Templates

Templates in smenso provide reusable structures and predefined content for projects, tasks, and status reports. They help reduce repetitive setup work, standardize recurring processes, and ensure that important configuration is applied consistently.

smenso supports three main template types:

• Project templates
• Task templates
• Status report templates

Template Types

Project Templates

Project templates define a reusable baseline for projects. Depending on their configuration, they can contain:

• master data such as dates, status, and classifications
• default flavors and metadata
• structural elements such as tasks, phases, and folders
• standard configurations such as permissions or access settings

Project templates can be used to:

• create new projects with a predefined structure
• apply selected template master data to existing projects

They can be applied manually in the smenso UI or programmatically through the Integration API - see Creating an Object from a Template and Applying a Project Template to an Existing Project below.

For detailed information about creating and updating projects with templates, see the Projects guide.

Task Templates

Task templates provide a reusable baseline for recurring tasks and task structures.

Depending on the template configuration, a task template can contain information such as:

• start and due dates
• status and workflow
• files
• labels
• flavors
• participants
• observers
• subtasks
• description
• priority
• time recording settings
• automatic effort and cost update settings

Task templates are useful when the same type of work occurs repeatedly across projects and should follow a consistent structure. They can be applied manually in the smenso UI or programmatically through the Integration API - see Creating an Object from a Template and Applying a Task Template to an Existing Task below.

Status Report Templates

Status report templates define a reusable structure for reports. Depending on their configuration, they can contain:

• report sections and structure
• default values for supported fields
• predefined RichText content such as headings, placeholders, or standard text
• optional default flavors or metadata

They can be used to create reports with a consistent structure, for example:

• weekly status reports
• monthly steering committee reports
• customer status reports

Creating an Object from a Template

The Integration API can create a new task, status report, or project directly from an existing template. This corresponds to the "create new [object] from a template" flow in the smenso UI.

Create Task from a Template

POST /api/integration/task/json/{templateId}
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Basic {YOUR_TOKEN}

The complete endpoint reference is available here: Create task from a template

Path Parameters

Body Parameters

Unlike the fields on the "apply template to an existing task" endpoint (see below), there are no separate flavors, labels, files, subTasks, participants, or observers options here: creating a task from a template takes over these directly from the template by default, in line with the smenso UI's "create new task from template" behavior, where a new task is populated in full. The four override* fields only let you choose whether specific, potentially project-dependent fields (status, priority, workflow, workflow status) are taken from the template or left at the project's own defaults.

Response

{
  "id": "25f7b780-d7e4-4c99-ad8b-7075f1ef18f8"
}

Create Status Report from a Template

POST /api/integration/statusreport/json/{templateId}
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Basic {YOUR_TOKEN}

The complete endpoint reference is available here: Create status report from a template

Path Parameters

Body Parameters

There are no selectable template sections for status reports (see the callout under Status Report Templates above) - the template's Description and Next steps content is always applied.

Response

{
  "id": "08465a20-2d37-472e-bb02-eb7e9836d6c1"
}

Errors: 400 Bad Request, 401 Unauthorized, 403 Forbidden, 500 Internal Server Error

Create Project from a Template

POST /api/integration/project/json/{templateId}
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Basic {YOUR_TOKEN}

The complete endpoint reference is available here: Create project from a template

Path Parameters

Body Parameters

options object

All fields default to true:

Response

{
  "id": "4c7c7b38-80bf-4d85-8677-43f7227e299f"
}

Errors: 400 Bad Request, 401 Unauthorized, 403 Forbidden, 500 Internal Server Error

Default Behavior Summary

Applying a Project Template to an Existing Project

The Integration API can also apply an existing project template to an already existing project. Unlike creating a new project from a template, this only updates the project's master data - tasks and other structures from the project template are not applied. This matches the smenso UI behavior for applying a project template to an existing project.

Endpoint

PUT /api/integration/project/json/{templateId}
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Basic {YOUR_TOKEN}

The complete endpoint reference, including all request and response fields, is available here:

Update master data of a project

Path Parameters

Body Parameters

There is no option to import tasks, folders, or other project structures through this endpoint - only the master-data-related fields listed above are available, matching the "master data only" scope of applying a project template to an existing project in the smenso UI.

Response: 200 OK on success. Errors: 400 Bad Request, 401 Unauthorized, 403 Forbidden, 500 Internal Server Error

Applying a Task Template to an Existing Task

The Integration API can apply an existing task template to an existing task.

Endpoint

PUT /api/integration/task/json/{taskId}/{templateId}
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Basic {YOUR_TOKEN}

The complete endpoint reference, including all request and response fields, is available here:

Apply template to task

Path Parameters

Both IDs are GUIDs identifying existing objects in smenso.

UI and API Behave Differently

This difference matters most when an integration is meant to reproduce the behavior a user sees when applying a template manually - see Apply All Available Template Sections below.

Available Task Template Options

The API provides the following options when applying a task template to an existing task via the PUT endpoint above.

Example: Apply Selected Template Values

In many integrations, only specific parts of a template should be applied. The following request applies the start date, due date, status and workflow, labels, description, and priority:

PUT /api/integration/task/json/{taskId}/{templateId}
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Basic {YOUR_TOKEN}

{
  "startDate": true,
  "dueDate": true,
  "statusAndWorkflow": true,
  "labels": true,
  "description": true,
  "priority": true
}

All other options remain disabled because they were not explicitly set to true. For example, a request body of:

{
  "labels": true,
  "flavors": true
}

only enables labels and flavors. It does not implicitly enable dates, workflow, description, priority, subtasks, or any other option.

Example: Apply All Available Template Sections

If an integration should reproduce the default selection users typically see when opening the template dialog in the smenso UI, all relevant options need to be explicitly enabled:

{
  "overwriteValues": true,
  "startDate": true,
  "dueDate": true,
  "statusAndWorkflow": true,
  "files": true,
  "labels": true,
  "flavors": true,
  "participants": true,
  "observers": true,
  "subTasks": true,
  "description": true,
  "priority": true,
  "blockTimeRecording": true,
  "autoUpdateFields": true
}

Example: Empty Request Body

An empty request body does not mean "apply everything from the template":

{}

Since every option defaults to false, no template section has been enabled - this call has no effect on the task. If the integration expects template data to be transferred, the required options must be included explicitly:

{
  "statusAndWorkflow": true,
  "labels": true,
  "flavors": true,
  "description": true
}

This is the most common source of confusion when migrating template logic from the UI to the API: a request that "just calls the endpoint" without setting any options will silently apply nothing, rather than falling back to the UI's default selection.

Important Notes

Template IDs

Template operations require the ID/GUID of the template that should be used. Do not confuse a templateId with temporary or external identifiers used by other API operations.

Template Behavior Depends on the Endpoint

Template-related endpoints do not necessarily use the same request options or defaults. Always check the API reference of the specific operation before assuming that omitted properties are automatically applied - see Default Behavior Summary above for a side-by-side comparison of all four template endpoints documented on this page.

In particular, the false-by-default behavior applies to:

Apply template to task - PUT /api/integration/task/json/{taskId}/{templateId}

Update master data of a project - PUT /api/integration/project/json/{templateId}

The two "create from template" endpoints for tasks and projects, plus the status-report-from-template endpoint, each have their own, different default behavior - do not apply the same assumptions to them.

FAQ

Does an omitted property use the template value?

It depends on the endpoint. For the task-update-from-template endpoint (PUT .../task/json/{taskId}/{templateId}) and the project-update-from-template endpoint (PUT .../project/json/{templateId}), an omitted boolean option remains false - it does not use the template value. For example, { "priority": true } on the task endpoint enables priority but does not automatically enable status, workflow, labels, description, or any other section.

For the task-create-from-template and project-create-from-template endpoints (POST), the opposite is true: omitted options default to true and are applied from the template, unless explicitly set to false.

How can I reproduce the default UI selection through the API?

For the task-update endpoint, explicitly enable all template sections that would be selected in the UI (see Apply All Available Template Sections). Calling that endpoint without body parameters does not apply the entire template. For the create-from-template endpoints, omitting the options already reproduces the "select everything" default.

Do I have to apply the complete task template?

No - one advantage of the API is that individual sections can be selected independently, for example:

{
  "statusAndWorkflow": true,
  "labels": true,
  "priority": true
}

Does the false default also apply to project templates?

It depends which project-template endpoint You use. The "create project from a template" endpoint defaults every field in its options object to true - see Create Project from a Template above. The "apply template to an existing project" endpoint, however, defaults every option to false, just like the task-update endpoint - see Applying a Project Template to an Existing Project above.

Does the false default also apply to status report templates?

Not applicable - the "create status report from a template" endpoint has no optional sections at all. The template's content is always applied in full.

Can I apply a status report template to an already existing report through the API?

Not currently. The Integration API only supports creating a new status report from a template - see Create Status Report from a Template. Applying a template to an existing draft report is only available through the smenso UI at this time.

Summary

Templates standardize recurring structures and configuration across projects, tasks, and status reports. Project templates provide reusable project structures, task templates standardize recurring task configuration, and status report templates provide consistent report layouts and content.

Two different flows exist for each object type: creating a new object from a template, and (for tasks only, via the API) applying a template to an already existing object. These flows use different endpoints with different default behaviors:

Creating a task or project from a template defaults included sections to true. Applying a template to an existing task defaults every option to false.

Always check the specific endpoint reference before assuming a consistent default across smenso's template APIs - see the Default Behavior Summary table for a quick comparison.