Update your email templates to use email texts

Since 10/2023, new marketplaces have supported modifying email texts in Console without modifying the email template code. If your marketplace was started before that, there are some changes you need to make in your email templates to take this feature into use.

Transaction process notifications

The easiest way to take these changes into use is to update your transaction process, or its notifications, to the newest version.

If your marketplace transaction processes and notifications have a lot of customizations, you may need to update the notifications manually to use the translations syntax. In that case, you’d need to evaluate whether the manual work is worth the effort.

How to update your transaction process notifications manually

1. Before in each template, add the following lines

  {{set-translations (asset "content/email-texts.json")}}
  {{set-locale (asset "general/localization.json" "locale" "en_US")}}
  {{set-timezone transaction.listing.availability-plan.timezone}}

2. Replace the text elements with the usage of the {{t}} helper with the following syntax:

<!-- original message -->
<p>{{ marketplace.name }} fee</p>

<!--  becomes {{t "templatename.messagekey" "fallbackmessage" variableName1=variableValue1 variableName2=variableValue2... }} -->

<p>
  {{t "BookingNewRequest.MarketplaceFeeLabel" "{marketplaceName} fee"
  marketplaceName=marketplace.name}}
</p>

3. For the subject line files, you also need to set translations and replace the existing syntax with the {{t}} helper

## original message
{{transaction.customer.display-name}} has requested to book {{transaction.listing.title}}

## becomes
## {{set-translations (asset "content/email-texts.json")}}
## {{t "templatename.messagekey" "fallbackmessage" variableName1=variableValue1 variableName2=variableValue2...}}
{{set-translations (asset "content/email-texts.json")}}{{t "BookingNewRequest.Subject" "{customerDisplayName} requested to book {listingTitle}" customerDisplayName=transaction.customer.display-name listingTitle=transaction.listing.title}}

4. Add the email text keys and values to the email texts editor. You can use variables defined for the corresponding key within the translation helper function.

{
...,
 "BookingNewRequest.MarketplaceFeeLabel": "{marketplaceName} fee",
 "BookingNewRequest.Subject": "{customerDisplayName} requested to book {listingTitle}",
...
}

Do note that transaction process updates, including notification updates, only apply for transactions started with the updated process. In other words, email texts are not applied to transactions started with a process that does not have these changes.

Built-in email notifications

You can update your built-in email notifications from this repository. As with transaction process notifications, if you have a lot of customizations, you might need to update the notifications manually to use the translations syntax, and you’d need to evaluate whether the manual work is worth the effort.

How to update your built-in notifications manually

1. Before in each template, add the following lines

  {{set-translations (asset "content/email-texts.json")}}
  {{set-locale (asset "general/localization.json" "locale" "en_US")}}

2. Replace the text elements with the usage of the {{t}} helper with the following syntax:

<!-- original message -->
<h1>Hi {{recipient.first-name}}, welcome to {{marketplace.name}}!</h1>

<!-- becomes {{t "templatename.messagekey" "fallbackmessage" variableName1=variableValue1 variableName2=variableValue2... }} -->
<h1>
  {{t "UserJoined.Greeting" "Hi {firstName}, welcome to
  {marketplaceName}!" firstName=recipient.first-name
  marketplaceName=marketplace.name}}
</h1>

3. For the subject line files, you also need to set translations and replace the existing syntax with the {{t}} helper

## original message
Welcome to {{marketplace.name}}

## becomes
## {{set-translations (asset "content/email-texts.json")}}
## {{t "templatename.messagekey" "fallbackmessage" variableName1=variableValue1 variableName2=variableValue2...}}

{{set-translations (asset "content/email-texts.json")}}{{t "UserJoined.Subject" "Welcome to {marketplaceName}" marketplaceName=marketplace.name}}

4. Add the email text keys and values to the email texts editor. You can use variables defined for the corresponding key within the translation helper function.

{
...,
  "UserJoined.Greeting": "Hi {firstName}, you are welcome to {marketplaceName}!",
  "UserJoined.Subject": "Welcome to {marketplaceName}",
...
}

With the built-in templates, it is extra important to first test your changes in Dev or Test before applying them to Live, because the changes are applied immediately and they are not reversible.

Similarly to transaction process notifications, though, any changes to the new-message template are applied only on transactions started after the changes – all transactions started before the changes continue to use the new-message template that was active when the transaction was initiated.