Content templates

Use content templates to personalize messages with information specific to each member of your audience, like first name, flight number, or order status. You can even pass complicated variables to your template.

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About content templates

You can create content templates for all messaging channels:

App — For Push NotificationA message that can appear on any screen on a mobile device. Push notifications appear as banners., Message CenterA place in your app where you can display persistent rich messages, including HTML, video, etc. Similar to email, Message Center represents both the medium (the in-app inbox) and the message type (the messages you send to the inbox)., and In-App AutomationMessages cached on users’ devices and displayed when users meet certain conditions within your app, such as viewing a particular screen or opening the app a certain number of times., follow the steps on this page. Templates for In-App Automation can be used for modal and fullscreen styles only.
Web
SMS/MMS
Email
Open channel

After creating content templates, you can select them in the Content step in a composer or reference them with the template property in the API. In-App Automation is not supported for API use.

In the composers, for App, Web, SMS/MMS, and Open channels, the template content replaces your message content as is and cannot be edited. For Message Center, In-App Automation, and Email, you can edit your message content after selecting the template.

You can assign keywords to your templates so they are easily found in search.

Tip

Name your templates according to the sources they use for personalization, so it’s clear when and where you can reuse your template.
For reusable message designs for ScenesA mobile app or web experience of one or more screens displayed with fully native UI components in real time, providing immediate, contextual responses to user behaviors. Scenes can be presented in full-screen, modal, or embedded format using the default swipe/click mode or as a Story. They can also contain survey questions., see Create custom content layouts in Configuring Scene content.

Content template format

A content template has a name, optional description, and fields that make up the viewable content in a message.

Template	Fields
App (Push notification)	Message text — The text that will display in your push notification. Title — A heading that appears above the notification text when applicable. Summary — Supplemental text displayed with the notification. iOS — The summary appears below the push notification title. Android and Fire OS — The summary appears below the main notification text in most cases. This is the only visible text other than the title when Android Picture is visible in expanded mode, as the main notification text is suppressed.
Message Center	Title — A heading that appears above the message and in the Message Center inbox. Message body — The HTML body of your message, created using the Interactive EditorA tool for creating content for landing pages, Message Center, email, and In-App Automation. You can provide your own HTML or design using the drag-and-drop WYSIWYG option..
In-App Automation	Message body — The HTML body of your message, created using the Interactive EditorA tool for creating content for landing pages, Message Center, email, and In-App Automation. You can provide your own HTML or design using the drag-and-drop WYSIWYG option..
Web	Alert — The text that will display in your web push notification. Title — A heading that appears above the message.
SMS	Message text — The text that will display in your SMS message.
MMS	Subject — A meaningful subject to summarize your MMS message. Message text — The text that will display in your MMS message. Fallback SMS text — Fallback text version of your message, for use when MMS is unavailable.
Email	Subject — A meaningful subject to summarize your email. HTML body — The HTML body of your email, created using the Interactive EditorA tool for creating content for landing pages, Message Center, email, and In-App Automation. You can provide your own HTML or design using the drag-and-drop WYSIWYG option.. Plain text body — The plain-text version of your message, for use when HTML is unavailable.
Open channel	Alert — The text that will display in your open channel message. Summary — Supplemental text displayed with the notification. Title — A heading that appears above the notification text when applicable. Media attachment URL — The URL for media you want to include in your message.

Using the Interactive editor

When adding the email HTML body, or In-App Automation or Message Center Message body, you can use the Interactive EditorA tool for creating content for landing pages, Message Center, email, and In-App Automation. You can provide your own HTML or design using the drag-and-drop WYSIWYG option. to:

Paste or upload your own HTML.
Design using the WYSIWYG option. You can start from a blank layout or select an Airship default layout or a layout you saved. The WYSIWYG editor supports Merge FieldsA variable in your message or template that you want to populate with a personalized value for each member of the audience. Merge fields use Handlebars syntax — {{merge_field}}., so you can personalize your message for your audience.

Personalizing content templates

You can use our built-in tool to insert merge fields and logic statements for the AttributesMetadata used for audience segmentation and personalization. They extend the concept of Tags by adding comparison operators and values to determine whether or not to target a user, helping you better evaluate your audience. in your project. See: Simplifying Handlebars expressions. You can also manually enter HandlebarsHandlebars is Airship’s templating language for personalization. Handlebars expressions use double curly braces wrapped around a content template, ranging from a simple variable, e.g., {{first_name}}, to complex evaluations of personalization data.. Both methods are available for all text fields in a template, including when you paste or upload HTML using the Interactive editor.

Important

When using Handlebars to reference variables, you should define default values for your fields with {{ $def field_name "default value" }}. The template preview renders variables without default values as blank spaces, mimicking the behavior your audience will experience if they receive messages with unpopulated variables.

When personalizing messages in the WYSIWYG editor, you must define merge fields before you can use them to personalize blocks of content unless you write your own custom HTML blocks. (You can personalize custom HTML blocks using HandlebarsHandlebars is Airship’s templating language for personalization. Handlebars expressions use double curly braces wrapped around a content template, ranging from a simple variable, e.g., {{first_name}}, to complex evaluations of personalization data. like you would any other message.) See: Merge fields in the WYSIWYG editor.

Tip

You can also take advantage of looping (#each), conditional if/else statements, and other advanced HandlebarsHandlebars is Airship’s templating language for personalization. Handlebars expressions use double curly braces wrapped around a content template, ranging from a simple variable, e.g., {{first_name}}, to complex evaluations of personalization data. inside custom HTML blocks. However, you cannot apply conditional or looping logic to block-level elements in your template without defining merge fields in the WYSIWYG editor first.

Create a content template in the dashboard

Follow these steps to create a template in the dashboard:

Go to Content, then Templates
Select Create template.
Enter a name and a brief description to help you identify the template in lists (for example, “Holiday 2020”), and select the channel:
- App — For Push NotificationA message that can appear on any screen on a mobile device. Push notifications appear as banners. content only
- Message Center
- In-App Automation — For use with modal and fullscreen styles only
- Web
- SMS/MMS
- Email
- Open channel
(Optional) Add keywords to help organize your templates. Enter a term in the search field and select from results, or select Add keyword: . Select the X icon () to remove a keyword. You can add up to 10 keywords.
Select Save and continue.
Enter your content. The preview updates as you type. Open channel templates do not have a preview.
Select Add and add content for each field, then select Done.
For email HTML body, and Message Center and In-App Automation Message body, provide your HTML or design using the WYSIWYG editor.
- For HTML, select the paste or upload option and add your HTML.
- For the WYSIWYG editor, first select a default or saved layout, or select Blank Layout to design your own. You can edit any layout after selecting. Then design your message. See: WYSIWYG editor.
For email, in the WYSIWYG editor:
- To reduce the HTML size, select Settings in the sidebar, and then enable Minify HTML.
- After selecting Done, choose whether to save the HTML body only or also generate the plain text body.
(Optional, for email only) Preview your email in different clients:
1. Click Inbox preview.
2. Select from the lists of browser, desktop, and mobile clients, then click Generate previews.
3. Click a thumbnail to see the full version. Click to close and choose another preview.
4. (Optional) To add/remove clients, click Reselect and generate previews and start over.
5. When you are finished with inbox previews, click to close the modal.
Select Save template when you are done adding content.

Creating content templates using the API

You can use the Content API to create, list, retrieve, update, and delete content templates. For supported template type values and fields, see the Content template object schema in the API reference.

OAuth client credentials can include the Content scope for these endpoints. See Content in the Airship API authorization reference.

When you create or update a template, Airship validates it using the same rules as the dashboard, including HandlebarsHandlebars is Airship’s templating language for personalization. Handlebars expressions use double curly braces wrapped around a content template, ranging from a simple variable, e.g., {{first_name}}, to complex evaluations of personalization data. syntax and reference checks. Invalid templates are not saved.

You can set an optional external_id on a template. The ID is a customer-defined string that is unique within a project. You can use it to look up or update a template using dedicated endpoints and to reference the template in send and push payloads where supported, as an alternative to the template UUID.

Using content templates

You can select a template in a composer’s Content step.

For In-App Automation, you must select Modal or Fullscreen in the Style step, then you will see the option to use a template in Content.
For Message Center, In-App Automation, and Email, you can edit the HTML or WYSIWYG design in the Interactive editor after selecting a template.

In the API, include a template object to use a content template or to personalize your message with HandlebarsHandlebars is Airship’s templating language for personalization. Handlebars expressions use double curly braces wrapped around a content template, ranging from a simple variable, e.g., {{first_name}}, to complex evaluations of personalization data.. See Platform Overrides with Templates.

Reference a content template by its ID, a UUID returned from Content API responses. You can also reference by external ID when your payload and endpoint support it. In the dashboard, you can get IDs from your list of templates. Exact property names and formats appear in the schema for your channel and operation.

For push, specify the template on the Notification object.

In-App AutomationMessages cached on users’ devices and displayed when users meet certain conditions within your app, such as viewing a particular screen or opening the app a certain number of times. is not supported for API use.

Managing content templates

Go to Content and select Templates to view the list of templates in your project. This list displays templates created in the dashboard or with the Content API. You can search by name, channel, keyword, or ID. Templates marked Empty do not have message content. You cannot use Empty templates in messages until you edit and populate them.

Options:

Option	Description
Edit	Select the pencil icon () to make changes to a template.
Duplicate	Select the duplicate icon () to make a copy of a template.
Delete	Select the three dots icon (), then Delete to remove a template from your project.