In this article, you will learn which variables to use for the Site/Course/Bundle Welcome Email, and gain an understanding of the different variables available for each type of email notification.
In this article:
How to Use Email Variables
You can use Email Variables in your Personalized Email Notifications to have data automatically populate based on the information of the student who receives the email.
- For example, using
{{user.first_name}}in your Site Welcome Email will automatically replace the variable with the name of the student.
Both the Course Welcome Email and Bundle Welcome Email also contain conditional variables that are used to display information in your emails based on the available products that you have on your site. These are "if-then" statements - if the condition stated in the variable is true, then the information will be displayed.
Site Welcome Email
The variables used in Site Welcome Emails will be in the format {{user.full_name}}, with most containing a period and an underscore.
The variables available are shown in the article on Site Welcome Emails linked above, as well as under the site welcome email editor (which you can access by clicking on Users, selecting Notification Emails, clicking Site welcome, and selecting Edit).
Variables include:
-
{{user.full_name}} - Inserts first name and last name -
{{user.first_name}}- Inserts first name only -
{{user.last_name}} - Inserts last name only -
{{user.email}} - Inserts the email address -
{{sign_in_url}} - Inserts the URL a user can go to in order to sign in to your course site -
{{site_name}} - Inserts the name of your course site -
{{express_sign_in_url}} - Inserts the user's Express Sign In URL. If no password was created yet, this will prompt them to set a password.
Course Welcome Email
The variables used in Course Welcome Emails will be in the format {{user_full_name}}, with most containing two underscores.
The variables available are shown in the guide linked above, as well as under the course welcome email editor (which you can access by clicking on Users, selecting Notification Emails, clicking Course welcome email, and selecting Edit).
Variables here include:
-
{{user_full_name}} - Inserts first name and last name -
{{user_first_name}} - Inserts first name only -
{{user_last_name}} - Inserts last name only -
{{user_email}} - Inserts the email address -
{{course_name}} - Inserts the name of the course -
{{site_name}} - Inserts the name of your school -
{{site_url}} - Inserts your site URL -
{{sign_in_url}} - Inserts a link to your sign-in page -
{{edit_notifications_url}} - Inserts a link to update notification preferences -
{{instructor_full_name}} - Inserts the instructor's first name and last name -
{{instructor_first_name}} - Inserts the instructor's first name -
{{instructor_last_name}} - Inserts the instructor's last name -
{{course_link}} - Inserts a link to the course -
{{course_review_link}} - Inserts a link to Course Reviews -
{{express_sign_in_url}} - Inserts the user's Express Sign In link to allow them to set a password
The course welcome email also includes conditional variables that will display your other products and will always end in a {% endif %}. There is a conditional statement for communities that displays and promotes communities in your school and it is written like {% if creator_has_communities %} [loop] {% endif %}.
What this means is that if you have communities that are published and not hidden, the loop within this statement will loop through your communities and display them as a list in the email. The loop will look like this:
{% for community in communities %}
{{community.name}} - {{community.description}}
{% endfor %}The loop will print a list if your communities, with the {{community.name}} variable inserting the name of the community, and {{community.description}} inserting the community's description.
You will also see the conditional variable {% if has_other_courses %} which behaves similarly and will display and promote your other available courses in the email. This also uses a loop that displays each course's name and description and also ends in {% endif %}.
Bundle Welcome Email
The Bundle Welcome Email variables will be mostly the same as in course welcome emails, with some extra variables included:
-
{{bundle_name}} - Inserts the name of the bundle -
{{bundle_has_communities}}- Displays communities included in the bundle -
{{bundle_has_courses}}- Displays courses that are included in the bundle -
{{% exceeds_course_limit %}} - Learn more about how to use this variable in the Bundle Welcome Email article
Like with course welcome emails, some conditional variables are also available in bundle welcome emails to display the courses and communities that are included in the bundle. The variable {% if bundle_has_courses %} is included in the bundle welcome email by default, and will display the courses in the bundle and also ends in {% endif %}.
You can also include course variables in your bundle welcome email by adding them within this loop, which will print the variables you've added for each course within the bundle:
{% for course in courses %}
add course variables here
{% endfor %}The following variables are available to use within this loop:
-
{{course.name}}- Inserts the name of your course -
{{course.take_link}}- Link to start the course -
{{course.review_link}}- Inserts a link to review your course -
{{course.instructor_full_name}}- Inserts the full name of the instructor assigned to the course -
{{course.instructor_first_name}}- Inserts the first name of the instructor assigned to the course -
{{course.instructor_last_name}}- Inserts the last name of the instructor assigned to the course
The variable {% if bundle_has_communities %} that also ends in {% endif %} works similarly and will display all communities in the bundle, and will only show if that bundle contains a community. This variable also uses a loop to display the communities based on the community variables that are added to it:
-
{{community.name}}- Inserts the name of the community -
{{community.site_url}}- Inserts the community URL
Mass User Emails
Although Mass User Emails are not specifically "notification" type emails (in that they are not sent automatically and rather, are sent manually), they do still have a similar set of variables and have therefore been included in this article.
The variables used in Mass User Emails will be in the format {{full_name}}, with most containing an underscore.
The variables available are shown in the article on Mass User Emails linked above. Simply follow the steps within the article to access the Mass User email editor.
Variables include:
-
{{full_name}} - Inserts first name and last name -
{{first_name}}- Inserts first name only -
{{last_name}} - Inserts last name only -
{{email}} - Inserts the email address
Email Automation
The variables used in Email Automation will be in the format {{recipient_name}}, with all containing an underscore.
The variables available are shown in the article on Email Automation. Simply follow the steps within the article to access the Email Automation email editor.
Variables include:
-
{{recipient_name}}- Replaced with the name of the contact -
{{product_name}}- Replaced with the name of the product that the flow is based on -
{{product_link}}- Replaced with the link to the landing or product page of the product that the flow is based on
Assignment Replies
The variables used when replying to Assignment Replies will be in the format {{full_name}}, with all containing an underscore.
The variables available are shown in the article on Assignment Replies. Simply follow the steps within the article to access the Assignment Replies email editor.
Variables include:
-
{{first_name}}- Inserts the student's first name -
{{last_name}}- Inserts the student's last name -
{{full_name}}- Inserts the student's full name -
{{email}}- Inserts the student's email
Important Considerations
- Using the incorrect variable will print the variable as text in the email, instead of populating the data.
- For example: In a Site Welcome Email, adding
{{user.full_name}} will insert the first name and last name of the student into the email. If you used the{{user_full_name}}variable (which is meant for a Course or Bundle Welcome Email), the student would see the text "{{user_full_name}}" instead of their full name.
- For example: In a Site Welcome Email, adding