Customization for Notification Emails

Added by popular request: a new way of modifying the notification and confirmation messages RSVPMaker sends when someone submits the form for an event.

The default is still that a notification goes to the event organizer (or whatever email address or addresses you supplied) saying something like “RSVP YES for The Big Event on May 1” and the attendee gets a version that says “Confirming RSVP YES for The Big Event on May 1.” By default, the confirmation message also includes a button people can click to update their RSVP.

Now, if you want to use “Registration” rather than RSVP in the subject line, or you want to leave off the “Update RSVP” button (some people have told me they don’t want to make it too easy for people to back out), you can make those changes. (See also: How to Change the RSVP Now! Button.)

The notifications editor opens up possibilities for adding personality to these transactional messages. It also simplifies the process of localization, since “RSVP” is not universally understood across languages and cultures.

The information you record here should be generic enough to apply to all your events. You still get the option to add a per-event confirmation message, which will be included as long as your template includes the [rsvpmessage] placeholder (one of several documented on the page for the template editor). By default, the confirmation message is just “Thank you!” but I’ve also used RSVPMaker to register people for webinars where that message includes detailed instructions for accessing the online event. For a terrestrial event, it might be driving directions.

The Notification Templates screen is distinct from the Email Template screen, which you use to define one or more templates for the layout of your HTML email, for example to specify a background color. Notification messages use the default template defined on that screen.

While RSVPMaker is intended to be useful out of the box, I continue to look for ways to let you make it your own.

P.S. for Developers

If you create extensions to RSVPMaker, there are filters and actions you can tap to extend this feature as well.

The default array of variables used for these templates is defined like this:

$template_forms['notification'] = array('subject' => 'RSVP [rsvpyesno] for Customization for Notification Emails on ','body' => "Just signed up:\n\n[rsvpdetails]");
$template_forms['confirmation'] = array('subject' => 'Confirming RSVP [rsvpyesno] for Customization for Notification Emails on ','body' => "[rsvpmessage]\n\n[rsvpdetails]\n\nIf you wish to change your registration, you can do so using the button below. [rsvpupdate]");

You can add to it with a filter like

add_filter('rsvpmaker_notification_template_forms','my_forms');

Your filter would be passed an array and return your modified version with additional entries in the same format.

The sample forms use data pulled from a simple key / value array, where entries look like

$sample_data = array('rsvpyesno' => 'YES','rsvp_title' => $post->post_title);

The filter for that is ‘rsvpmaker_notification_sample_data’.

Finally, there is a ‘rsvpmaker_notification_templates_doc’ action you can use to add to the documentation at the bottom of the page.

As part of my WordPress for Toastmasters project, I plan to use this same template utility for confirmation and reminder messages for specific meeting roles.