Merge Field Providers

The email editor supports merge fields, that is placeholders for dynamic content that will be replaced during the rendering. This makes it very easy for editors to insert dynamic content inside the editor.

Some of the built in merge fields are:

• {{email}} - Replaced by the recipients email
• {{firstname}} - Replaced by the recipients first name
• {{lastname}} - Replaced by the recipients last name

Each "Custom Field" on a recipient can also be inserted as a merge field in the email editor.

Note that merge fields will not be fully replaced during preview-rendering since the merge fields are dependent on the recipient and there is no recipient during preview. It's recommended to send a real email to a test-recipient to perform a realistic test.

Extending Merge Fields

It's possible to add custom merge fields to the email editor, this is useful if you create a custom integration and would like to append more dynamic fields that the editor can choose from so that they don't have to remember the exact placeholder. A custom merge field provider must implement ICampaignEmailMergeFieldProvideror ITransactionalEmailMergeFieldProvider depending on what context it's needed for.

Many times a Merge Field Provider is created together with a Recipient List Provider

Example

public class InMemoryMergeFieldProvider : ICampaignEmailMergeFieldProvider
{
    public string Alias => "inMemory";
    public string DisplayName => "In memory";

    public List<MergeField> GetFields(Guid workspaceKey)
    {
        return new List<MergeField>()
        {
            new MergeField()
            {
                Text = nameof(InMemoryRecipient.CompanyName),
                Placeholder = "companyName",
                GroupText = "In Memory"
            },
            new MergeField()
            {
                Text = nameof(InMemoryRecipient.City),
                Placeholder = "city",
                GroupText = "In Memory"
            },
            new MergeField()
            {
                Text = nameof(InMemoryRecipient.BirthYear),
                Placeholder = "birthYear",
                GroupText = "In Memory"
            }
        };
        
    }

    public List<MergeFieldValue> ExtractValues(CampaignMergeFieldValuesRequestModel request)
    {
        var list = new List<MergeFieldValue>();

        if (request.RecipientProviderRecipientDataModel.Model is InMemoryRecipient recipient)
        {
            list.Add(new MergeFieldValue("companyName",recipient.CompanyName));
            list.Add(new MergeFieldValue("city",recipient.City));
            list.Add(new MergeFieldValue("birthYear",recipient.BirthYear.ToString()));
        }

        return list;

    }

}

This also needs to be registered during startup:

public class MySiteComposer : IUserComposer
{
    public void Compose(Composition composition)
    {
        composition.NewsletterStudio().CampaignMergeFieldProviders.Append<InMemoryMergeFieldProvider>();
    }
}

Remember to also activate the Merge Field Provider in the Workspace-settings (Administration -> Workspace -> Manage)