Getting Started with Email Template Engine - DeskDirector

Andy Chen Updated by Andy Chen

For other email customization please check HTML Email Templates - ConnectWise or HTML Email Templates - Autotask.

DeskDirector Email Templates

A DeskDirector email template is made up with a combination of MJML and Liquid, with variables that will be replaced with real data during rendering. This gives the email template a lot of flexibility on how you want the template to look and function.

e.g: template:

Hi {{ Contact.FirstName }}, use {{ Token }} to sign into our portal.

renders to:

Hi John, use 12345 to sign into our portal.
Managing Email Templates

You can manage email templates in the DeskDirector admin console under Email > Custom Template where you will see a list of templates categorized into four - System, Global Ticket , Ticket and MSFT Automation Template.

Each of the listed email template category has different items under them which corresponds to events in the portal (e.g. System Templates contain "Mail Auth Token" and "Reset Password"). Clicking on each of the template event will reveal the existing email templates under each. Clicking one of the existing templates will open the template editor.

Go to the template event you want to create a template for (e.g. Reset Password) then click on "New Template" button then specify a template name.

Creating a custom email template

A separate article is here on how to create a custom email template on DeskDirector.

Using Variables (Tokens)

A variable looks like this in the email template: {{ Contact.FirstName }} .Where Contact is an object and FirstName is a property of the object.

Variables/Tokens gives custom email templates more flexibility when it comes to adding details to the email and personalizing information inside it. To add a variable, go to the tokens tab, hover over the token you want to use and click on the copy icon. You can go back to the Code tab and paste the token that you have just copied.

Here's a screengrab showing the power of using variables/tokens in defining a logo and a background color:

Preview Templates

Preview is automatically regenerated whenever content of template has been changed. It uses sample data for that template to generate preview. You can toggle split-view to view both code and preview side-by-side. Tabs view will disable split-view but will enabled a separate Preview tab.

Apply Templates to Notification Events

Once the new custom template is saved, it is now ready to be used for the corresponding Notification Event you want to use it for. Follow this guide on how to apply a custom template to DeskDirector notification events.

Advanced

Email Subject Template

The subject of every custom email template you create can also be customised. To do this, just create/edit a custom template then head to the Settings tab.

Specify a template, then click Preview. Notice that you can use the same tokens from the body of the email.

Email Branding

The email template for ticket update notifications can reference your branding for the ticket's company automatically. The Branding object contains dynamic tokens with the branding information.

In the following example, the logo and the colors are dynamic values from your branding. (The global branding is being used in the email editor, the actual branding can change according the ticket' company)

The size of the logo can be changed to fit your design with the ImgSize filter.

By default, the portal link in the ticket update notifications opens the ticket in your DD portal. You can change where the link points to by using the DeepLink filter.

The Links object contains the dynamic tokens for the DD Portal link and DD Tech link.

In the following example, a "View Invoice" button is added in the email template.

Template Language

Refer to the following article on the topic of the template language.

Template language for DeskDirector Email Template

FAQs:

Q: Can I use HTML on the email template?

A. Yes! While the template engine uses MJML and Liquid, HTML tags should still work in it.

Q: Why are some tokens not appearing on some templates?

A: Tokens are specific to the events the email template is for. To avoid confusion, you only see tokens that you can use for the specific event you are creating the email template for.

For example, tokens for Approvals (ApprovedBy.Name, DeclinedBy.Name) can not be used on email templates for Reset Password, that is why you don't see these tokens when creating/editing an email template for password resets.

How did we do?

Setting up SendGrid Email Delivery

Creating Custom Email Template

Contact