Create Custom Messages for Email Notifications

QuickBase lets you design your own custom content in your email notifications. If you customize your email notification, you can:

Create notifications for both single-record changes and multiple-record changes
Insert field references and field markers that act as variables in your messages
Set options that make the notification more readable

Creating custom content

You specify custom content using the Email Contents portion of the Create Notification screen. Within the Message Type dropdown, select Custom message. Remember that if your custom message will contain some HTML, you'll need to select Yes next to the Interpret Custom Message as HTML option, otherwise the raw HTML markup will appear in your (plaintext) email.

Understanding Single Record and Multiple Record notifications

With a custom message, you can create notifications that are triggered in either of the following ways:

when a single record changes (configured using the Single Record Version tab)
when multiple records change at one time, as a result of a grid-edit change or a search and replace operation (configured using the Multiple Record Version tab).

If you want to be notified of both kinds of changes, you need to compose two custom messages. Within the Single Record Version tab, you'll write the email that QuickBase sends when a single record changes. Likewise, within the Multiple Record Version tab, compose the message that reports changes to multiple records.

Tip: If you've created custom forms, QuickBase lets you select one to use to display your record in the Single Record Version of the notification email. Within the Single Record Version tab, click the Data Form dropdown and select the name of the form you want to use.

Inserting Field References

For some kinds of notifications, you can insert field references. Field references act like variables in your email message. For instance, if you want your email to let recipients know who's made the change they're learning about, you can insert a field reference which draws values from the "Last Modified By" field.

Note: For multi-record notifications, do not include field references because QuickBase will display the field ID and not the value of the field when it sends the notification email. This happens because QuickBase sends one email to notify users of the multi-record change, and the value of the field varies per record.

A field marker is simply the field name enclosed by square brackets ([LastModifiedBy], for instance.) When you click inside either the Subject or Custom Message box, you'll see a list of valid field references you can use. You can also type these in manually, if you know the field names. but keep in mind, depending on the type of message you're composing, and the insertion point (Subject or Custom Message), certain field markers are not valid.

For example, the sample message just discussed would look something like this: [last modified by] has changed Invoice Number [Invoice ID].

You can also use field references to capture the original value from a field (before it was changed) and display it in an email.

To do so, type old. in front of the field name, as in [old.status] or [old.description] for example. For example, say you've inserted the following custom text in your notification:
The city changed from [old.city] to [city]
If a user were to change the value in the city field from Boston to Paris, this line would display in an email as:
The city changed from Boston to Paris

Inserting Markers

QuickBase also lets you insert Markers into your custom email notification. Markers let you insert details about or hyperlinks to the application. When you click the Fields & Markers dropdown, markers appear at the bottom, below the list of fields.

Again, not all Markers are valid for every type of message. For Recipient type notifications, you can insert markers that link back to the application. Since QuickBase knows that all recipients of the notification have access to the application, the link is all you need.

When you send an Open notification, a viewer probably doesn't have access to your application. In these cases, QuickBase lets you embed a copy of the record(s) in the message itself.

Note: DO NOT use open notifications to send sensitive information. Because open notifications can be sent to individuals who aren't users of your application, QuickBase doesn't check permissions or hide any information from recipients (even if one or more recipients are users of your application). The only way to control what fields display in an open notification is to specify a custom form for the notification (Read about forms) or craft a custom notification.

The markers and fields you can insert also depend upon whether or not you're composing the single or multiple record change message. For example, a recipient notification for multiple record changes won't let you insert any field codes. Consult the table below to find out when you can use a marker and what it does.

Marker	What it does...	Appears as...	Recipient Single Record		Recipient Multiple Record		Open Single Record		Open Multiple Record
			SUBJECT	BODY	SUBJECT	BODY	SUBJECT	BODY	SUBJECT	BODY
The name of this application	Inserts the full name of the application	%appName%	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
A link to this application	Inserts a hyperlink to the application's dashboard.	%appLink%	-	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y	Y
The name of this table	Inserts the name of the table and application in which you saved the notification.	%dbName%	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
The ID of this table	Behind the scenes, QuickBase assigns an ID number to each table. This marker inserts that number.	%dbid%	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
A copy of the changed record	Inserts an image of the changed record in the email body.	%recData%	-	Y	-	-	-	Y	-	-
A link to the changed record	Inserts a hyperlink which opens the record that changed.	%recLink%	-	Y	-	-	-	Y	-	-
The label of the changed record	Inserts the value from the record's key field.	%recLabel%	Y	Y	-	-	Y	Y	-	-
The ID of the changed record	Inserts the Record ID number that QuickBase automatically assigns to each record.	%recID%	Y	Y	-	-	Y	Y	-	-
A summary of the records that changed	Inserts a hyperlink to a report containing only the changed records. For a deleted record notification, this marker returns no results.	%summaryView%	-	-	Y	-	-	-	-	Y
Repeat everything from this marker for each record that changed	In multi-record change messages, use this marker to precede a snippet of text that will appear for each record that changed. (see next section).	%RepeatOn%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y
Use everything from this marker onwards as the header for this message	In multi-record change messages, use this marker to precede text that you want to appear once, as a header or footer. (see next section).	%RepeatOff%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y

Using %RepeatOn% and %RepeatOff% in OPEN multi-record messages

The %RepeatOn% and %RepeatOff% markers give you more flexibility with open multi-record message. %RepeatOn% ensures that everything in your message appears for each record that was changed. %RepeatOff% let you insert text that should be used as a header or footer to your message.

Important: Field references and markers won't work properly unless you insert them after a %RepeatOn% marker. If you insert a field reference outside of a %RepeatOn% marker,
QuickBase will display the field ID and not the value of the field when it sends the notification email. And, if you insert a field marker outside of a %RepeatOn% marker, you'll see the marker name in your email rather than the marker value.

The following example shows you the correct way to compose an open multi-record message using the %RepeatOn% marker.

If you want your email to read:

Your message in the customization box would read:

Additional Options

If you insert field references in your custom messages, and a field happens to be empty, recipients may be perplexed. Avoid confusion by having QuickBase insert the word empty when this occurs. To do so, within the Custom Message Options section, beside When a field is blank, insert the word "empty": select Yes.

Maybe you'd like your custom message to include pretty formatting and even a link to another Web site. If you know some HTML code, or have an HTML editor (like Dreamweaver or FrontPage) on hand, you can type your message in HTML. Or, just throw in a dash of HTML to bold a word, for example. Email programs that can read HTML (most can) will display your page like a Web browser would. If you decide to insert some HTML, just let QuickBase know what you're up to by locating the Interpret Custom Message as HTML option and selecting Yes. If this is set to No (which is the default) and you enter HTML code, that code (ugly tags and all) will appear in your email.