, css/style.css, and js/app.js.
3. Include <script src="/sdk/goop-data.js"></script> for database access.
4. Optionally add schema.sql for database tables.
5. Optionally add Lua functions in lua/functions/ for server-side logic.
6. Optionally add api.json for virtual REST API endpoints (see below).

The template will appear in the store and can be installed by any peer connected to that rendezvous server. The templates service supports extra_dirs in its config for loading templates from multiple directories.

MVC pattern with api.json

Templates can follow an MVC architecture using a declarative virtual REST API:

• Model: schema.sql defines tables, manifest.json defines policies
• View: HTML pages + JS that call Goop.api methods
• Controller: api.json declares endpoints, api.lua handles routing

flowchart TD
    subgraph "View"
        HTML["index.html / post.html"]
        JS["app.js / post.js"]
    end
    subgraph "Controller"
        SDK["Goop.api (goop-api.js)"]
        LUA["api.lua"]
        CFG["api.json"]
    end
    subgraph "Model"
        DB["SQLite tables"]
        SCHEMA["schema.sql"]
    end

    HTML --> JS --> SDK
    SDK -->|"db.call('api', ...)"| LUA
    LUA -->|"goop.site.read"| CFG
    LUA -->|"goop.schema.find / insert / update / delete"| DB
    SCHEMA -->|"applied on install"| DB

The api.json file declares which tables are exposed and how:

{
  "posts": {
    "table": "posts",
    "slug": "slug",
    "filter": "published = 1",
    "fields": ["title", "body", "author_name", "slug"],
    "get": true,
    "list": {"order": "_id DESC", "limit": 50},
    "insert": true, "update": true, "delete": true
  },
  "config": {
    "table": "blog_config",
    "map": {"key": "key", "value": "value"}
  }
}

Without api.json, the API falls back to exposing all tables with default CRUD. See the SDK documentation for Goop.api and the Lua scripting page for goop.schema.find.