Mail Template Editor

1 Overview

The mail engine in SoftwareCentral uses HTML templates. These templates can be modified and translated in the Mail Template Editor, which is located under the Settings menu.

The Settings menu opened from the top bar. It lists Security Roles, Program Flags, Collection Management, Mail Template Editor, Service Manager, Password Manager and Settings. — Click **Settings** in the top bar, then click **Mail Template Editor**.

2 Find a template

In the Mail Template Editor, you can see a list of all the mail templates which can be modified.

Mail Template Editor list with the columns Name, Subject, To, From, Enabled and Edit. It shows templates such as Order Confirmation, Notify Approver and Reset Password. — The list of templates. Click **Edit** next to a template, or its name, to open it.

Column	What it shows
Name	The name of the mail template.
Subject	The default subject title for the mail.
To	The receiver of the mail, as set in the template, for example requester or approver.
From	The sender of the mail, as set in the template.
Enabled	Determines if the template is enabled or disabled. The box is read-only in the list; change it on the Properties tab.
Edit	Click on the Edit button to edit a mail template.

Type part of a template name in the search box in the left menu and press Enter. The list shows the templates whose names contain every search value. Choose how many rows to show with Page size at the bottom.

Intune-only installations If SoftwareCentral runs for Intune only, some templates that Intune does not use are not listed.

3 Edit a template

Click on the Edit button next to the template. A new window opens, titled Edit followed by the template name.

Edit window for the Order Confirmation template with the tabs Mail Template, Properties and Additional Languages. The editor shows the template in Design view. Below it are Show available fields, Save and Close. — The editor window. The template is shown in the **Design** view on the **Mail Template** tab. Use **Save** to keep your changes.

Save and Close are different The Save button saves your changes, but does not close the window. Close asks you to confirm first, because any changes that are not saved are lost.

Design view

By default the template is displayed in the Design view. From here you can edit the template text.

The fields in curly braces, e.g.: {value-of:FullName:end-value-of} are variables which the SoftwareCentral mail engine translates.

HTML view

Click on the HTML button at the bottom of the editor to see the template’s HTML code. You can modify directly in the HTML code. If you have created a template in another editor, you can copy it directly into the HTML view.

Preview

Click on the Preview button to see a preview of the mail template.

The Preview shows the template as it is written. The fields in curly braces are filled in when the mail is sent.

4 Fields

Click Show available fields at the bottom of the editor window to open a list of the fields that this template can use.

The Available properties for this mail template window, with a Search box and a list of fields such as ComputerName, DisplayName, FullName and OrderId, and an OK button. — The **Available properties for this mail template** window. The list depends on the template.

Type in Search to narrow the list. Every word you type must appear in the field name.

The Available properties window with the Search box containing the word order. The list shows OrderId, OrderTime and fields that start with SoftwareOrderItem. — With **order** typed in **Search**, the list shows only the fields that contain that word.

You can double-click on a field to open an easy “copy and paste” box. The box contains the field written as {value-of:FieldName:end-value-of}. Press Ctrl+C and then Enter to copy it, and paste it into the template. Click OK to close the list.

5 Properties

From the Properties tab you can change the subject, the sender, receiver and enable or disable the template.

Properties tab of the Order Confirmation template with the boxes Name, Subject, Receiver, Sender, CC, BCC and the Enabled check box. — The **Properties** tab. **Receiver** is greyed out for this template, because its receiver is fixed. The CC address in this picture is a masked example.

Field	What to enter
Name	The name of the template. The box is read-only.
Subject	The subject of the mail. A template cannot be saved with an empty subject.
Receiver	Who gets the mail: Approver, Requester, DummyMail, Primary User or License Owner. For Notification of procurement you type a mail address instead. Some templates have a fixed receiver, and the box is greyed out.
Sender	Who the mail is sent from: Approver, Requester or DummyMail. Some templates have a fixed sender, and the box is greyed out.
CC and BCC	Optional extra mail addresses. Each one must be a valid mail address, or the template is not saved.
Enabled	Tick the box to enable the template. Clear it to disable the template.

Save on the Mail Template or Properties tab saves the template text and its properties together.

6 Additional languages

From the Additional Languages tab, you can add translations of the templates.

Users will receive the mail in the language they used in the shop or approvers view interfaces. If they have not come from the shop or the approvers view, or a template is not added in their language, they will receive the default mail.

The editor works the same as the default.

Additional Languages tab with an empty translation, the Select language drop-down set to English, the Load Default Mail Template button and the Subject Translation box. — The **Additional Languages** tab. Choose the language in **Select language**, then type the translated text and **Subject Translation**.

In the bottom you have the Select language drop-down where you can select the language you want to modify the template in. The languages are English, German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish.

If the template is empty, you can click on the Load Default Mail Template button. This will load the template from the first page and allow you to focus on the translation and not the layout. If the translation already has text, the editor asks you to confirm first, because the text is replaced.
Save on this tab saves only the translation of the selected language. The translation is kept separately from the default template.
If you change the language while the translation has changes that are not saved, the editor asks you to confirm, and those changes are lost.

Some templates have no translations The Additional Languages tab is not shown for the licence harvesting, licence harvesting warning, licence notification, reset password, local group and status report mails.

7 Best practice

Keep the markers of the licence mails. The licence harvesting mails need the markers [REASONUSED-START], [REASONUSED-END], [REASONNEVERUSED-START] and [REASONNEVERUSED-END]. The licence notification mail needs [REASONTHRESHOLD-START], [REASONTHRESHOLD-END], [REASONEXPIRED-START] and [REASONEXPIRED-END]. The editor does not save a template without them.
Check the layout in Preview before you save. The preview shows the template as it is written, so a broken table or a missing curly brace shows there first.
Close only after you have saved. Close asks for a confirmation, and changes that are not saved are lost.
Translate after the default template is final. A translation is stored separately. A later change to the default template does not change the translations. Load Default Mail Template replaces the text of the translation.
Keep a copy of the HTML before a large change. Copy the HTML view into a file, so that you can put the template back if a change does not work.

8 Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	What to do
The window shows "Subject is missing."	The Subject box on the Properties tab, or the Subject Translation box, is empty.	Type a subject and click Save.
The window shows "Name is missing."	The template has no name stored. The name box is read-only, so this is rare.	Close the window and check the template in the list. Ask your SoftwareCentral support if the name is empty.
The window shows "CC is not a valid e-mail address." or "BCC is not a valid e-mail address."	The CC or BCC box contains text that is not a mail address.	Correct the address, or clear the box. Then click Save.
The window shows a message such as "[REASONUSED-START] is missing."	A required marker was removed from a licence mail template. The message names the marker.	Put the marker back exactly as written, with its start and end marker. See Best practice.
The editor opens an error page: "Unable to load mail template with ID"	The template is not in the list that the page loaded for your session.	Go back to the Mail Template Editor from the Settings menu, and open the template again.

See also Service Manager and Password Manager.