Before creating a Process step that sends an email, create a message template.

A Process step can send an email to a specific contact or an Email to Contact field. The email account must be designated on a Contact record. The sender of the email is the user specified in the Task Owner / Email From section of the Process Step record. If the Email Reply To is different than the Email From, it is the User specified in the Process Step record. If the reply to is the same as the from, no value is needed.

The email will be sent from the User Contact specified in the Task Owner/Email From field. See Process Steps.

Here are the fields specific to the Send Email Process Step Type:

• To Specific Contact – If the same Contact should always be notified, select them in this field. Make sure they have an email address on their Contact record. 
• Email to Contact Field – If the Contact is to be looked up dynamically, use the Related Table Field Name Lookup convention to find the Contact_ID record. This must be configured properly. It may be on the record itself or one or two tables removed. Generally, the value in this field ends in Contact_ID. You must also ensure the Contact records used by the lookup have valid email addresses. See Dynamic Lookups.
• Email Template – Select a message template record. Be sure that any merge fields that are set up on this template pertain to the same page identified as the Table Name on the Process record of this Process Step. Also, be sure the desired Reply To Contact is set so the appropriate person receives any replies to this email.

If you plan to specify a single contact, then setting up this step is simple. If you plan to dynamically look up a recipient contact then we recommend using the Advanced Search tool on the page to get the exact syntax for looking up that contact record.

Email Templates

If you plan to use merge fields in the message to more clearly communicate which specific record triggered the email, then you must keep in mind that only some merge fields are allowed.

Data Merge Fields

The field list for the Table Name associated with Process are available as Data Fields. You can identify these as the column headers on the All Records view of the page set in the Table Name of the Process. These are also the Data Fields you see in the New Message tool for pages configured to use this tool.

If you are a SPoC with rights to the System Setup Page called Pages, then you may open the Page that is the main page (Table Name) that this process is triggered by. The merge fields are listed in the Default Field List. These may be placed in brackets anywhere in the body or subject of your message. Here are some very advanced notes:

• For Processes, Data Merge Fields take precedent over Contact Merge Fields (below)
  • For example, if nickname appears in both lists, then the value merged may not be the desired value. It may be the value in the record the email is about rather than the recipient.
  • For this reason, it is best to ensure data field names are distinct from contact field names. Changing the default field list of the page to be Participant_Nickname or something more appropriate will ensure the right value is merged. 
• It is possible to increase the scope of merge fields available by editing the page record.
• Any Data Fields you include in your template must be within brackets and must have the same format as the Data Field (including any underscores).

Contact Merge Fields

The recipient of the email is the Contact for any Contact Fields. These correspond to the Contact Fields in the New Message Tool.

• For Processes, Contact Merge Field with the same name as a Data Field is replaced by the Data Field.
  • For example, if nickname appears in both lists, then the value merged is the value in the record the email is about rather than the recipient.
• These are defined on the server and can be added by requesting this from Support. They do not strictly have to be from the Contacts record, but a string generated by the Advanced Search Tool from the Contacts page may be used.

Special Tokens

The following token can be used to represent the ID of the Record. This is useful for sending links to a specific platform record, for example:

    [dp_RecordID]