Templates not working (at first)

[Wosven]

Since the use of "Templates" folder isn't  suitable to everyone's workflow (it's like we were asked to put all the files with the same extention in the same folder, or having hundred of Templates folder here and there), it would be usefull to have the "Create" button (= create new file from the template)  as an option or something else when opening a template in the usual ways (Open…).

[R C-R]

5 minutes ago, Wosven said:

Since the use of "Templates" folder isn't  suitable to everyone's workflow (it's like we were asked to put all the files with the same extention in the same folder, or having hundred of Templates folder here and there), it would be usefull to have the "Create" button (= create new file from the template)  as an option or something else when opening a template in the usual ways (Open…).

You can put .aftemplate files wherever you want, including distributing them among hundreds of different folders, each of which contains a mix of dozens of different file types only a few of which any Affinity app can open. IOW, they do not have to be stored in folders reserved exclusively for .aftemplate files nor in ones named "template" or any variation thereof.

All clicking the "Add Folder" button does is tell the app that whatever folder you choose might (but does not have to) include one or more .aftemplate files in it. It could be a preexisting folder or a new one you create, have any folder name you want, nested however you want within the file system, subject only to the access rights (permissions) the OS places on file access.

All the Templates button in the File > New window does is to display a list of folders you have added plus previews of any .aftemplate files that are in whichever folder is currently selected in that list. The list can consist of as many folders as you want, including just one folder or no folders if you have not added any or have removed all that you previously added. Removing a folder from the list in no way affects its contents.

So you can set this up however you want, including ignoring the File > New > Templates section completely by leaving the list empty by never adding any folder to it.

Of course, if you do that & open an existing .aftemplate file via File > Open you will be opening that template file, not a copy of it, just like you would with any other existing Affinity format file. So if you want to avoid overwriting it you would have to remember to use either Save As... (to save it as a regular Affinity document format file) or Export as Template... (to save it as a new .aftemplate file). I guess yet another option is to manually change the Save As extension to .aftemplate, which also works (if you spell it right).

So basically, the File > New > Templates feature is a convenience that acts like a filter to show only .aftemplate files in designated folders plus previews & a few other items like showing path names & providing for editing an .aftemplate file directly from that window.

There was in one of the 1.8 betas a "New" button in addition to the Presets & Templates one that was supposed to open a copy of an existing file but as I understand it, it was not working correctly so it was removed & (hopefully) will be added in a future 1.8.x update when it is.

[Wosven]

7 hours ago, R C-R said:

You can put .aftemplate files wherever you want, including distributing them among hundreds of different folders, each of which contains a mix of dozens of different file types only a few of which any Affinity app can open. IOW, they do not have to be stored in folders reserved exclusively for .aftemplate files nor in ones named "template" or any variation thereof.

Interesting, the left panel is sort of an explorer showing the floder tree. But it's a mess on my computer, it would be worst a work:
all folders and subfolders are displayed by a big icon with the name and the path (usually truncated path since too long to fit in the allow area)

Small icons and displaying only the selected folder path somewhere else in this view would be better, and if possible, the usual cross to display subfolders if needed. 

If you add other folders, they're added at the bottom of the list, and the list of folders is accordingly longer! This need to be worked on, since reality is more complexe than few test folders.

 

I'm wondering if it's possible to have a new shortcut in the right-click menu of the mouse to get: "Open (or create?) with APub|AD|AP as new file" for the aftemplate files in the explorer.
 

 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Wosven said:

Interesting, the left panel is sort of an explorer showing the floder tree.

It only shows a list of folders you have added via the "Add Folder" button, & only shows in the middle panel files in a selected folder from the list that are .aftemplate files. So for example, I have organized all my .aftemplate files into three folders, one for each of the Affinity apps, & placed those 3 folders in a folder I named "Templates." I named the 3 folders "Designer Templates," "Photo Templates" & "Publisher Templates." I added each of the 3 folders to the templates list in each of the Affinity apps but not the parent "Templates" folder.

This way, in any Affinity app I can quickly find & use any template as a starting point for a new project, even if the template was created in a different app than the one I am currently using, but there is no confusion about which app created the template.

This has the benefit of making it very easy when 'exporting' (saving, if you prefer) an Affinity format file to one of my template folders to navigate first to the parent Templates folder & then choosing the appropriate child folder to add it to.

If your .aftemplate files are scattered all over your drive it might work better for you to try out some similar organizational scheme. 

[Cecil]

The New templates works, especially adding Folders organizing Templates, within folders.  I still have the missing scroll bar, I need to manually drag screen for it to show.  The Show in Finder, with multiple folder doesn’t work.  Clicking on it, nothing happens.  I don’t actually need as I know the location, but it should work.  

[R C-R]

Just now, Cecil said:

I still have the missing scroll bar...

Your sig says you are running OS 10.5.3, which I assume is incorrect, but in any macOS version at least up through Mojave in System Preferences > General there should be an option that controls when scroll bars are shown. If you try the "Always" option, does the scroll bar show regardless of the window size?

5 minutes ago, Cecil said:

The Show in Finder, with multiple folder doesn’t work.

For me, it does not work for the folder at the top of the list but for all others below the top one it does. Are you seeing something different?

[Cecil]

4 hours ago, R C-R said:

Your sig says you are running OS 10.5.3, which I assume is incorrect, but in any macOS version at least up through Mojave in System Preferences > General there should be an option that controls when scroll bars are shown. If you try the "Always" option, does the scroll bar show regardless of the window size?

As this is Desktop questions, macOS Catalina 1015.3 Catalina is current version. I will update my signature with macOS 10.15.3, I thought it was obvious, wrong. My preferences is set to Always on.  I reported this as a bug on Desktop Bug topic: Template No Scroll Bar AWOL.  Walt suggested to drag window and yes it will show scroll bar after resizing and also disappearing.  Chris B is trying to reproduce. Dragging the window will show scroll bar, until multiple columns appears showing all Templates in folder.  I understand that the scroll bar is not needed when all Templates appear; however, if always on, why disappear, even if not required to show all Templates. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/108441-template-no-scroll-bar-awol/&tab=comments#comment-589718

4 hours ago, R C-R said:

Your sig says you are running OS 10.5.3, which I assume is incorrect, but in any macOS version at least up through Mojave in System Preferences > General there should be an option that controls when scroll bars are shown. If you try the "Always" option, does the scroll bar show regardless of the window size?

For me, it does not work for the folder at the top of the list but for all others below the top one it does. Are you seeing something different?

Playing with this for days, I discovered if I use New, Presets, work on project and close, the scroll bar will not work the next time I open New, Templates.  If I quit AP, open New, Templates the scroll bar appears, without dragging.

Folder on top does not work but for others below the top one opens Finder.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, Cecil said:

I understand that the scroll bar is not needed when all Templates appear; however, if always on, why disappear, even if not required to show all Templates.

I don't know why, but in all my apps including Apple ones like TextEdit, even though I have set the preference to "Always," the scroll bars do not appear if all the content of the window will fit into it. I run Mojave but it was the same in High Sierra & (I think) in Sierra. The only thing that always appears with that pref set is the scroll bar channels along the right & bottom of the window, but the scroll bars themselves do not appear unless the content will not all fit in the window.

So that much is normal (you can see the empty channels in your screenshot), but not that the vertical scroll bar itself is not present because the content does not all fit in the window.

However, I cannot duplicate that on my Mac running Mojave -- for me, when all the templates do not fit, the vertical scroll bar always appears. It does not matter if I use New > Presets & work on a project & then close it; or with any other sequence of actions I can think of.

[Cecil]

16 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I cannot duplicate that on my Mac running Mojave

Thank you for your reply. The problem is not a major one, now that I aware and just drag Templates window. 

[Wosven]

11 hours ago, R C-R said:

"Designer Templates," "Photo Templates" & "Publisher Templates."

We can't use this sort of organization for our document, but you nailed to point I had difficulties with (but didn't mentioned because it wasn't the main topic): which app created the template?

We can open the same file in the 3 apps, but opening a magazine's template in AP wouldn't be usefull, for example. I was thinking about adding an extention at the end of the file's name (_AP, _AD, _APub), if there's no alert such as "This file was made with xxx, do you want to open it with yyy?"

Or it could be an icon of the app showing in the preview panel with the detils of the selected template?

[R C-R]

52 minutes ago, Wosven said:

We can't use this sort of organization for our document ...

Can I ask why? If you want, you could reserve one folder for all your APu templates, another for all your AP ones, & one for all your AD ones. If you put those three folders inside a parent Templates folder (named however you want) it would make it easy when using "Export as Template..." to first navigate to the parent folder & then choose the appropriate child folder to save that template in, but of course you do not have to do that.

57 minutes ago, Wosven said:

We can open the same file in the 3 apps, but opening a magazine's template in AP wouldn't be usefull, for example.

In that case, there is no reason to add the folder with the magazine templates to the folder list in AP's File > New > Templates section.

59 minutes ago, Wosven said:

I was thinking about adding an extention at the end of the file's name (_AP, _AD, _APub), if there's no alert such as "This file was made with xxx, do you want to open it with yyy?"

Why not just add _AP, _AD, _APub, or some such unique indicator to the template filename when you create it? You can do that now & that way even if you do add a mixed template folder to any of the apps, you can use the search field in the File > New > Templates section to show only those with that as part of the filename.

Keep in mind that you also can edit file names, move files around, filter by filetype, etc. in Finder, Explorer, or whatever utility you might have installed on your system, so you are not limited to what the template feature of the Affinity apps supports. One thing I have noticed about that is sometimes the Affinity app must be quit & restarted for the previews and/or the filenames to be updated, but hopefully that will be fixed in some not-to-far-into-the-future update.

[Wosven]

7 hours ago, R C-R said:

Can I ask why?

I already answered this one. The logical way for saving and later archiving, for example:
server/templates/type of work/specific work name/(template file, links, others specifics documents or files or folders for this work, etc.)
server/archives/type of work/specific work name and date/(assembled-archived work (files, links, fonts, etc.), PDF for print, etc.)

There can be extra geographical/area subfolders for types of work that need them.

There's a symetry in the way the files are ordered, so it's easy to understand and apply.

It wouldn't be logical to have all the aftemplates files in one folder, or in subfolders, since we need to be able to grab, archive and send a full project to someone else sometimes, an it should be easy to do. Sometimes, you just need to assess content of a folder to check if you need to update or add some files, etc., and subfolders are in the way.

We need the shortest (sic) paths possible, since it can be difficult to archive some work when people keep on writing their life (or caption) in some file names instead of using metadata. Adding un-necessary subfolders isn't helping, and renaming files or deleting subfolders to achieve this is unwanted work.
When path are too long, apps only show the beginning and you can't read important information like the last folder's name, you need to check other way.

We should be able to explain easily to new coworkers and trainees and they shouldn't need a list, a map and a compass to find the files

The less clicks, the fastest way.

It's the same universal way as the one used to export/assembly a finished work: all the usefull file in the same folder. And if you stop working with a client, you only need to check the folder is archived before deleting the one you've got on the server or on your computer for active work. No need to search in different folders to delete the files for this client.

 

9 hours ago, R C-R said:

In that case, there is no reason to add the folder with the magazine templates to the folder list in AP's File > New > Templates section.

If, like for a lot of works, all the files are in the same folder, and you don't want to spend your time adding/removing folders to the template section, you'll only add the parent folder of all the ones that can possibly contain templates (and those ones can be made with AP, AD, or APub). Using suffixes can help to distinguish them easily, if there's no available indication in the template panel informations.

10 hours ago, R C-R said:

Why not just add _AP, _AD, _APub, or some such unique indicator to the template filename when you create it?

It can be done, but it would be best if it was also an indication in the panel (apps tend to be more reliable than humans that can forget such trivial tasks).

At some point, when you have so many files, it's better to rely on a sturdy organization than searching for files. (It's usually a last resort!)

 

[R C-R]

10 minutes ago, Wosven said:

It wouldn't be logical to have all the aftemplates files in one folder, or in subfolders, since we need to be able to grab, archive and send a full project to someone else sometimes, an it should be easy to do.

Templates are just starting points for new  projects -- when you open one from the File > New > Templates window, just like with Presets it opens a new, unsaved Affinity document. So I am a bit puzzled by why you would want to include any in any full project you sent to someone else. As for archiving projects, you can still include a copy of one or more aftemplate files in an archive.

25 minutes ago, Wosven said:

When path are too long, apps only show the beginning and you can't read important information like the last folder's name, you need to check other way.

When you select a template in the center section, in the right section below the larger preview of it, the full path name is shown. There is a lot of space allocated for that, so the path name would have to be extremely long for it to be truncated -- probably quite a bit longer than the file system would permit. Also, if you click on that path name, at least on Macs it opens the enclosing folder containing it in Finder. I assume there is an equivalent to that in Windows.

Regardless, if workers are not relying on file & filesystem metadata for file management, either with the tools provided for that purpose by the OS or with third party add-ons, then I think that is going to be a problem not just for work product involving the Affinity apps but across the board for all types of work, & doubly so for archive/backup purposes. It is the only unified approach I know of that is viable over the long term. It has a proven track record, is adaptable to any business large or small, & integrates very well with modern demands for secure data management.

Of course, it does require due diligence by workers to make sure the correct metadata is included, is stored in the right place, is protected with appropriate access rights, & so on, but so does any other practical approach to systematic data management.

[Wosven]

3 hours ago, R C-R said:

Templates are just starting points for new  projects -- when you open one from the File > New > Templates window, just like with Presets it opens a new, unsaved Affinity document. So I am a bit puzzled by why you would want to include any in any full project you sent to someone else. As for archiving projects, you can still include a copy of one or more aftemplate files in an archive.

Those are only Affinity files with another extension. If people work with the same program, they'll know what to do with it. A template is only a mean to have a "mother" file, the one reuse each time you create the issue of a revue, for example. Sending this file, or renaming and modifying the extention before sending it isn't important (that'll be fastest than creating a new file from the template and searching the original folder—Affinity apps keep on anoyingly wanting to save a file in the last saving folder instead of the current file location—, typing the new name and creating the archive).

3 hours ago, R C-R said:

When you select a template in the center section, in the right section below the larger preview of it, the full path name is shown. There is a lot of space allocated for that,

The problem about long paths and too manysubfolders is explained above.

On Windows, the file tree panel isn't sexy or usable since it's difficult to undestand the hierarchy with too big icons and only the same beginning of the path showing. That's why, at least, the path of a selected folder should be displayed in the top, where there's enouth place for it and it's usually done. For now, only ±30 characters of those paths are visible under each folders.

3 hours ago, R C-R said:

Also, if you click on that path name, at least on Macs it opens the enclosing folder containing it in Finder. I assume there is an equivalent to that in Windows.

It's doing the same on Windows, but since the only way to "create" from a template is from this New document panel, there's no reason to use it.

Or completly forget this panel, open the file as usual, and save it as a regular file with the appropriate name and extension in the appropriate folder.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by your other comments. But for now, it seems the search is only done in the current folder, not in the subfolders of the one selected. Unless you have hundred of templates in the same folder, it's not helpfull.

[R C-R]

43 minutes ago, Wosven said:

A template is only a mean to have a "mother" file, the one reuse each time you create the issue of a revue, for example.

Templates are intended to be used as starting points for new work, beginning with some set of frequently used elements, not as some lame form of version control. If you want to create various versions of a project for review or whatever, you can use "Save as..." for that.

43 minutes ago, Wosven said:

It's doing the same on Windows, but since the only way to "create" from a template is from this New document panel, there's no reason to use it.

If that is true, why was it a frequently requested feature, one that a lot of users were happy to see added to the betas & the 1.8 releases?

No disrespect intended, but I think you want templates to be something other than what they are & are ignoring better ways of doing what you would like them to do. But if want them to do more, it would probably be best to post what you want to the feature request forum & see if you get any support from other users for that.

[Wosven]

16 hours ago, R C-R said:

Templates are intended to be used as starting points for new work, beginning with some set of frequently used elements, not as some lame form of version control

That's what I wrote, perhaps not with the same words, but I know what I'm doing, and that's why I explain the flaws I see in the current way the panel is working. Re-read my entire posts if needed.

And again, I explain the flaws of the panel unable to search in more than the selected folder, not subfolder, I never said templates aren't needed, just as this is now it's only suited for few people managing a little amount of files, not organized companies.

I work in this area for decades now, please stop trying to explain to people who know what they're talking about they don't understand anything when you're not of the same opinion.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Wosven said:

And again, I explain the flaws of the panel unable to search in more than the selected folder, not subfolder ...

I agree 100% that this would be very useful, & I hope they add it in an upcoming 1.8 update. It is also not the only missing feature/bug (like "Show in Finder" not working for the top folder in the list & some refresh problems) that need attention.

But even as implemented now, this already goes a long way toward what a lot of users have been asking for & it seems to be getting mostly favorable responses from forum users who have mentioned it.

If it does not meet your needs, please post something in the feature request section explaining at least in general how you would like it to work & why, or use the features built into your OS or with third party add-ons to help with that. I doubt that Serif has any immediate plans to expand its scope to include what seems to be to be large business/enterprise class data management, & probably not if/until we see an Affinity DAM will we see anything like that, but you never know -- it never hurts to ask, right?

[Wosven]

Basic explanation of how Template works in other apps:

It's usually a document saved with a special extension, that when opened with the app will open as an untitled document, to prevent you to begin working on the template file and erase it. You need to use the "Save as" option to save a document with such extension.

As usual, Affinity decided to create a different process for those files: if you open a template in the regular way, you'll be able to override it. To save as such file, you need to write manually the extension or use a different menu entry "export as template". For the apps to open those files as untitled documents, you need to go through the "New document" menu option, and use a specific Template panel, and add a specific folder to this panel, or a parent folder, but in this case it'll be messy.

Sometimes, to reinvent the wheel or create new process can be helpfull, but not always.

8 hours ago, R C-R said:

If it does not meet your needs, please post something in the feature request section explaining at least in general how you would like it to work & why, or use the features built into your OS or with third party add-ons to help with that. I doubt that Serif has any immediate plans to expand its scope to include what seems to be to be large business/enterprise class data management, & probably not if/until we see an Affinity DAM will we see anything like that, but you never know -- it never hurts to ask, right?

I hope they follow this thread about a new feature. Or put the relevant part in the bug or features request part of this forum if needed. But I spend enough time reporting some bugs, and other people creating other threads for the sames ones, without any result to not lost time doing it again for nothing.

Stop thinking Affinity apps are only for small business. It was already mentioned, but big companies monitor those apps development, since they too want to cut the annual cost. Specifically in the press, where selling newspapers and revues is more and more difficult for at least 3 decades.
For now they can use a mix of old CS and CC suite licences, but updating all the equipement and going full CC is an important cost that need planning. If using Affinity apps can be possible, it'll be discussed, tested and validated.

For now, there's no third party addons or scripts possible with Affinity apps. Adding a DAM won't solve the already existing bugs or ergonomics problems already mentioned. It'll only add new ones.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Wosven said:

Basic explanation of how Template works in other apps:

It's usually a document saved with a special extension, that when opened with the app will open as an untitled document, to prevent you to begin working on the template file and erase it. You need to use the "Save as" option to save a document with such extension.

As usuall, Affinity decided to create a diffenrent process for those files...

Have you considered that there might be a good reason for doing this differently in Affinity, one that has to do with the unified native file format that any of 3 apps (so far) can open? We now know that an aftemplate file also shares that same native file format, so there are some potential problems to work out if it was using a different format, & the solution must work across 3 OS families, multiple file systems, & be compatible with OS-specific & file system-specific limitations.

So I suspect there is a bit more to it than just using the same 'wheel' as other apps that implement templates in the traditional way.

[Wosven]

5 hours ago, R C-R said:

Have you considered that there might be a good reason for doing this differently in Affinity, one that has to do with the unified native file format that any of 3 apps (so far) can open?

If so, they just needed to add more specifics extensions depending of apps, like for the file extension that is different for each app, and I can't see how this panel that reduce workflow can be the solution. That's also why I suggested at least an indication or icon of the app that created the file in the details panel when a template is selected. You would need to select a file to have this info, but it's better than blindly opening files if there's no suffixes.

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, Wosven said:

If so, they just needed to add more specifics extensions depending of apps, like for the file extension that is different for each app...

The three extensions .afphoto, ,afdesign, & .afpub only determine which of the Affinity apps will open a file by default, like when you double-click on it. That also determines the default application icon the OS will associate with it, which is what you would see if it has been saved without a thumbnail or the file browser (Finder or Windows Explorer or whatever) has been set not to display them.

But any Affinity app can open any file with any of these extensions because the internal file format is identical for all of them. In fact, you can change the extension manually to any of them & that will have no effect on the file other than changing the default app associated with it. This is also why someone who does not have all of the Affinity apps can still open & edit files created in any of them.

Because of this, there is no need to include anything in the file itself that indicates which app created it, which Affinity app it should be associated with by default, or which app must open it.

It is the same for files with the .aftemplate extension. Because it uses the same internal file format as the other three, any of the Affinity apps can use any of these files as a template, regardless of which Affinity app created it. Among other things, this means an .aftemplate file created in APub on Windows or Mac desktop computers can even be used as a template in the iPadOS versions of AD or AP, even though there is (as yet) no iPadOS version of APub, which is pretty cool.

So the bottom line is just adding another extension would not work. They would have to create three new template file formats, one for each of the Affinity apps, in addition to the 'universal' one that any of the apps can use.

[Bad_Wolf]

Hi all,

In my case the "Save as..." option and then choosing ".aftemplate" did not work at all. "Export as Template..." did work nicely.

Hope this helps.

Chris

 

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, Bad_Wolf said:

In my case the "Save as..." option and then choosing ".aftemplate" did not work at all.

Out of curiosity, where do you have ".aftemplate" listed as an option in the "Save as..." window? I see no such option in the Mac versions of any of the Affinity apps, & in fact if I manually try to change the extension from .afdesign or whatever to .aftemplate in the 'Save as' window, I get a warning saying that is not allowed.

I don't use Windows so I may have this totally wrong but as I understand it, if there are multiple extensions listed in line items in the "Type:" popup menu, you cannot choose which of them to use.

[Wosven]

7 hours ago, R C-R said:

The three extensions .afphoto, ,afdesign, & .afpub only determine which of the Affinity apps will open a file by default,

I don't know why I get a course on file extensions and file formats since I wouldn't have done what I did earlier like replacing .afdesigner by .aftemplate extension, etc. if I was clueless.

I just mentioned it would have been better to do like other apps with specific extensions for each app, the same as we've got:

• .idml for inDesign XML files
• .indd for inDesign documents
• .indt for inDesign templates

We could have for example:

• aftpublisher for APub templates
• aftphoto for AP templates
• aftdesigner for AD templates

Or the "t" at the end, but the'll be ordered better with the first option.

8 hours ago, R C-R said:

Because of this, there is no need to include anything in the file itself that indicates which app created it, which Affinity app it should be associated with by default, or which app must open it.

Opening a book or a magazine template in AP would be a problem, I didn't test if after saving the file using AP it opens normally in Apub (nor played around doing tests with AD files with lot of artboards opened and saved in APub, and reopend in AD).

Following your point of view, they could have used the same extension for all the files. But since each apps get some specifics features, and you don't always wan't to open the file you made with an app in another one that don't have the same features, it was judicious. Why not doing it with the templates?

8 hours ago, R C-R said:

file created in APub on Windows or Mac desktop computers can even be used as a template in the iPadOS versions of AD or AP, even though there is (as yet) no iPadOS version of APub, which is pretty cool.

There's years now that interopérabilité (interopérability?) exists. Affinity apps had it before the template files. Since templates are regular files with a different extension, no surprise. One or 3 extensions, it's the same since if the apps reconize a type of file they can process, it's send to the proper code to decode/read. The main part is done. Adding one or 3 extensions to a list isn't a problem.

If there are 3 extensions, the we can visually know from a glance which app created the file.

When I was working on OS X, I received sometimes files without extensions opened the file in a text editor since some magic numbers or pattern could help determine which app created it. There's certainly some data in each Affinity file with such information, that the template panel can display.

[R C-R]

4 minutes ago, Wosven said:

We could have for example:

• aftpublisher for APub templates
• aftphoto for AP templates
• aftdesigner for AD templates

Or the "t" at the end, but the'll be ordered better with the first option.

My point is this would require the addition of 3 new file formats, because from what I can tell there is nothing in the existing native document file format that identifies which Affinity app created it. So this would be in addition to the current native file format, a complication they probably thought was neither necessary nor desirable, but you will have to ask them about that.

15 minutes ago, Wosven said:

One or 3 extensions, it's the same since if the apps reconize a type of file they can process, it's send to the proper code to decode/read.

There is nothing to decode when opening a file saved in the native document format because all 3 Affinity apps can open & read anything created in any of the others without any sort of conversion, decoding, or loss of data. The 3 apps differ in what they can create, not what they can open or edit. Should it not be obvious, I can open a file created in APub on my iPad in AD or AP & edit content in any of its pages, master pages included, similarly to how in the desktop versions I can do that by opening the file directly in AD or AP.

This also applies to .aftemplate files because it uses the same native document file format.

42 minutes ago, Wosven said:

When I was working on OS X, I received sometimes files without extensions opened the file in a text editor since some magic numbers or pattern could help determine which app created it.

Is it possible you are thinking about creator codes, a mechanism inherited from the 'classic' Mac OS & once used in OS X as the primary method of determining which app should open a file that does not have an extension? They are ignored in all recent OS X/MacOS versions (including all versions that Affinity supports), do not 'travel' well between file systems, & since they are Mac-only would not be suitable for use in native format files because they can be opened by both Mac & Windows systems.