Generating Bluesky embeds with templated.io

In my recent no-code plunge, I discovered templated.io. It's an online service to generate images based on templates you create yourself. The first use-case I had for it turned out to be a bit too complex for what it offers, but I've now used it for something where it shines much more.

You might have stumbled upon this post through the embedded link on Bluesky, and the image for the link has been generated by templated.io.

templated.io basically gives you a simple template editor, where you drag and drop shapes, text elements and images. You assign a unique name to each of those element, and then you only have to call the API with an object of key/values to update the content of those shapes.

I used one of the default templates, adapted to my need by changing the default colors and putting my name and face. For the title, image and date, I used placeholder values (taken from a previous blogpost, to see what it would look like), and named the layers with expressive names.

Now, all I had to do was call the API with an object with what I wanted to update:

[
        {
            "format": "png",
            "layers": [
                {
                    "text": "Generating Bluesky Embed with templated.io",
                    "layer_name": "title"
                },
                {
                    "image_url": "https://v5.airtableusercontent.com/v3/u/37/37/1737655200000/7NVVJoNpTRdQFwaUSRKRyw/Ej4K-pKgYMhRgTHRyE2fvR-wnxZi_F-0LsmVTkHLJf1dpH1bcuuU3RVq3msHLNdyhdXKIVnewk9JXhhbpaiKiJc1uPt0YNYx6XyE8xH6UDMd02NJsEymlaYZUQlr6_L7H89PporK28x_HAcpqEdWSg/vJC1yCgppLMCByrKcLkJ8yMV60DIbAsMzNUuX9wMC4M",
                    "layer_name": "header"
                },
                {
                    "layer_name": "date"
                },
                {
                    "text": "8mn",
                    "layer_name": "readingTime"
                }
            ],
            "template": "857483bf-d4e3-4cf1-a32e-83d85d379314",
            "transparent": false
        }
]

I had a wow effect very rapidly on this tool, as it "just works™" with a very simple interface to use, and they even quickly show you the API calls to do. It's really built with the API in mind.

In the past I had tried to do the same thing with the Google Slide API, but the API is at least 10x more complex to use. I even considered using tools like Figma (whole new level of complexity) and Canva (that doesn't even have an API). Here, it took me about 5mn to have something working.

The first time I used the app, a sales person reached out to me through the integrated chat. While I don't usually like this kind of sales intrusion, the conversation was cordial, and I could see that they had really taken the time to check my blog (based on my email address) and offered assistance without being pushy. It was very refreshing from the usual sales interaction I had with other providers.

After a bit of discussion, I even realized the "sales person" I was talking to was actually the sole developer of the whole app, doing everything. That gave me even more respect for the work put in place here.

So, in a nutshell, templated.io is simple and effective, it does exactly what it's supposed to do and does it well.

Tags : #nocode, #templated

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