Email and SMS messages that are generated as part of the registration and booking process can be customized or replaced by your own messages. Reminder and follow-up messages can be similarly customized. Almost all messages can contain so-called “auto-text”, which are “magic words” that are automatically replaced by some dynamic value when the message is generated. Text that is shown on-screen during the booking process can also be customized but with a slightly different syntax, see the section on Customizing on-screen messages.
Under Configure > Process you can choose to confirm appointments by email and/or send users an email reminder some time prior to their appointment. By default, the email confirmation contains the following information:
Booking confirmations and reminders can be changed via Configure > Layout, while the text of registration confirmations can be entered via Layout Settings. If you would like to add some text to this message or replace it with your own text altogether.
All email sent from your account is kept in the database for one hour. You can view it inside your account on the list of recently sent emails. This allows you to check which messages were sent in the last hour, to whom they were sent, and whether they contain what you expected.
@test.com but it will still show up in the list of recently sent mails.
You can use this to easily test various emails without having to send a lot of emails to a real email account.
Auto-text are “magic words” that are automatically replaced by some dynamic value when the message is generated. This allows you, for example, to address users by name or make the message language-dependent.
An auto-text word is simply a word preceded by a $, i.e. $name. In the table below you find the auto-text strings that can be used in email messages.
| The word… | …will be replaced with |
|---|---|
$name | The name of the person to whom the mail is addressed, if available |
$dear | Writes out “Dear $name,” unless $name is not known |
$login | The login name of the creator (blank if administrator or not logged in) |
$subject | The rest of this line will be used as the subject line of the email, it may contain other magic words |
$url | A link that points to the schedule at the date of the reservation |
$modurl | A link that contains a token which allows modification of this reservation without logging in |
$action | Describes what action triggered this email. E.g.: “Your booking was $action” → “Your booking was created” |
$details | Lists the booking details, useful if those had been removed by the $replace command below |
$replace | Removes all the system-generated text, only your text will be shown |
$nourl | Removes just the URL from the system pre-generated text |
$id | The object’s ID, this is useful to quickly look it up in the supervisor interface |
$slot_id | The ID of the slot that this object belongs to (capacity schedule only) |
$form_id | The ID of the form if this object has a form attached |
$start | The start time and finish time for this booking. Use $start_time or $finish_time to show only the time |
$created | The creation date for this booking, and the time it was last changed or deleted |
$when | Shows start and finish time, and adds time zone information depending on the configuration |
$previous_start | If the appointment was updated, this shows the start time before the update |
$length | The duration of the appointment displayed as H:MM or DD:HH:MM |
$ical | The booking will be attached to the notification as an iCalendar file |
$meeting_url | Show the link to the Google Meet or Zoom meeting if there is one |
$doorcode | Shows a 6-digit code, compatible with the Nuki range of electronic door locks |
$form | If a form is connected to this object it will be attached as an HTML file |
$price | Price of the appointment. For repeating appointments it’s the price of the first one |
$credit | Current credit level of the user (after creating the appointment) |
$resources | The names of connected resources (service schedule only) |
$position | Displays the position on the waiting list (capacity schedule only) |
$field_1 | Displays the value of custom fields defined on the configuration screen, Process tab |
$field_1a | Displays the value of custom fields defined on the Access Control page |
$su | Displays the value of the supervisor field if it’s available |
$if "action" | The rest of the sentence is only printed if action matches the current action. To apply the condition to multiple lines enclose them in curly brackets. See below for a list of possible actions |
$else {message} | The $else clause can only follow an $if clause. The message must be enclosed in curly brackets and will only be displayed if the preceding $if condition is not true |
$title | Capacity schedule only: The title, location, description and quantity booked. Level shows the number of bookings in a slot. For multi-resource schedules $description contains the resource name |
Normally, your custom text is appended to the email generated by the system. However, if you use the string $replace anywhere in the message, then your text will replace the system message entirely.
$if statement as explained below.
For confirmation and reminder emails you can preview what the email will look like by clicking the Preview button next to the field where you enter the auto-text. This will show an email based on the most recently updated appointment.
The auto-text commands can also be chained. The next code snippet would only replace the title when a new appointment is created, and otherwise leave the default title:
$if "created" {$subject You have a new appointment on $start}
Permissible values after the $if statement are: created, changed, deleted, approved, refunded, placed_on_the_waiting_list, changed_on_the_waiting_list, removed_from_the_waiting_list or placed (placed means it moved from the waiting list to become a regular appointment).
$if "placed_on_the_waiting_list" {You are number $position on the waiting list}
You can also use a language identifier like EN or ES to only display a message if a person has selected that particular language on the calendar.
$if "ES" {Gracias} $else {Thank you}
$if "created || placed_on_the_waiting_list" {Thank you for booking}$if "EN && deleted" {Cancellation confirmed}$modurl
The $modurl code will generate a link that contains a token that can allows the visitor of that link to modify or delete the appointment without the need to log in.
This is especially useful if you allow people to create appointments without logging in because this way you can allow them to change their own appointments afterwards.
You can read more on this in our blog about customizing emails.
By default, emails are sent in “Plain text” format, because that has the best chance of passing through spam filters. By changing the email format to HTML on the Layout Settings page you gain the ability to add styling to emails. The HTML text editor for emails has buttons to add color and links, and you can edit the HTML itself by clicking the small “Source code” button. But if you add too many links or pictures you run the risk of your email being marked as spam.
Note that the HTML supported by email clients is only a small subset of that supported by web browsers. To make matters worse, each email client supports a different subset of HTML, and renders things slightly differently. Therefore, it’s best to stick with the limited options provided by the editor.
If you are a developer and need full control over formatting the email, or need the ability to add attachments, you could consider sending the email from your own server.
By default, email notifications from your account are sent with noreply@supersaas.com in the “From:” field of the message.
It’s a good idea to change this field to reassure your users that the message comes from you and to ensure that replies get back to you.
You can change this setting on the Layout Settings screen.
It lets you either add a “Reply-to” header or change the “From” header to your own address.
Changing the “From” address to your own would seem attractive, however this option comes with the important proviso that the mails have a higher risk of being marked as spam because we cannot sign them if the “From” address differs from ours. Furthermore, in order to comply with internet standards aimed at preventing spam, you will need to add our mail server in the SPF record of your DNS. Modifying a DNS can be tricky and you may not have the option to modify the DNS of your mail server.
The “Reply-to” header, on the other hand, will still send with noreply@supersaas.com in the “From” field, but most email clients will display your account name as the sender and will also send back replies to you. Because our mail server can cryptographically sign the message if it has supersaas.com in the “From” field it has a high chance of passing spam filters.
As an aside, any links mentioned in email messages will show supersaas.com unless you set up a custom domain and link it to your account.
include:spf.supersaas.com
Via the Integrations page you can find the “SMS Gateway” page where you can customize the default SMS-reminder’s textual content. The same auto-text codes used to customize email messages can be used to customize SMS-reminders sent to your customers. Note that this does not affect SMS-notifications that are sent to you to inform you about new or updated bookings.
The default reminder content is:
Reminder: <appointment title> on <date and time>
The first inserted field will show the appointment title and the second one shows the date and time of the appointment.
For example, provided you have not modified the message, a reminder for a yoga class would look something like this:
Reminder: Yoga (Briana) on 10/10/2024 18:00
More information on configuring SMS confirmations can be found in the confirmation and reminder documentation.