Render modes

The .NET SDK exposes two ways to describe what to render: project mode (a stored template at Project/Template with a Version) and inline mode (raw HTML you pass directly).

Project mode is required by all the PDF-producing methods (Render.PdfAsync, Render.PdfStreamAsync, Render.DocumentAsync, and the RenderToFileAsync helper). Inline mode is supported only by Render.PreviewAsync, which returns paginated HTML rather than PDF bytes — useful for debugging template data without engaging the PDF pipeline.

Project mode

You reference a template by its Project and Template slugs plus a Version, with a Data payload that fills the template’s placeholders. The compiler enforces this — passing an InlineModeInput to PdfAsync is a compile-time error.

byte[] pdf = await client.Render.PdfAsync(new ProjectModeInput
{
    Project  = "billing",
    Template = "invoice",
    Version  = "1.0.0",
    Data     = new Dictionary<string, object>
    {
        { "invoiceNumber", "INV-001" },
        { "total", 1280 },
    },
});

Project mode keeps templates centralised — anyone with dashboard access can edit them without touching code.

Inline mode (preview only)

For one-off layout experiments, pass the HTML directly via InlineModeInput. It satisfies the sealed RenderInput base type that Render.PreviewAsync accepts:

var preview = await client.Render.PreviewAsync(new InlineModeInput
{
    Template = "<h1>Hello {{ name }}</h1>",
    Data     = new Dictionary<string, object> { { "name", "World" } },
});

Inline mode only works with Render.PreviewAsync. To turn inline HTML into a PDF, save it as a template in the dashboard first, then use project mode.

Example

using PoliPage;

var client = new PoliPageClient(new PoliPageClientOptions
{
    ApiKey = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("POLI_PAGE_API_KEY")!,
});

// Project mode — PDF bytes.
byte[] invoicePdf = await client.Render.PdfAsync(new ProjectModeInput
{
    Project  = "billing",
    Template = "invoice",
    Version  = "1.0.0",
    Data     = new Dictionary<string, object>
    {
        { "invoiceNumber", "INV-001" },
        { "total", 1280 },
    },
});

// Inline mode — preview HTML only.
var greeting = await client.Render.PreviewAsync(new InlineModeInput
{
    Template = "<h1>Hello {{ name }}</h1>",
    Data     = new Dictionary<string, object> { { "name", "World" } },
});

See also

• Output handling
• Configuration