Adding fields to body of email?

[aross]

Obviously very new to FM!!

I have set up a script to send an email but in using the text body option I can't seem to merge any fields, like Dear <firstname>... is this possible or not an option? How can I do this?

Your help is much appreciated! :confused:

[cjaeger]

1 -create a global field with your mail text.

2 any "merge fields" should be enclosed by "<<" and ">>"

3 now make a calculation field

mailtext=substitute(substitute(g_mail_template,"<<firstname>>", firstname),"<<lastname>>",lastname) ....

of course, you could simply crate a calc

"Dear " & fistname & " " & lastname & " anytexthere..."

but that would require a trip to define fields every time you send a new mailing ....

instead of changing the global field, you could create a related FM file "templates.fp5" and simply select the appropriate template ...

[aross]

Thank you very much, cjaeger.

I have set up the first method. I have a challenge... step 3, I have this working:

Substitute(Substitute(mailtext, "<<firstname>>", First Name), "<<type>>", invitations::type)

how do I add more substituted merge fields? I can't seem to get the function written right. I want to add 2 more:

"<<area>>", invitations::area

"<<name>>", invitations::content_name

how do I put it together in one line?

Also, does this mean I have 2 fields on every record with all the text for the email? Will this make the dbase much bigger?

Again, many thanks.

Al

[andygaunt]

Hi,

If you want to add more fields to your substitution calc, then you would need to do the following

Substitute(Substitute(Substitute(Substitute(mailtext, "<<firstname>>", First Name), "<<type>>", invitations::type), "<<area>>, invitations::area),"<<name>>", invitations::content_name)

The basic idea is you first have the word substitute, then the field to substitute in and then what you want to substitute. So, when you concatenate in a single field multiple substitutes the substitute( goes first for [x] amount that you require, then the field to substitute in followed closely by what you want to substitute "what to substitute", [field to substitute with)

NOW, if anyone can follow this many substitutions AND not have a spelling mistake on them then

HTH

[aross]

Andy...

You are a superstar! "concatenate" - that was the word I was looking for!!

Thank you so much,

Alan

[aross]

IT WORKS!!!

Thanks to you both!

Al

p.s. Andy, it didn't work the first time with a copy and paste... but then with a little playing it did... is it right that the order has to be the order that they appear in the text?

[davidchin]

Alan, I am also trying to merge fields in the body text. Soo I type the text in the global field with, say, <<Name>>, and the result appears in the calc field, say, "mailtext". Does this mean that I need to identical template layouts for each mail (one to type the letter and the other to view/print/send the substitute fields)?

david