Creating an Email Notification Template
Crowd uses an email template to build the content of an email message that Crowd sends to a user. Crowd provides the following email templates:
- User added notifications: A template for the email sent when an administrator creates a new user and selects the Send notification email checkbox. Learn more about adding users in Crowd
- Password resets: A template for the email sent when an administrator asks a user to reset their password and when a user asks to reset their own forgotten password.
- Forgotten usernames: A template for the email sent when a user requests their forgotten username. Learn more about requesting usernames
- Password expiry reminders: A template for the email sent when the user password is reaching the expiry date in an Internal Directory. Learn more about configuring an Internal Directory
- Email validation requests: A template for the email sent to the user's new email address when an email address change is initiated.
- Email change confirmations: A template for the email sent to the user's current email address when an email address change is initiated.
HTML email templates
Crowd Data Center 5.0 introduces support for HTML email templates. When HTML is selected as the email format, Crowd will process HTML content in email templates and send emails in HTML (rather than plain text) format.
Crowd will not automatically convert templates when changing the email format, so make sure to modify the templates automatically when changing the format.
To enable HTML email templates:
- Log in to the Crowd Administration Console
Select the Administration tab in the top navigation bar
Select Mail template in the left-side menu
Choose the appropriate Format
Select Update
Email template for the User added notification
This is a template for the email sent to the user's current email address when the user is being created.
To edit the User added notification template:
- Log in to the Crowd Administration Console.
Select the Administration tab in the top navigation bar.
Select Mail template in the left-side menu.
In the User added notification textbox, enter the text and macros that will form the body of the email message. Use a macro to include a variable in the email text. Crowd will replace the macro with the relevant value when it sends the email.
The following are the available macros and their replacement values:$username – The username of the person who will receive the email.
$firstname – The user's first name.
$lastname – The user's last name.
$deploymenttitle – The title of your Crowd site, as defined in Deployment Title. Learn more about the deployment title
$date – The date or time of the message event.
$email – The user's email address.
$admincontact – The email address of the Crowd administrator.
$resetlink – The automatically-generated URL that the user can click, allowing them to choose a new password.
Select Update.
Email Template for Password Resets (Forgotten Passwords)
This is a template for the email sent when an administrator asks a user to reset their password and when a user asks to reset their own forgotten password.
To edit the email template for password resets:
- Log in to the Crowd Administration Console.
- Select the Administration tab in the top navigation bar.
Select Mail template in the left-side menu.
- In the Forgotten Password Template text box, enter the text and macros that will form the body of the email message. Use a macro to include a variable in the email text. Crowd will replace the macro with the relevant value when it sends the email.
The following are the available macros and their replacement values:- $username – The username of the person who will receive the email.
- $firstname – The user's first name.
- $lastname – The user's last name.
- $deploymenttitle – The title of your Crowd site, as defined in Deployment Title. Learn more about the deployment title
- $date – The date/time of the message event.
$resetlink – The automatically-generated URL that the user can click, allowing them to choose a new password.
To ensure that the password reset URL will include the correct domain for your Crowd server, you must correctly set Crowd's base URL in the Server Settings screen. Learn more about configuring server settings
- Select Update.
Consider that earlier releases of Crowd supplied the '$password' macro to represent the user's new password, automatically generated by Crowd. Crowd no longer generates a new password, but instead generates a link that the user can click to choose their own new password.
For backward compatibility, if your email template contains the '$password' macro, Crowd will now replace it with the text 'available at (link)'. The '(link)' will be the same as now available in the '$resetlink' macro.
Email Template for Forgotten Usernames
This is a template for the email sent when a user requests their forgotten username. Learn more about requesting usernames
To edit the email template for forgotten usernames:
- Log in to the Crowd Administration Console.
- Select the Administration tab in the top navigation bar.
Select Mail template in the left-side menu.
- In the Forgotten Username(s) Template text box, enter the text and macros that will form the body of the email message. Use a macro to include a variable in the email text. Crowd will replace the macro with the relevant value when it sends the email.
The following are the available macros and their replacement values:- $username – The username of the person who will receive the email.
- $firstname – The user's first name.
- $lastname – The user's last name.
- $deploymenttitle – The title of your Crowd site, as defined in Deployment Title. Learn more about the deployment title
- $date – The date/time of the message event.
- $email – The email address that the user entered when requesting forgotten usernames. This is the address to which the email message is sent.
- $admincontact – The email address of the Crowd administrator.
- Select Update.
Email template for Password expiry reminders
This is a template for the email sent when the Configuring an Internal Directory for password expiry is reached.
To edit the email template for password expiry reminders:
- Log in to the Crowd Administration Console.
- Select the Administration tab in the top navigation bar.
Select Mail template in the left-side menu.
- In the Password expiration reminder template text box, enter the text and macros that will form the body of the email message. Use a macro to include a variable in the email text. Crowd will replace the macro with the relevant value when it sends the email. The following are the available macros and their replacement values:
- $username – The username of the person who will receive the email.
- $firstname – The user's first name.
- $lastname – The user's last name.
- $daysToPasswordExpiration – The number of days left until the user's password expires.
- $changePasswordlink – The link to the change password page of your Crowd site.
- $admincontact – The email address of the Crowd administrator.
- $deploymenttitle – The title of your Crowd site, as defined in Deployment Title. Learn more about the deployment title
- $date – The date/time of the message event.
- Select Update.
Email template for Email validation requests
This is a template for the email sent to the user's new email address when an email address change is initiated.
To edit the email template for email validation requests:
- Log in to the Crowd Administration Console.
- Select the Administration tab in the top navigation bar.
Select Mail template in the left-side menu.
- In the Template for validation message text box, enter the text and macros that will form the body of the email message. Use a macro to include a variable in the email text. Crowd will replace the macro with the relevant value when it sends the email.
The following are the available macros and their replacement values:s:- $firstname – The user's first name.
- $lastname – The user's last name.
- $validationLink – The automatically-generated URL which allows the user to validate their new email address.
- Select Update.
Email template for Email change confirmations
This is a template for the email sent to the user's current email address when an email address change is initiated.
To edit the email template for email change confirmations:
- Log in to the Crowd Administration Console.
- Select the Administration tab in the top navigation bar.
Select Mail template in the left-side menu.
- In the Template for email change message text box, enter the text and macros that will form the body of the email message. Use a macro to include a variable in the email text. Crowd will replace the macro with the relevant value when it sends the email.
The following are the available macros and their replacement values:- $firstname – The user's first name.
- $lastname – The user's last name.
- $newemail – The user's new email address.
- $admincontact – The email address of the Crowd administrator.
- Select Update.