Applies to: Starter, Pro, Plus, & Enterprise Plans

Absorb's Setup module also provides Admins with a Message Templates tool. With it Admins have the option to customize any of the standard email notifications that are automatically generated and sent out by Absorb to Users across multiple administrative and learning scenarios that occur in the LMS.

In addition to providing Admins with the means to change the wording of any of their preset Message Templates (including any of the templates in any of the other Available Languages that have been enabled in their portal) this tool also allows Admins to configure the types of LMS users that will receive the email notification when it is generated as well - Learners, Administrators and/or Supervisors.

Overview

How It Works

Fundamental to any productive LMS is the ability to be able to communicate to many types of users across many different learning situations - easily, efficiently and effectively. As such, the more information that can be conveyed by an LMS automatically, the more Admins are free to do other more specialized work and subsequently the more beneficial an organization's training program can become. In Absorb this important business need is addressed through the use of Message Templates.

Message Template Features

The Message Templates tool is comprised of three important features - the actual Message Template, the list of available Message Fields and Absorb's built-in Text Editor.

Message Template

When working with a Message Template the content items that the Admin can edit are:

Element	Image	Description
Heading		Located at the top of the page, this portion of the Interface lists both the name of the Message Template being edited, as well as the language that it is being edited in.
Subject		Located underneath the Heading, this portion of the Interface provides the heading that will appear at the top of the Message that the Learner will receive.
Body		Located underneath the Subject, this portion of the Interface contains Absorb's built-in Text Editor that the Admin can use to update the wording of the Message Template they are working on. (Refer to Text Editor below.)
Fields		Located underneath the Body, this portion of the Interface provides an expandable list of all the available data variables that the Admin can choose to have the LMS automatically populate in each individual Message that is sent. (Refer to Message Fields below.) To use this feature the Admin just needs to drag and drop any variable that they want to include in their Message Template, into the position they want it to appear in the Subject and/or Body of the email, to have it added in HTML format as indicated by a double set of parentheses. If the Admin wants to remove a variable from the Message Template instead, they need to select the entire Field variable and delete it manually.
Send to Learner		This switch determines whether or not emails created using the Message Template will be sent to a Learner once it is generated and transmitted by Absorb.
Send to Administrators		This switch determines whether or not emails created using the Message Template will be sent to all admins for the designated Learner once it is generated and transmitted by Absorb.
Sent to Supervisor		This switch determines whether or not emails created using the Message Template will be sent to a Learner's designated Supervisor once it is generated and transmitted by Absorb.
Reset Template		This button will erase any previously saved changes made to the Message Template and restore it back to Absorb's default configuration (which the Admin will be prompted to confirm). Any changes made in creating the custom email will permanently removed from the Message Template (and the LMS) once this is performed and cannot be recovered.

Message Template Fields

When working with a Message Template the Field variables that the Admin can insert are:

Element	Description
First Name	This field inserts a User's first name into the Message Template.
Last Name	This field inserts a User's last name into the Message Template.
Middle Name	This field inserts a User's middle name into the Message Template.
Email Address	This field inserts a User's email address into the Message Template.
Phone	This field inserts a User's phone number into the Message Template.
Username	This field inserts a User's user name into the Message Template.
Department	This field inserts a User's department into the Message Template.
LMS Link	This field inserts a URL linking to the Learner side of the LMS portal into the Message Template.
Admin LMS Link	This field inserts a URL linking to the Admin side of the LMS portal into the Message Template.
LMS Name	This field inserts the name used to identify the Admin's LMS portal into the Message Template.
Company Name	This field inserts the name of the Admin's organization into the Message Template.
Company Phone	This field inserts the contact phone number of the Admin's organization into the Message Template.
Company Email	This field inserts insert the contact email address of the Admin's organization into the Message Template.
Date	This field inserts the current calendar date into the Message Template.
Job Title	This field inserts the position that the User holds in the organization into the Message Template.
Course Name	This field inserts the name of the LMS Course into the Message Template.
Certificate Expiry	This field inserts the date that a Learner's Course Certificate expires on into the Message Template.

 

Edit

While Absorb's default email notifications can effectively handle all of an Admin portal's automated communications, the LMS still provides the option for modifying any of the Message Templates to suit a particular organization's individual needs. Should an Admin decide at a later date that they need to restore a notification back to its original form, they can easily reset any of the Message Templates from here as well.

Actions

When working with a Message Template the Actions available for use by the Admin are:

Element	Image	Description
Edit Template		This button will launch the Message Template workspace where any selected Message Template can be updated and re-saved.
Reset to Default		Refer to the Reset Template definition in the Message Template section above.
Deselect		This button will clear any Message Template selection made by the Admin in the Message Templates Report.
Save§		This button will save any changes made to the existing Message Template and return the Admin back to the Message Templates Report page.
Cancel§		This button will cancel any changes made to the existing Message Template, revert back to the last saved version (which the Admin will be prompted to confirm), and then return the Admin back to the Message Templates Report page.

(§ - Action options available after the Message Template has been opened for editing.)

Report

Absorb's Message Templates tool will launch using the standard Report layout as its starting point. As already mentioned, from this page Admins can: edit a Message Template; reset a Message Template; or, also run a custom Message Templates Report.

Message Templates Report

The basic Message Templates Report can be customized to provide data on any of the following parameters:

Element	Description
Custom‡	This column displays the binary answer of whether or not the default version of the Message Template has been edited and saved by an Admin.
ID	This column displays the unique identifier generated by Absorb to distinguish this Message Template from others contained in the Admin's LMS.
Language‡	This column displays the language that the Message Template has been composed in.
Send to Administrators	This column displays the binary answer of whether or not the Message Template has been configured to be sent to the portal's Admins.
Send to Supervisor	This column displays the binary answer of whether or not the Message Template has been configured to be sent to a User's Supervisor.
Type‡	This column displays the name of the Message Template.

(‡ - Columns shown automatically as part of the default report view.)