vis_email?

[Kent Multer]

A client just contacted me after he noticed that the settings for the Template Based Emails had "disappeared" when he updater to 10.08. After some searching, I find that there is a new module API feature, vis_email; and a new "Emails" link in the User Interface sub-menu.

Is there any documentation on this?

What functions does a module need to implement to use this feature? What do they do?

Does this change have any impact on modules that read or send email?

Besides Template Based Emails, are there any other modules that use this feature?

Thanks --

[dcarver]

Manage Quotes and Template Based Emails are the only modules that use the feature and they are both in the LSK so you can see their API functions they implement. They were moved there because the underlying emails are managed templates which are branch specific. All (or almost all) branch specific content has been moved into the "User Interface" section of the software, which is why Emails were moved there.

[Kent Multer]

Hi David, thanks for the info. Can I get a little more clarification please?

I've written a number of modules that send emails for various purposes; and many of them use pages for the message content, just like the TBE module. These modules usually have a setting to specify the page, so that users can easily switch from one version to another when they want to change the message. They can create a new template, and test it; and in case the new one has a problem, they can easily revert back to the old template. That's different from the TBE module, where the user selects a code for the email, and the page code is based on that.

If I understand the new feature, I don't need to change anything in my modules. But users should be aware that, if they create UI branches, the content of the email will be specific to the current branch. "Current" would mean the Primary branch for shoppers, and I suppose it would be the Working branch when sending emails manually from the admin pages. Is that all correct?

Also, I looked at the TBE module in the new LSK. The Module_Email_Validate and Module_Email_Update functions don't do anything. If a user changes settings or creates a new email, how are the changes saved?

Thanks --

[dcarver]

If your current module handles pages as managed templates then they are branched. You should be able to see this by creating a secondary branch, making a change to the email template on the secondary branch, and then switching back to the primary branch. This was also confusing / misleading as if a user makes changes on the non-primary branch the primary branch email will still be sent.

Module_Email_Validate / Module_Email_Update functions are used when updating the screen itself which neither of those modules support. All updating of its content is done via JSON functions. In addition, the page templates controls updating the actual email template contents, which is why those functions do not do anything.