Exporting map to PDF from template using PyQGIS?

Question

I'm trying to update a QGIS plugin to PyQGIS 3 but I have some troubles to update the code for exporting layout to PDF. The layout derives from a template file. This is the "old" code:

canv = iface.mapCanvas()
rend = canv.mapRenderer()
rect = QgsRectangle(iface.mapCanvas().extent())

qpt = u'D:\\templates\\qvet_h_template.qpt')
ff = open(qpt, 'r')
tmplt = ff.read()
ff.close()
#zoom on the map
tmplt = tmplt.replace("iymin", str(rect.yMinimum()))
tmplt = tmplt.replace("iymax", str(rect.yMaximum()))
tmplt = tmplt.replace("ixmin", str(rect.xMinimum()))
tmplt = tmplt.replace("ixmax", str(rect.xMaximum()))

doc = QDomDocument()
doc.setContent(tmplt)

comp = QgsComposition(rend)
comp.loadFromTemplate(doc)

pdfpath = u"D:\\outputmap2.pdf"
out = comp.exportAsPDF(pdfpath)

As far as i know, it is necessary replace QgsComposition class and its methods (loadFromTemplate() and exportAsPDF()) as they are no longer present in pyqgis-3. I read to use QgsLayout to replace QgsComposition class, I tried to write some code but with failure. A draft of the code is as follows (the first part is the same as the above code):

doc = QDomDocument()
doc.setContent(tmplt)
ele = doc.documentElement()

project = QgsProject.instance()
lay = QgsPrintLayout(project)
lay.addItemsFromXml(ele, doc, QgsReadWriteContext())

exporter = QgsLayoutExporter(layout)
exporter.exportToPdf(u"D:\\TestLayout.pdf", QgsLayoutExporter.PdfExportSettings())

Answer 1

Thank to @Fran Raga suggestions I wrote the follow code and it works.

doc = QDomDocument()
doc.setContent(tmplt)

project = QgsProject.instance()
l = QgsLayout(project)
l.initializeDefaults()

items, ok = l.loadFromTemplate(doc, QgsReadWriteContext(), False)

exporter = QgsLayoutExporter(l)
exporter.exportToPdf(u"D:\\TestLayout.pdf", QgsLayoutExporter.PdfExportSettings())

To prevent QGIS crash, the method .initializeDefaults() should be called (ref in QGIS Api)