Templates

Each campaign has a Handlebars template associated to it to help render the final message that is sent to the end user. Each template contains the structure of the design or message as well as placeholders for variables that will be filled in for every user that it is sent to.

Getting Started

Edesy Email has four different types of templates:

• Email
• Text Message
• Push Notification
• Webhooks

Each of which has fields that are rendered as Handlebars templates. They can be customized using a combination of variables and functions.

Template Types:

Email

Email templates are comprised of various fields that are related to the email experience such as subject, body, cc, etc. Each field on the template allows you to use Handlebars to modify the end result. Additionally the html field is sent to the user to be rendered as HTML and will display any styles included.

Text Message

A text message template is largely just a single field that is broken up into pieces based on its content length. Bare in mind that any Handlebars variables that are filled in will be of variable length and could cause the total content length to grow.

Push Notification

Similar to text messages, a push notification is mainly just a piece of text but can also contain a JSON body as well as a title. All fields can be customized using Handlebars to include functions and variables.

Webhooks

Webhook templates are a wrapper around an HTTP REST request. You can customize headers and body parameters to send a request to pretty much any endpoint you can think of. The body and headers fields accept objects, but are not rendered as strings. Each key in each object is instead, so Handlebars is only interpreted at the value level of each key.

Variables

Depending on the incoming data each template will have access to a user object and an optional event object.

They can be accessed by key and properties inside of each are accessed using dot notation.

{{ user.email }}
// or
{{ event.custom_property }}

Templates will always have access to the user, but the event property will only have a value if the template is being rendered as a result of an event triggering an action.

In general, we recommend using snake case for properties to be consistent, but there is no rule that says you cant use something else.

All user objects will at a minimum have a series of constant fields present (although they may be null) as well as any custom fields you add to the user.

// User Object
{
    "id": "YOUR_EXTERNAL_ID",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "phone": "+11234567890",
    "locale": "en",
    "timezone": "America/Chicago"
}

Helpers

Alongside being able to access variables using Handlebars, you can also modify values using custom helpers. We've included a list of them below.

Equality

Compare

There is a general equality function compare which lets you check if two values match an operator. Available operators are ==, ===, !=, !==, <, >, <= and >=.

{{ compare "a" "==" "b" }}

Equals

{{ eq "a" "b" }}

Not Equals

{{ nq "a" "b" }}

Less Than

{{ lt "a" "b" }}

Greater Than

{{ gt "a" "b" }}

Less Than or Equal To

{{ lte "a" "b" }}

Greater Than or Equal To

{{ gte "a" "b" }}

Or

The or function lets you group chunks of logic together by checking if any of the included chunks are true.

{{#if (or
        (eq section1 "foo")
        (ne section2 "bar"))}}
... content
{{/if}}

And

The and function lets you group chunks of logic together by checking if all of the included chunks are true.

{{#if (and
        (eq section1 "foo")
        (ne section2 "bar"))}}
... content
{{/if}}

Strings

Append

Appends the given string with the specified suffix.

{{ prepend "The word that means come after is" "append" }} // = `The word that means come after is append`

Camelcase

camelCase the characters in the given string.

{{ camelcase "snake_case_string" }} // = `snakeCaseString`

Capitalize

Capitalize the first word in a sentence.

{{ capitalize "this is a sentence" }} // = `This is a sentence`

Capitalize All

Capitalize all words in a string.

{{ capitalizeAll "this is a sentence" }} // = `This Is A Sentence`

Ellipsis

Truncates a string to the specified length, and appends it with an el;ipsis, ....

{{ ellipsis "very long string" 4 }} // = `very...`

Lowercase

Lowercase all characters in the given string.

{{ lowercase "UPPERCASE" }} // = `uppercase`

Occurences

Return the number of occurrences of substring within the given string.

{{ occurences "this and that and those" "and" }} // = `2`

Prepend

Prepends the given string with the specified prefix.

{{ prepend "means come before" "Prepend" }} // = `Prepend means come before`

Replace

In a given piece of text, replace all occurrences of substring a with substring b.

{{ replace "one two three four" " " ", " }} // = `one, two, three, four`

Replace First

Replace the first occurrence of substring a with substring b.

{{ replaceFirst "one two three four" " " ", " }} // = `one, two three four`

Reverse

Reverses a string.

{{ reverse "abcd" }} // = `dcba`

Snakecase

Converts a given string to snake case (i.e. snake_case)

{{ snakecase "camelCaseText" }} // = `camel_case_text`

Split

Split a piece of text into an array on the given character.

{{ split "one two three" " " }} // = `Array[one, two, three]`

Starts With

Tests whether a string begins with the given prefix.

{{ startsWith "Peter" "Pet" }} // = `true`

Trim

Removes extraneous whitespace from the beginning and end of a string.

{{ trim " text " }} // = `text` (no space before or after)

Truncate

Truncate a string to the specified length

{{ truncate "This is a long piece of text" 4 }} // = `This`

Truncate Words

Truncate a string to have the specified number of words.

{{ trucateWords "This is a long piece of text" 3 }} // = `This is a`

Numbers

Absolute Value

Return the magnitude of a.

{{ abs -1 }} // = `1`

Add

Return the sum of a plus b

{{ add 10 2 }} // = `2`
// or
{{ plus a b }}

Ceil

Round a decimal value up to the closest whole number.

{{ ceil 7.1 }} // = `8`

Divide

Divide a by b

{{ divide 20 10 }} // = `2`

Floor

Round a decimal value down to the closest whole number.

{{ floor 5.14 }} // = `5`

Subtract

Return the difference of a minus b.

{{ subtract 5 4 }} // = `20`
// or
{{ minus a b }}

Multiply

Return the product of a times b. You can pass in an unlimited number of values to multiply together.

{{ multiply 10 20 }} // = `200`
// or
{{ times a b }}

Random

Generate a random number between two values

{{ random 10 20 }} // Might return `15`

Remainder

Get the remainder when a is divided by b.

{{ remainder 5 4 }} // = `1`

Round

Round the given decimal number to the closest whole number

{{ round 3.4 }} // = `3`

Number Format

Format a string given the provided criteria. This is useful for formatting a number so that it makes sense given the context or the users locale.

Format: {{ numberFormat value locale style currency }} Parameters:

• value: The number to format
• locale: The users locale to display the number accordingly
• style: Either currency or percent or blank. Adding this parameter will modify the number to be displayed accordingly
• currency: You must set the style to currency for this to take effect. If set the currency symbol will be included in the formatted value.

Examples:

// Decimal
{{ numberFormat 123456.789 "de-DE" }} // = `123.456,789`
{{ numberFormat 123456.789 "en-US" }} // = `123,456.789`

// Currency
{{ numberFormat 4.12 "en" "currency" "USD" }} // = `$4.12`

// Percent
{{ numberFormat .41 "en" "percent" }} // = `41%`

Lists

Wrap

Takes a given value and if it's not a array (list), it wraps the value in an array to guarantee that the response will always be an array.

{{ wrap 10 }} // = `[10]`

{{ wrap [10] }} // = `[10]`

First

Returns the first item of a list.

{{ first [20, 10] }} // = `20`

Is Array

Returns true if the value is an array (list).

{{ isArray [10] }} // = true

Item At

Return the item from a list at the provided index. Note, the index starts at zero not one.

{{ itemAt [3, 9, 4, 20] 2 }} // = `4`

Join

Join all elements of a list into a string, optionally using a given separator.

{{ join ["hello", "again"] }} // = `hello again`

Last

Returns the last item of a list.

{{ last [20, 9, 11] }} // = `11`

Length

Returns the number of items in the provided list.

{{ length [4, 9, 8, 11, 5] }} // = `5`

Reverse

Reverse the elements in a list, or the characters in a string.

{{ reverse [11, 20, 5] }} // = `[5, 20, 11]`

Sort

Sort the given list in the provided order.

Format: {{ sort array direction }} Parameters:

• array: The list of items to be sorted
• direction: What direction to sort the array, accepted values are either asc for ascending or desc for descending.

{{ sort [10, 80, 4, 7] 'asc' }} // = `[4, 7, 10, 80]`

Dates

Now

Returns the current date time in the format and timezone provided.

Format: {{ now format timezone }} Parameters:

• format: The date format to use for the returned value. Defaults to yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
• timezone: What timezone to use for the returned value. Defaults to UTC

{{ now }} // = `2023-07-04 12:22:32`

{{ now "MM/dd/yyyy" }} // = `07/04/2023`

{{ now "MM/yyyy" "America/Chicago" }} // = `07/2023`

Format

Takes a given date and formats it to the provided format and timezone.

Format: {{ dateFormat format timezone }} Parameters:

• format: The date format to use for the returned value. Defaults to yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
• timezone: What timezone to use for the returned value. Defaults to UTC

{{ dateFormat "MM/dd/yyyy" }} // = `07/04/2023`

{{ dateFormat "MM/yyyy" "America/Chicago" }} // = `07/2023`

Set

Set a given component of a date to a provided value.

Format: {{ setDate date unit value }} Parameters:

• date: The date you are wanting to manipulate.
• unit: The component unit of a date (years, months, days, hours, minutes).
• value: How many of the given unit as a number.

{{ setDate "2023-07-05 12:00:00" "days" 1 }} // `2023-07-01 12:00:00`

{{ setDate "now" "years" 2022 }}

Addition

Perform date math on a given date by adding some unit to the date.

{{ addDate "1970-01-15" 1 "months" }} // = `1970-02-15`

Subtraction

Perform date math on a given date by subtracting some unit to the date.

{{ subDate "1974-01-23" 1 "months" }} // = `1973-12-23`

Next Date

Get the date of the next occurance of a given day of week from a provided date.

Format: {{ nextDate date day }} Parameters:

• date: The date to use as the starting point.
• day: The two letter abbreviation of the day of the week to seek (mo, tu, we, th, fr, sa, su).

{{ nextDate "now" "mo" }} // Returns the next monday

Date Difference

Get the distance between two days in the provided unit.

Format: {{ dateDiff date date2 unit }} Parameters:

• date: The later date
• date2: The earlier date
• unit: What unit to get the difference in (ie hours, minutes)

{{ dateDiff "2023-06-05 12:00:00" "2023-06-01 12:00:00" "days" }} // = `1`

Urls

Encode URI

Encodes a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) component by replacing each instance of certain characters by one, two, three, or four escape sequences representing the UTF-8 encoding of the character.

{{ encodeURI url }}

Escape

Escape the given string by replacing characters with escape sequences. Useful for allowing the string to be used in a URL, etc.

{{ escape str }}

Decode URI

Decode a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) component.

{{ decodeURI url }}

Subscription

Unsubscribe Email

Get a url to unsubscribe a user from a given email subscription channel.

{{ unsubscribeEmailUrl }}

Preference Center

Get a url to navigate a user to a page where they can manage what subscription channels they are subscribed to.

{{ preferencesUrl }}