Introduction

This section aims to introduce you to the different email template systems that are available in Aurora and how they can be used.

There are two basic types of email template:

• The 'Orders' -> 'Emails' templates (AKA: 'Order Emails'), which are managed via the back-end for use with orders and other common account functions.
• The 'Email Templates Files', which are managed by FTP and can typically be found and edited in the 'templates' directory of your FTP account, within the 'emails' directory.

Email Special Fields (Placeholders or Variables)

Both of these email template systems use an identical set of values to populate special text elements referred to as placeholders. These placeholders are used to allow commonly required values to be placed into an email at any point. An example of such a placeholder is '{$username}', which would be replaced with the full User Name of the recipient of the email when it is being sent. For example:

Dear {$firstname},

Your order will be with you shortly.

Kind Regards.

Would be received by the customer as...

Dear Tom,

Your order will be with you shortly.

King Regards.

Placeholder Types

There are two 'types' of placeholder, String and Array.

The two types are treated in very different ways. A string placeholder is simply replaced with some value, whether that be a name, price or some other value. It simply marks the place a value will appear.

An array placeholder is different in that it does not get replaced with a single value, but instead is a container for many other values. A typical example of this is the '$basket' placeholder, which holds a set of placeholders for each line of an order's basket. These placeholders can be cycled through using the construct shown below...

{foreach from=$basket item="basket\_line"}  
Product ID is {$basket\_line.product\_id}  
{/foreach}

Note the use of the '.' to mark the end of the placeholder container and the beginning of the one you are requesting.

Globally Available Placeholders

Below is a list of available placeholders that can be used in the email templates.

Updating Order Part Dispatch Status Placeholders

Updating Order Item Status Placeholders

Email Verification and Notification Specific Placeholders

Review Specific Placeholders

This system used to make use of the "emails/satisfaction-items.tpl.html" template, but this behaviour has now been deprecated.

This old method and the new one described below cannot be used alongside one-another and if the template described above is found, then Aurora will prevent you from using the new method. This being so, please be sure to check you do not have this file in your Front-end Templates before proceeding and remove it if you do.

Including other templates

Other templates can be included within the Email. This allows you to share content between emails or include large amounts of HTML or text.

Templates are included with the include function e.g.

{include file="includes_folder/my_email_include.tpl.html"}

The template include path is from your front end templates directory for that site e.g. templates/example.com/. In the example above the includes_folder would be located at templates/example.com/includes_folder

Example Review Request Email Template

👍

For more general information regarding how to manage Review Reminder Emails and where to use the below template content, please see the Review Reminder Emails Support Article

The content in this email should be something like the following, in order to display your particular message and product links.

<p style="margin: 15px 0;">Hi there, we are just getting in touch to see if you liked your experience!</p>
 
<p style="margin: 15px 0;">
{foreach from=$reviewed_ordered_items item=order_item}
Review your product: <a href="http://{$http_host}/products/reviews/write/{$order_item.product_id}">{$order_item.product_name}</a><br />
{/foreach}
</p>