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Customizing Admin Entry Alerts

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Justin Heeren
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Contents

Getting There
Alert Settings
Designing a Template
Troubleshooting

Overview

Admin Entry Alerts are sent to the email address of your choice whenever a visitor submits an entry into a list. By default, the email that's sent has a simple plain-text layout. With our email templates for entry alerts, you can design the layout and choose which form fields to include in the notification. 

Note: This feature is only available on our Pro Plan or higher.

Getting There

  • Click Lists in the main menu.

    Screen_Shot_2019-08-20_at_3.52.58_PM.png

  • Find the name of the list for which you'd like to edit the alert, and click the down arrow button to the right of it. Then, select Email Alerts from the drop-down.

    Screen_Shot_2018-09-06_at_10.50.23_AM.png

Alert Settings

The first thing to edit will be the Alert Settings. Start by filling out the Email Alerts To field with the email address to which alerts will be sent.

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Once an email address is entered, more options will pop up below. Select the Email From Address, type in an Email Subject Line, decide whether or not to include an approval link in the alert, and set your Entry Time Zone.

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With those settings all configured, click the Alert Template tab to move on to designing.

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Designing a Template

Check the box labeled Customize email template to show the email template editor.

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Inserting Field Data

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Each of the available fields in your form are listed in a panel on the left of the template editor. Clicking on any of the available fields will insert the appropriate tags into your template. For example, clicking on Campaign will insert the following into your template:

{{ entry.tab_name }}


These fields are inserted as plain text by default, and the output of the email should appear exactly the same as the content of the template editor.

A Note About Liquid Markup

Email templates use the Liquid Markup template system, which has a large amount of flexibility, but is also fairly advanced. ShortStack tries to provide a simple Liquid Markup interface.

Generally, most users should find the editor sufficient with minor alterations, using the "Available Merge Fields" buttons to a great extent.

Liquid Markup has many advanced features, like text transformation (making text uppercase), conditional logic (if/then statements), for loops, and variables, which are all documented on the Liquid Markup site.

Troubleshooting

Most issues with email templates arise from poorly formatted HTML or Liquid Markup syntax. Check the following to troubleshoot your template code:

  • If you’re not receiving your notification emails, check the Alert Settings tab and make sure you’ve provided a valid email address in the Email Alerts To field.

  • If the fields in your form have changed, the field map may have also changed. Double check by adding the fields again from the Available Merge Fields section.

  • The template editor does not automatically insert new form fields you may have added in the Form Designer, so if a field is missing, you may need to add it manually.

  • Liquid Markup Design Guide

  • How to Send an "Email"

 

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