[derfelix]

header footer and headinclude
I think they are only rendered once the first template is rendered...
That is good because you can populate template hooks BEFORE the renderering...

to test where that is in the page.. take any page..
and add:
print $footer; exit;
after the require backend stuff...
you will get a blank page..

now move that line down in the code..
you will get an output after the first $templater->render(); line
(where the render thing can also be in a function)

my 2 cents
F.