Every time someone replies to a discussion, Tender emails the other people in it. An email template decides what those notifications look like: the subject, the wording around the reply, and the links at the bottom. Tender has a good default; make your own template when you want your own wording or branding.
Templates are per category. A category without a template uses the default.
Create a template
- In your dashboard, go to Account & Settings › Email Setup, then Email Templates in the sidebar.
- Click Create your first email template (or + Create email template).
- The form starts with Tender's default template. Edit the Email subject, the Message (plain text) and, if your plan includes custom branding, the HTML body.
- Under Categories, tick the categories that should use it. A category can have only one template: ticking it here takes it away from any other.
- Click Save template.
Click Preview → beside a template to see a sample notification in plain text and HTML.
Keep the reply line
The default template starts with:
// Please reply above this line
==================================================
Keep the line of fifty = signs above the reply. When someone answers by email, Tender uses it to find where their new text ends and the quoted notification begins. You can change the words above it.
Variables
Templates are written in Liquid: put a variable in double braces, such as {{name}}, and Tender fills it in for each email. You can use them in the subject too.
| Variable | What it holds |
|---|---|
{{subject}} |
Tender's usual subject: the title, category and number |
{{name}} |
The name of the person who wrote the reply |
{{email}} |
Their email address, in emails to your support staff only (false for customers, so use it inside {% if email %}) |
{{title}} |
The discussion's title |
{{category}} |
The category's name |
{{number}} |
The discussion's number in its category |
{{url}} |
The link to the discussion |
{{comment}} |
The reply, as plain text |
{{comment_html}} |
The reply, formatted as it appears on your site |
{{assets}} |
The attachments: a list, each with filename and url |
{{attached_kb}} |
The knowledge base article attached to the reply (empty if none), with title, url, section, heading (the part of the article it links to, if any), preview_text and preview_html |
{{previous_name}}, {{previous_date}}, {{previous_comment}}, {{previous_comment_html}} |
The message before this one: who wrote it, when, and what it said |
{{created_at}} |
When the reply was posted |
{{internal}} |
True for an internal note (only staff receive those) |
{{private}} |
True if the discussion is private |
{{support}} |
True if the reply was written by your support staff |
{{state}} |
The discussion's state, such as open or resolved |
{{host}} |
Your site's address, such as https://yoursite.tenderapp.com |
{{unsubscribe_url}} |
A link that turns off this person's notification emails from your site (only for customers with an account) |
{{subscribed_to_category}} |
True if the person gets this email because they follow the whole category |
Dates are in UTC unless you convert them. The default template shows the previous message's date in a time zone of your choice:
{{ previous_date | set_time_zone: 'America/New_York' | date: "%a, %b %d at %I:%M %p %Z" }}
set_time_zone takes a time zone name such as Europe/London, and date takes a strftime format.
Markdown in replies
Your staff's replies can use Markdown. The HTML version of the email shows them formatted, exactly as on your site ({{comment_html}}); the plain-text version shows them as typed ({{comment}}).
Let people stop the emails
Keep a way out in every template. The default templates tell customers they can:
- reply with
#ignoreto stop the notifications for that discussion, - reply with
#unsubscribeto stop following a category, or - use the
{{unsubscribe_url}}link.
The plain-text part of every notification also ends with these instructions, whatever your template says. See Updating discussions through email commands for the other commands.
HTML templates
Notifications go out with both an HTML and a plain-text version, and most mail programs show the HTML one. The default template includes both. An HTML body of your own needs a plan with custom branding; without it, emails from your custom template are plain text only. If you don't want HTML at all, empty the HTML body field and save.
If you edit one version, update the other to match: some people read the plain-text one.
Test a template safely
- Create a category to try it on, and make it private so customers don't see it.
- Create the template and tick only that category.
- Start a discussion in that category and add an email address of your own as a watcher, then reply to it.
- Adjust the template until the notification looks right, then tick your real categories and delete the test category.