OpenCart Community

trying to build a module. the developer documentation says this link will give me a barebones template...
http://opencart.hostjars.com/creating-opencart-modules

the link is broken or page doesnt exist.

Hostjars no longer exists. The links have yet to be removed from opencart.com. You can report it to the OpenCart team, but they haven't been too quick to remove broken links like this:

https://www.opencart.com/index.php?rout ... rt/contact

For now, you'll have to look at the existing built-in extensions to get an idea of how to create your own.