Thanks for getting in touch with us. The scenario that you’ve described should be possible using Templater. In fact, with the correct setup, you shouldn’t need to edit the AE file directly. Using a few of Templater’s basic features, you should be able to control the text content and the composition selection entirely from your data source.
Swapping out the contents of a text field is one of the most basic and useful features of Templater. Once Templater is installed and connected to your data source of choice (Google Sheet, QUE Campaign, or local file), simply rename the layer to match the column/data point in question and apply the Templater Effect. Once that’s done, Templater should swap the text in the corresponding layer during the Preview or Render process.
As far as swapping out a composition, Templater has a reserved column named target that can be used to designate which .aep file Templater should load for each set of data. This should allow you to swap out the project file on the fly to whichever the end-user desires.
Finally, if you wanted to automate the process, you could always use Templater Bot to monitor your data source for new entries continuously. There’s another reserved column named render-status that Templater Bot searches for continuously. When a line of data is added with a render-status of “ready” Templater Bot will bring in the data and process the video.
Those are the basics, but if you have any other questions, please feel free to let us know.
Thanks!