Email Manager (3.1.x) & Messages (4.0+)
Event Espresso version 3 Documentation for Email Manager
You can create custom emails which you can use for different communications relating to your event. For example, you could create:
- Thank you for signing up email
- Reminder emails
- Payment emails
- Thanks for attending emails
The great thing about creating emails from the WordPress dashboard is that you can insert tags to tell Event Espresso to insert registrant and event information, such as names or event names, into the emails.
Check here for a full list of the email tags you can use.
To create an email navigate to Event Espresso > Email Manager and click “Add New Email”. Add the email name and subject line.
To find tags that you can insert into your email simply scroll down to underneath the text editing field, and click “ View Custom Email Tags“.
Write your email, adding the relevant fields.
When you’re done click “ Add Email”. Your email will now be ready for you to use when creating your events.
Check out the Add New Event documentation for how to add your newly made custom email to an event.
Event Espresso version 4 Documentation for Messages
If you were previously using Event Espresso 3.1.X and had modified your email content, then you will need to recreate the emails in 4.X as they will not be transferred over when upgrading. It is recommended to back up the email html to a text document before converting your site over to 4.X, to allow for easier transposing of the email content.
In 4.X the messaging and notification system has been completely overhauled, and is much more flexible and powerful. One of the main ways of looking at the messaging system, is to consider the messages as groups of emails that are sent at a particular point. For example, the Payment Reminder message, will send 2 emails, one to the admin and one to the Primary attendee. Whereas the Registration message will send 3+ emails, one to the admin, one to the primary attendee and one to each of the additional attendees.
The Messages section consists of two tabbed areas: Overview and Settings.
Overview
The default messages consist of:
- Resend Registration – a reminder email regarding the registration.
- Payment Reminder – a reminder email regarding payment.
- Registration – the initial registration email.
- Payment – the initial payment confirmation email.
The overview list shows various bits of information about the messages:
- Event – the type of event that this message is triggered on FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS MEANING
- Message Type – The name of the message
- Messenger – This is important and is where you access the various emails attached to the message type. Clicking the Email link, will always show the default admin email. Clicking the Event Admin, Primary Attendee or Attendee links will show the appropriate emails for those people.
The Edit Message Template page is discussed below (LINK)
Settings
The On/Off button on the right turns toggles whether the emails are sent via the WP-Mail function of WordPress. If turned off, you will need to have another service available to deal with sending emails.
Each grey box contains further information and settings for those particular messages, hover you mouse and click the arrow image to expand the boxes.
Edit Message Template
This is the heart of the individual emails. From here you can customize the email to be perfect for your recipient.
In the top left of the page is a drop down box where you can easily swap between the different emails within this message group. Remember to save any changes before swapping!
There is also a Preview button to show you a mock-up of how the email will appear to most people (note this will never be 100% due to some people not allowing images, etc. in their emails).
Messages Shortcodes can be used in all the fields on the edit message template page.
To – Required. Who the email will be sent to, you can use the shortcodes here or enter a direct email address.
From – Required. Who the email is coming from, you can use the shortcodes here or enter a direct email address.
Subject – The subject line of the email, shortcodes can also be used here.
Attendee List – Currently only available on Admin related emails. Here you can style how the attendee data is shown to the admin. Shortcodes can be used here.
Event List – This section creates the content for the [EVENT_LIST] message shortcode, which is normally added to the Main Content section.
Main Content – This section is where you can add the non-event information, such as company branding, contact information etc. The event related data can be inserted via the messaging [EVENT_LIST] shortcode.
Update Actions:
- Override all custom – to be confirmed.
- Save and Close – save your changes and return to the Messages Overview
- Save – save your changes and stay on the same page.
Extra Actions:
- To – Who to send the test email to.
- Reset Templates – reset the message template back to the default settings and content.
- Test Send – sends a test email to the email address in the To field.
- Valid Shortcodes – these shortcodes insert various information into the emails. Only usable in messages, not in events.