Handlebars Helpers – Complete Reference

Pantarey uses Handlebars templates in several places – for PDF generation, text templates, and external tasks. All templates share the same set of helper functions for formatting, calculating, and preparing data directly within the template.

This makes it possible to produce professional invoices, reports, and notifications without additional process steps.

---

Where are Handlebars templates used?

Use case	Service / Feature
PDF documents	Generate PDF from Handlebars template
Text generation	Generate text from Handlebars template
Emails from template	Send email from Handlebars template (Microsoft Graph)
External tasks	External User Task – HTML templates

---

Basics

Handlebars placeholders use double curly braces:

<p>Customer: {{customerName}}</p>
<p>Amount: {{currency_eur invoiceAmount}}</p>

Values come from the content object passed to the service task.

Triple curly braces for HTML

By default, Handlebars escapes HTML special characters. When the output contains HTML (e.g. qrCode or htmlify), triple curly braces {{{ }}} must be used.

---

Date and Time

Helper	Description	Example	Result
dateTimeFormat	Format ISO date to localized date/time	{{dateTimeFormat createdAt "en-US" "Europe/Berlin"}}	12/22/2024, 11:30 AM
dateTimeFormatWithSettings	Format date/time with extended options	{{dateTimeFormatWithSettings date "en-US" "Europe/Berlin"}}	12/22/2024, 11:30 AM
toGermanDate	ISO date → German format	{{toGermanDate "2025-01-15"}}	15.01.2025
currentDate	Today's date	{{currentDate "en-US" "Europe/Berlin"}}	4/8/2026
currentDateTime	Today's date and time	{{currentDateTime "en-US" "Europe/Berlin"}}	4/8/2026, 2:30 PM
addDaysToCurrentDate	Add days to today's date	{{addDaysToCurrentDate 14}}	22.04.2026
month_name	Month name from date	{{month_name "2025-03-15"}}	März
year	Year from date	{{year "2025-03-15"}}	2025

Example – payment due date:

<p>Invoice date: {{toGermanDate invoiceDate}}</p>
<p>Due by: {{addDaysToCurrentDate 30}}</p>

---

Numbers and Currency

Helper	Description	Example	Result
currency_eur	Euro formatting	{{currency_eur 1234.56}}	1.234,56 €
currency_dollar	Dollar formatting	{{currency_dollar 1234.56}}	$1,234.56
numberFormat	Number with thousands separator	{{numberFormat 50000}}	50.000
multiply	Multiplication	{{multiply price quantity}}
add	Addition	{{add value1 value2}}
round	Round to decimal places	{{round 3.14159 2}}	3.14

Example – invoice line item:

<td>{{numberFormat quantity}} pcs.</td>
<td>{{currency_eur unitPrice}}</td>
<td>{{currency_eur (multiply unitPrice quantity)}}</td>

---

Conditions

Condition helpers are block helpers – they wrap content that is only displayed when the condition is met.

Helper	Description	Example
ifEquals	Equality check	{{#ifEquals status "approved"}}Approved{{/ifEquals}}
greaterThan	Greater than	{{#greaterThan amount 1000}}Large order{{/greaterThan}}
lessThan	Less than	{{#lessThan amount 100}}Small amount{{/lessThan}}
greaterOrEqualThan	Greater than or equal	{{#greaterOrEqualThan score 50}}Passed{{/greaterOrEqualThan}}
lessOrEqualThan	Less than or equal	{{#lessOrEqualThan stock 10}}Reorder{{/lessOrEqualThan}}

All condition helpers support an {{else}} block:

{{#greaterThan amount 1000}}
  <span class="highlight">Large order</span>
{{else}}
  <span>Standard order</span>
{{/greaterThan}}

---

Text and Formatting

Helper	Description	Example
replace	Replace text	{{replace companyName "GmbH" "AG"}}
htmlify	Line breaks → <br>, page breaks → Page Break	{{{htmlify description}}}
renderString	Evaluate a Handlebars expression within a string	{{{renderString dynamicText this}}}
buildString	Concatenate strings (e.g. as sub-expression)	{{{qrCode (buildString "BCD\n" bic "\n" name)}}}

htmlify in detail

The htmlify helper converts plain text to HTML:

• Line breaks (\n) become <br>
• <pagebreak> becomes a page break (for PDFs)

<div>{{{htmlify freeTextField}}}</div>

Triple curly braces

htmlify and renderString return HTML – always use {{{ }}}.

---

Lists and Pagination

Helper	Description	Example
concat	Merge arrays	{{#each (concat listA listB)}}...{{/each}}
paginate	Split array into pages	{{#paginate items 10}}...{{/paginate}}

paginate in detail

The paginate helper splits an array into equal-sized chunks – ideal for multi-page PDFs where, for example, only 10 line items should appear per page.

{{#paginate items 10}}
  <div class="page">
    <h2>Page {{add pageIndex 1}}</h2>
    <table>
      {{#each slice}}
        <tr>
          <td>{{this.description}}</td>
          <td>{{currency_eur this.amount}}</td>
        </tr>
      {{/each}}
    </table>
  </div>
{{/paginate}}

Within the block, the following variables are available:

• slice – the entries for the current page
• pageIndex – the page index (starts at 0)

---

QR Code

Helper	Description	Example
qrCode	Generate QR code as data URL	<img src="{{{qrCode paymentLink}}}" width="200" />
buildString	Concatenate strings (e.g. for structured QR data)	{{{qrCode (buildString "BCD\n" bic "\n" name)}}}

QR codes are generated as Base64 data URLs and embedded directly in an <img> tag. Sizing and positioning are controlled via HTML/CSS.

Options

Option	Default	Description
width	200	Image width in pixels
margin	1	Margin around the QR code (in modules)
errorCorrectionLevel	"M"	Error correction: "L", "M", "Q", or "H"

<img src="{{{qrCode productUrl width=300 margin=2 errorCorrectionLevel="H"}}}" width="300" />

GiroCode example (payment QR code)

The GiroCode (EPC QR code) allows bank transfer data to be scanned directly by banking apps. The format follows a fixed line structure:

<img src="{{{qrCode (buildString
  "BCD\n001\n1\nSCT\n"
  bic "\n"
  recipientName "\n"
  iban "\nEUR"
  amount "\n\n\nInvoice "
  invoiceNumber
) width=250 errorCorrectionLevel="M"}}}" width="250" />

Triple curly braces required

qrCode returns a data URL containing data:image/png;base64,.... With double curly braces {{ }}, the result would be HTML-escaped and the image would not display.

---

Practical Example: Invoice

The following example shows a complete invoice template with header, line items, totals, payment QR code, and conditional note:

<html>
<body>
  <h1>Invoice {{invoiceNumber}}</h1>
  <p>Date: {{toGermanDate invoiceDate}}</p>
  <p>Customer: {{customerName}}</p>

  <table>
    <thead>
      <tr>
        <th>Description</th>
        <th>Quantity</th>
        <th>Unit Price</th>
        <th>Total</th>
      </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
      {{#each items}}
      <tr>
        <td>{{this.description}}</td>
        <td>{{numberFormat this.quantity}}</td>
        <td>{{currency_eur this.unitPrice}}</td>
        <td>{{currency_eur (multiply this.unitPrice this.quantity)}}</td>
      </tr>
      {{/each}}
    </tbody>
  </table>

  <p><strong>Net amount:</strong> {{currency_eur netAmount}}</p>
  <p><strong>VAT 19%:</strong> {{currency_eur (multiply netAmount 0.19)}}</p>
  <p><strong>Total:</strong> {{currency_eur grossAmount}}</p>

  {{#greaterThan grossAmount 500}}
    <p><em>Please transfer the amount within 14 days.</em></p>
  {{/greaterThan}}

  <div style="margin-top: 20px;">
    <p>Scan to transfer:</p>
    <img src="{{{qrCode (buildString "BCD\n001\n1\nSCT\n" bic "\n" companyName "\n" iban "\nEUR" grossAmount "\n\n\nInvoice " invoiceNumber)}}}" width="200" />
  </div>

  <footer>
    <p>Created on {{currentDate "en-US" "Europe/Berlin"}}</p>
  </footer>
</body>
</html>

---

All Helpers at a Glance

Helper	Category	Triple braces needed
dateTimeFormat	Date	No
dateTimeFormatWithSettings	Date	No
toGermanDate	Date	No
currentDate	Date	No
currentDateTime	Date	No
addDaysToCurrentDate	Date	No
month_name	Date	No
year	Date	No
currency_eur	Numbers	No
currency_dollar	Numbers	No
numberFormat	Numbers	No
multiply	Numbers	No
add	Numbers	No
round	Numbers	No
ifEquals	Condition	No
greaterThan	Condition	No
lessThan	Condition	No
greaterOrEqualThan	Condition	No
lessOrEqualThan	Condition	No
replace	Text	No
htmlify	Text	Yes
renderString	Text	Yes
buildString	Text	— (sub-expression)
concat	Lists	No
paginate	Lists	No
qrCode	QR Code	Yes