Email templates can be used to pre-populate emails with information to create a standard format for outbound emails. Emails may be sent automatically from Business Process Workflows or manually from within an app.

Template List

The list of templates is controlled by the selection of the application that will be using the template along with the entity or business object within that application for which the template will use fields to include information from the entity when an email is sent using that template.

Grouping

Email templates can be assigned a group using up to 3 levels. The Grouping option allows you to filter the list by these groups. When selecting a group, the list will display all templates for that group and any sub-group. The group names and assignments are all mananged within the Template Editor.

Template Editor

The Template Editor is used to construct your email templates. Within the Editor you provide the following areas.

• Group
  The Group option provides a way of organizing email templates using up to 3 levels. You can either add the template to an existing group or you can create a new group name. Groups can be used to filter the Email Template list and can help with template selection when using certain application features.

• Name
  The Name provides a reference within the list of Templates. The BPM Editor and the different Apps that use email templates will also use this name to display where email template selection is available.

• Subject
  Contents of the Subject of the email. Both text and fields can be used within this section.

• Message
  The main body of the email. When creating or modifying an email template, the Message area includes a full editor to provide options for fonts and styling within your email.

Fields

Each application, through the use of entity definitions defines the specific fields that are available for any given template. Field names are generally descriptive and self-evident, and often include a short description of their purpose which you can see at the point of choosing the field(s). However, if you do need more detailed information, you should see the documentation for the specific application, as each application’s entities and published email template fields are different.

Global Fields

As well as the application-specific fields, there are a number of general purpose fields that are always available regardless of the application or entity context, these fields are general purpose fields relating to the session of the user making use of the template.

Field Formats & Modifiers

Template Fields can be used within the Subject or Message of a template in order to have information that is stored within the related entity and be injected into the email being created from the template, as well as a number Fields related to the user making use of the template when sending a message.

• Format
  Each field starts with a double opening curly brace ( {{ ) and finishes with a double closing curly brace ( }} ). Within the curly braces, the contents can be either just a data field specified by a dot (.) followed by the field name (.H_Firstname) or the data field can be preceded by an available related entity (Contact.H_firstname). The complete field will have the format {{.H_firstname}}

• Letter Case
  The letter case of the fields will determine the letter case that is used in the email. For example

  • {{.H_firstname}} = John
  • {{.h_firstname}} = john
  • {{.H_FIRSTNAME}} = JOHN

• Modifiers
  The following modifiers are used with fields and are available: For example:

  • {{.H_firstname|upper}} = Will force the value to uppercase i.e JOHN.
  • {{.h_firstname|lower}} = Will force the value to lowercase i.e john.
  • {{.h_firstname|empty}} = Will only show the value if it exists else the field will be removed from the output.
  • {{.h_firstname|html}} = Allows HTML output from a template field instead of HTML being shown as text.
  • {{.h_firstname|wiki}} = Allows HTML output from a template field that contains wiki markup, Currently only basic formatting (Bold, Italic, Ordered & Unordered lists) are supported.
  • {{.datetimefield|formatLocalTime}} = Allows formatting of datetime fields using system regional settings (system.RegionalSettings.timezone & system.RegionalSettings.dateTimeFormat), without this formatting the date time will use the DB value (UTC).

  Tip

  Modifiers do not apply for extended fields. For example, modifiers cannot be applied (they will not work) on fields like “Customer Coworker.H_first_name”

Controlling Field Visibility - The “empty” field Modifier

Sometimes you may want to include a field in your email template that you find under certain circumstances may not be populated. You will notice that when fields fail to find any corresponding information in the database they simply show themselves in their raw form: {{.field}}. This doesn’t look terribly good in your otherwise beautifully prepared email templates.

Using the “empty” modifier is a simple way to guard against this situation. Adding a vertical bar followed by the the word “empty” i.e. “|empty” within the curly braces of your field will hide it if the system finds that there is no information to show. This results in: {{.field|empty}}.

Field Conditions

ESP conditions are a more advanced way of controlling the visibility of fields within your email templates and they can also be applied to blocks of text too.

An ESP expression controls whether the field or specified text should be visible in the email being sent. i.e. If the expression evaluates to “True” then display the field or text. If the expression evaluates to “False” then hide the field or text completely. Ultimately, the visibility of the field or text is dependent purely on the condition set against it. It is not dependent on whether any data exists in the database for the field to resolve.

• What Operators can I use in my ESP Conditions?
  The operators “=” (equal to) and “!=” (not equal to) are supported.
• The Co-Worker Vs Contact ESP Condition Example
  One common situation where the ESP expression is essential is when you want to begin your emails with “Dear [Customer]”.

As you will know by now, the customer set against a request could either be a “Co-Worker” (someone internal to your Organization) or a “Contact” (an individual external to your organization) and each of these types of user have a range of associated fields.

To configure an email template to cater for the possibility of the customer being a Co-worker or a Contact it should be set up as follows:

1. Select the desired Co-worker and Contact name fields. In this example we will be addressing the customer by first name only so we will select {{Customer Coworker.H_first_name}} and {{Customer Contact.H_firstname}}
2. Highlight the Co-Worker field and click the ESP Expression button You will see that the “Value” field is automatically populated with the highlighted field.
3. In the “Expression” field, define the condition that you wish to control the visibility of this field. Remember, the field will only be displayed if your expression is found to be true. For the Co-worker field, we only want this to display if the customer against the request is in fact a Co-worker. This information is stored in the main request table and can be obtained using the field {{.h_customer_type}}. The value will be zero for a Co-worker, and one for a contact, hence the expression controlling a Co-worker field should be: {{.h_customer_type}} = 0
4. Click OK
5. Highlight the Contact field and click the ESP Expression button.
6. The controlling expression defined here needs to ensure the Contact field only displays if the customer against a request is indeed a contact. So using the same field as before we can set the expression as {{.h_customer_type}} = 1
7. Click OK

When viewing/editing and email template, any field that has a Field Expression applied is highlighted in gray. To edit Field Expression, highlight the field and click the Edit Expression button.

1. Choose your fields and place them in the template.
2. Highlight a field and click the ESP Expression button.
3. Review the ESP Expression Properties.
4. Adding your Customer is Co-worker expression.
5. Now highlight the next field.
6. Adding your Customer is Contact expression.
7. The Gray highlighting indicates both fields now have ESP conditions controlling their visibility.