Email context

In the Designer the Email context is the folder that contains Email templates. From the Email context, output can be generated in the form of email (see below).

When an Email template is created (see Creating an Email template with a Wizard) or when an Email context is added to a template (see Adding a context) the following happens:

  • The Email context is created and one Email section is added to it. You can see this on the Resources pane: expand the Contexts folder, and then expand the Email folder.
    See Email templates to learn how to fill an Email section.
    Although only one email can be sent per record when generating Email output, the Email context can contain multiple sections. One Email section is created at the start, but you can add more; see Adding an Email template and Importing an Email template.

  • A style sheet, named context_htmlemail_styles.css, is added to the template. Depending on which Template Wizard was used to create the template, another style sheet can be added as well. Style sheets are located in the folder Stylesheets on the Resources pane. These style sheets are meant to be used for styles that are only applied to elements in the Email context.

The Wizard opens the Email section, so that you can fill it with text and other elements; see Content elements and Email templates.

Sending email

When the template is ready, you can generate Email output; See Generating Email output.
To test a template, you can send a test email first. This allows you to override the recipient address.

Output, generated from an Email template, can have the following attachments:

  • The contents of the Print context, in the form of a single PDF attachment. (Compression options for PDF attachments can be specified in the Email context's properties; see Compressing PDF attachments.)

  • The output of the Web context, as a self-contained HTML file.

  • Other files, an image or a PDF leaflet for example.

Attaching the Print context and/or the Web context is one of the options in the Send (Test) Email dialog.

These options are also available in the Create Email Content task in Workflow.

Note: To split the Print context into multiple attachments, or to attach multiple Web sections as separate attachments, and to rename this type of attachment, you need to create a Control Script that specifies parts; see Parts: splitting and renaming email attachments.

See Email attachments.

Email output settings

The following settings in an Email context influence how the Email output is generated.

Compressing PDF attachments

For PDF attachments, generated from the Print context, you can set the Print Context Image Compression to determine the quality of the files, and with that, the size of the files.

To set the Print Context Image Compression:

  1. On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder; then right-click the Email context and select PDF Attachments.
    Alternatively, select Context > PDF Attachments on the main menu. This option is only available when editing an Email section in the Workspace.

  2. Change the properties of the PDF file that will be attached when the Print context is attached to the email.

    Lossless is the maximum quality. Note that this will produce a larger PDF file. Uncheck this option to be able to set a lower quality.

    The quality is set in a percentage of the maximum quality.

    Tile Size is the size of the files in which the image that is being compressed is divided. (If the image height or width is not an even multiple of the tile size, partial tiles are used on the edges.) Image data for each tile is individually compressed and can be individually decompressed. When low Quality values are used to optimize images smaller than 1024 x 1024 pixels, using the largest tile size will produce better results.

Setting a default section for output

When generating output from the Email context, only one of the Email templates can be merged with each record. One of the Email sections is the 'default'; see Setting a default Email template for output.