Conditional Content Commands

The Conditional Content Commands allow you to insert blocks of text or graphics into your message depending on whether certain conditions are true for a particular recipient. Using conditional content commands, you can easily create unique, one-to-one emails tailored to the exact needs and interests of your recipients, without having to write (or send) more than one message.

 

All the commands work using a simple if-then-else logic: if a particular condition is true, then insert a particular block of text; else (that is, if the condition is not true), insert a different text block. By text, we mean both plain text or HTML -- you may include either.

 

The easiest way to insert conditional content is to create content and insert a condition.

 

Basic information on the commands

Like the mail merge tags, all conditional content commands must begin and end with a double percent (%%) sign. Returns and spaces contained within the %% delimiters are not read, unless they are contained in the text blocks (that is, between the quotes: " ").

With the exception of the members table, fields are always referenced in the form tablename.fieldname, as in members_.FullName_ or address.zip. If you are referencing a field in the members table, you may use just the field name. You may use short tags if they are members fields. Text values (listed as value in the examples to follow) are not case-sensitive.

Aurea List Manager uses quote marks (" ") as delimiters for text. When you place text between quotes, you preserve spacing, paragraph breaks, and internal quote marks. Moreover, text within quotes may contain mail merge tags, other conditional content commands, and scripts, permitting complex personalization.

Commands may be nested (that is, you can have one command inside another) by enclosing the command in [square brackets]. If you do NOT want merge tags and conditional content commands to be interpreted, place them inside {curly brackets}.

 

Supported Commands

ListManager supports the following commands:

• iffield- for single-condition if criteria (no AND or OR)
• ifcondition- for simple multiple-condition if criteria (all AND or OR)
• ifboolean- for complex multiple-condition if criteria (mixing AND and OR)
• ifrange- for numerical if criteria
• ifdate- for date-related if criteria
• showpercents- to rotate blocks of text

 

While these commands cover the majority of conditional content needs, you may find you need more complex functions. If so, we recommend you visit our section on Advanced Scripting.