A small, self-hosted web app that turns the Worship Moments 2026 invitation PDF into personalized invitations in bulk — one per guest — each with a unique QR code for entrance verification and an optional clickable RSVP button that feeds a live response dashboard.

Built with Node.js + Express. No database server, no build tools, no native modules — it runs anywhere Node runs.

• Upload the invitation PDF once.
• Visually drag, resize and position the guest name, the QR code, and an optional RSVP button directly on the template.
• Upload an Excel/CSV with a single column of guest names.
• Generate one personalized PDF per guest:
  • the name placed in your chosen font, size, colour and position;
  • a unique QR code that opens an entrance-verification page;
  • an optional clickable RSVP button linked to that guest.
• Preview a real sample, generate the whole batch, download individual PDFs or a ZIP of all of them.
• Guests open the RSVP link, confirm Yes / No and leave an optional comment.
• Track every response in the RSVP dashboard and export to Excel.
• At the door, scanning a guest's QR opens a verification page with a Check in button.

The app never sends anything itself — you download the PDFs and send them by WhatsApp, email or print, exactly as you prefer.

• Node.js 18 or newer (check with node --version).

npm install
npm start

Then open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

Example (Mac/Linux):

ADMIN_PASSWORD=worship2026 BASE_URL=https://rsvp.yoursite.com PORT=3000 npm start

You can also set the public link from the field in the top bar of the dashboard — that value is saved and overrides BASE_URL.

A QR code scanned on someone's phone, or an RSVP button tapped from a downloaded PDF, has to reach this running app over the internet. localhost only works on your own machine.

So before you generate the real batch, make sure BASE_URL (or the "Public link" field) points at an address the outside world can open. Options:

• Deploy the app to a small server / VPS / a host like Render or Railway and use that HTTPS address.
• For a quick public address while the app runs on your laptop, a tunnel such as ngrok http 3000 or a Cloudflare Tunnel gives you a temporary public URL — paste it into the "Public link" field, then generate.

If you generate with the wrong base URL, just fix the URL and generate again (see the note on regenerating below).

1. Invitation template — upload the Worship Moments PDF.
2. Guest names — upload an .xlsx or .csv. The first column is treated as the name; a header row like "Invitee Name" is ignored automatically.
3. Position & style — drag the Name, QR and (if enabled) RSVP boxes onto the template. Drag the gold dot on a box to resize it. Set the name's font, size, alignment and colour, and the QR size. Turn on the RSVP button if you want one, and set its text and colours.
4. Preview & generate — "Preview sample invitation" renders a real PDF using the first guest's name, so what you see is exactly what prints. When happy, "Generate all invitations", then download the ZIP or individual PDFs.
5. RSVP Responses tab — see who's attending, when they replied, their comments and who's checked in. "Export to Excel" downloads the full list.

Scan a guest's QR with any phone camera. It opens a page showing their name and RSVP status with a Check in button. If you set an ADMIN_PASSWORD, staff enter it once as the gate PIN.

• Where data lives: everything is stored in the data/ folder next to the app — data/db.json (guests + RSVPs), data/template.pdf, and the generated PDFs in data/output/. Back up this folder if you want to keep records.
• Regenerating: each "Generate all invitations" run starts a fresh batch — it clears the previous PDFs and assigns new IDs. Any QR codes / RSVP links from an earlier batch stop working, so only re-generate if you intend to re-send.
• File size: each invitation is roughly the size of your template, because the full template is preserved on every page (to keep the premium look). If the template is large and you'll send PDFs over WhatsApp, compress the source PDF once before uploading — every generated invitation then inherits the smaller size.
• Names with accents (e.g. "José") are rendered using the standard PDF fonts; accented letters are folded to their plain form so they always print cleanly.

worship-invites/
├─ src/
│  ├─ server.js     Express routes (admin API + public RSVP/verify pages)
│  ├─ store.js      File-backed JSON data store (atomic writes)
│  ├─ generate.js   PDF generation: name, QR, clickable RSVP link
│  └─ pages.js      Public RSVP form / thank-you / verification pages
├─ public/
│  ├─ index.html    Admin dashboard
│  ├─ app.js        Dashboard logic + drag/resize positioning
│  ├─ styles.css
│  └─ vendor/       pdf.js (renders the template for positioning)
├─ data/            Created at runtime (guests, template, output PDFs)
└─ package.json