From 119b964b166b38791bbc063f8f6ecceb829aab2e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Travis Abendshien <46939827+CyanVoxel@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2025 23:19:06 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] macros: change nested template key syntax, add docs

---
 docs/macros.md                     | 30 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 src/tagstudio/core/macro_parser.py |  4 ++--
 2 files changed, 30 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/macros.md b/docs/macros.md
index 106e8cfb..0573cd28 100644
--- a/docs/macros.md
+++ b/docs/macros.md
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ If you're importing from an object or table-like source (i.e. JSON), you'll need
 
 Inside the new table we can now declare additional information about the native data formats and how they should be imported into TagStudio.
 
-### Data Sources
+### Action Configuration
 
 #### Key
 
@@ -413,7 +413,7 @@ video = ["Animation (2D)", "Animated (Meta Tags)"]
 
 #### Many to 1 (Inverse Map)
 
-By mapping a key of the name of one of your TagStudio tags to a list of source tags, you can declare a combination of required source tags that result in a wholly new matched TagStudio tag. This is useful if you use a single tag in your TagStudio library that is represented by multiple split tags from your source.
+By mapping a key with the name of one of your TagStudio tags to a list of source tags, you can declare a combination of required source tags that result in a wholly new matched TagStudio tag. This is useful if you use a single tag in your TagStudio library that is represented by multiple separate tags from your source.
 
 ```toml
 [newgrounds.tags.inverse_map]
@@ -421,3 +421,29 @@ By mapping a key of the name of one of your TagStudio tags to a list of source t
 "Animation (2D)" = ["drawing", "video"]
 "Animation (3D)" = ["3D", "video"]
 ```
+
+### Templates
+
+Templates are part of the `input_data` action and allow you to take data from one or more keys of a source and combine them into a single value. Template sub-action tables must begin with the action name and end with `.template` (e.g. `[action.template]`). Source object keys can be embedded in a string value if surrounded by curly braces (`{}`). Nested keys are accessed by separating the keys with a dot (e.g. `{key.nested_key}`).
+
+<!-- prettier-ignore-start -->
+=== "Composite Template"
+    ```toml
+    [bluesky.template]
+    template = "https://www.bsky.app/profile/{author.handle}/post/{post_id}"
+    ts_type = "text_line"
+    name = "Source"
+    ```
+=== "Multiple Templates per Action"
+    ```toml
+    [[artstation.template]]
+    template = "Original Tags: {tags}"
+    ts_type = "text_box"
+    name = "Notes"
+
+    [[artstation.template]]
+    template = "Original Mediums: {mediums}"
+    ts_type = "text_box"
+    name = "Notes"
+    ```
+<!-- prettier-ignore-end -->
diff --git a/src/tagstudio/core/macro_parser.py b/src/tagstudio/core/macro_parser.py
index 18437b1b..e8824eef 100644
--- a/src/tagstudio/core/macro_parser.py
+++ b/src/tagstudio/core/macro_parser.py
@@ -452,7 +452,7 @@ def _fill_template(
     Args:
         template (str): The string containing placeholder keys.
             Key names should be surrounded in curly braces. (e.g. "{key}").
-            Nested keys should be accessed with square bracket syntax. (e.g. "{key[nested_key]}").
+            Nested keys are accessed by separating the keys with a dot (e.g. "{key.nested_key}").
         table (dict[str, Any]): The table to lookup values from.
         table_key (str): The key to search for in the template and access the table with.
         template_key (str): Similar to table_key, but is not used for accessing the table and
@@ -464,7 +464,7 @@ def _fill_template(
 
     if isinstance(value, dict):
         for v in value:
-            normalized_key: str = f"{key}[{str(v)}]"
+            normalized_key: str = f"{key}.{str(v)}"
             template = _fill_template(template, value, str(v), normalized_key)
 
     value = str(value)