What is Template Sync?

Template Sync is a pivotal tool designed to easily keep your business cards up-to-date and visually aligned with your brand identity. This guide explains the Template Sync feature, its functionalities, and how to use it effectively within the Social Card platform.

How does Template Sync work in Social Card?

Template Sync in Social Card is an automated process enabling you to merge style & content changes from your templates to all the assigned cards in your workspace. 

It is ideal for branding updates, marketing adjustments, or special events. It can also be used to make content changes like updating work addresses, product pages, or marketing links. This tool makes it easy to ensure your business cards always reflect your template and the company's latest design and content elements.

When started, we'll take the current published state of your template and apply the changes you asked for to all active cards assigned to it. Depending on the number of cards in your workspace, this process may take a few minutes to propagate all the changes.

What Template Changes Can Be Synced?

1. Styles: Synchronize updates in colors, shapes, and shadows in the template across all active cards.
2. Media: Sync any changes to media content (logos, cover photos) within the template to all cards.
3. Content: Sync any modifications to the links that make up your template and cards (type, labels, and default content).

When Can Template Sync Be Used?

Template Sync is available when:

• The template is published.
• There are no pending draft changes in the template.
• The template is assigned to one or more active cards.

Understanding how Template Sync works?

Sync Styles:

Alters only the branding elements (colors, shapes, shadows) of the cards linked to the template.

Safe Content Sync:

Updates only the link content (type, label, default content) under specific scenarios to prevent card conflicts or errors. We will only merge/change link content under a few scenarios:

• If the link type has stayed the same.
• The modified template link contains default content.
• The card platform has never been published.

We will skip link items not meeting these criteria for all other scenarios (leaving them unchanged). This lets us ensure your functional changes are made onto your live published cards.

Forced Content Sync:

Unlike safe content sync, forced content sync will ensure all changes you've made to the template are pushed to all cards, irrespective of potential errors. You can activate the forced changes toggle after activating content sync. Note: This can lead to validation issues, necessitating manual correction and publishing.

How to start a template card sync?

To begin a template card sync, please ensure the above conditions have been met.

1. Navigate to your workspace Templates.
2. Select the template you would like to sync.
3. You'll see action buttons in the top-right below the template name.
4. Click the Sync Cards button.
   1. If you do not see the Sync Cards button, your template does not meet all the conditions required to start a card sync, as seen above.
   2. Likely, this means there are no changes, or the template needs to be published.
5. As seen in the image below, a confirmation will open for your template sync.
6. Select the sync operations you want to activate by turning on the corresponding toggle switch.
   1. Note: we only recommend using forced changes if you know the potential results.
7. Please review the number of synced cards and the last published date to ensure everything is as expected.
8. Before starting sync, please confirm that you understand the active card will be permanently modified.
9. Then click the Sync Changes button. We'll then begin processing each template card, making your specified changes. The template will temporarily be locked to prevent accidental changes.

Essential Considerations for Card Template Sync

• Web Pages: Changes are automatically made and usually appear on page refresh (unless the browser cache still uses an older version).
• Wallet Cards: All registered card devices are automatically notified of changes and are typically visible in a few minutes.
• QR Platforms: Content changes will automatically appear when scanned, but style changes won't automatically update previously downloaded images—Re-download QR assets for the new branding.
• Email Signature Platform: Signature link destinations will update automatically, but note style and nondynamic labels will be manually updated by team members in the email client.

Why does my template lock during sync?

We'll temporarily lock your template to make sure no unwanted template changes are included in your template sync operations. This prevents anyone in your workspace from making any changes to the template content or styles for a brief time. When your sync operation is completed, we'' unlock the template automatically.

Conclusion

Social Card's Template Sync is an excellent tool for maintaining a consistent and professional appearance across your digital cards. By adhering to the guidelines provided in this guide, you can effectively leverage the Template Sync feature to ensure your digital business cards are always aligned with your current branding and content strategy.

For additional assistance or questions, please contact the Social Card support team.