S-Tags in auto-responders: Benefits of using Bracket vs XML syntax

Justin Wenzl
Justin Wenzl
Fourth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Kudos 1 Boomerang (2024)
in Blackbaud Luminate Online® & Blackbaud TeamRaiser® Discussions

When it comes to auto-responders for our donation and registration forms in LO, my organization has always used bracket syntax for the HTML versions and XML syntax for the plain text versions. The people who originally made these decisions have since departed, and I am curious if anyone knows a potential reasoning behind them.

Due to syntax challenges, I would like to use bracket notation in the plain text version of an auto-responder. Is there a potential drawback to doing so?

Bonus question: If anyone wants to show me how to convert the following to XML, I would be interested to learn. Assuming bracket notation works, though, this would be purely educational.

The snippet below uses the replaceall operator of the 130 S-Tag to convert the recurring frequency label to a form that fits the sentence structure. In attempting to recreate it in XML, I am running into issues with opening and closing tags and escaping quotation marks.

By making this gift every [[E130: "[[S120:dc:recurringFrequencyLabel]]"
"Monthly" "month" replaceall
"Quarterly" "quarter" replaceall
"Annual" "year" replaceall]] you are providing…

Thank you in advance for any insights!

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Answers

  • Kevin Duckworth
    Kevin Duckworth
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Facilitator 1

    Hello @Justin Wenzl,

    There is no requirement in Luminate that one syntax must be used for HTML and the other for plain‑text messages, and both are processed the same way by the system.

    I hope this helps.

  • Jeremy Reynolds
    Jeremy Reynolds
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 2 Name Dropper Participant
    edited February 11

    @Justin Wenzl, as far as the rationale, XML would be for when you need someone to be able to edit the text later and they can only use the WYSIWYG. XML will give them visual representation of your conditional and they can switch between cases to change what gets output.

    It's just a really bad life if you have to do that, though.

  • Will Hull
    Will Hull Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Name Dropper Kudos 1 Participant

    Hey there, @Justin Wenzl.

    There is no difference between the two. It is just a different way of writing out the S-Tag. The double bracket version will work both in the WYSIWYG and Plain Text Editor, where the XML will only work in the Plain Text Editor and show up as a code when viewing it on the WYSIWYG side after switching back from the Plain Text Editor.

    For the S130 code that you have above, I say leave it as is as it will work in both the WYSIWYG an Plain Text Editor. What you are doing with that code is replacing the word "Monthly" with "month", "Quarterly" with quarter" and "Annually" with "year" with that code. Something tells me that this is for an autoresponder so that the text is lowercase and fits the sentence context it might be inserted into or data layer code that you might be using with Google Tag Manager.

    I personally like the double bracket version of the code as they are easier to follow and see what is happening versus using the XML version, especially when there is conditional content in play in the code. I call it the "shorthand" version of it.

    I hope this response helps.

    Thanks,
    Will
    Principal Consultant, Luminate Online, Blackbaud Professional Services

  • Justin Wenzl
    Justin Wenzl
    Fourth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Kudos 1 Boomerang (2024)

    Thanks, everyone! This is great information, and it will certainly make things easier not having to try and translate the syntax all over again. Appreciate the insights!

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