Communications within a Skyve application is where ad-hoc and system email messages are created and edited. New email messages can be created and use data from within the system as the recipient and/or the body of the email. System messages can also be maintained here if notifications need to be updated over time, for example signatures or contact details.

Create and send a new Communication

Prerequisites: Your application has its SMPT settings configured to enable sending email.

The following example will walk through using the built in Communication feature from the admin module to send an email from within a Skyve application. In this example, we will use the Tag feature to select some Contacts as the recipients of the test email.

  1. Login with a user which has the ContactManager or SecurityAdministrator role

  2. From the top right hand corner, switch to power user mode if not already in there

    Switch mode

  3. Navigate to the Admin module, and select Contacts

  4. From the toolbar Tag dropdown, select New Tag

    Create new tag

  5. Name your tag email contacts
  6. Click OK

  7. The toolbar now shows we have the new tag active

    Active tag

  8. Tag some contacts by clicking the checkbox next to contacts in the first column (Tag)

  9. The tagged contacts will update to be marked in bold

    Tagged contacts

  10. From the admin menu, select Communication->Communications
  11. Click the + symbol to create a new Communication
  12. Enter test email into Description
  13. Select Admin as the Module from the drop-down
  14. Select Contact as the Document from the drop-down
  15. Select the tag we just created, email contacts, from the Tag drop-down
  16. Click Save to save your Communication

  17. Click Get Count and it should show the number of tagged Contacts in the Reulsts section

    Communication results

  18. Select the Contents tab
  19. In the To: address, we are going to enter an expression to use a field from the tagged contacts. This operates similarly to a mail merge, and Skyve will substitue the expression value with the contact value for each tagged record. Enter {email1}, which is the name of the contact email address field.
  20. Enter test email into Subject (this can also be an expression)
  21. Click the Edit button to the right of Body to open the HTML editor

  22. Enter some text into the email body and click Apply

    communication properties

  23. Attachments can be added from the Options tab, but for now return to the Manage tab
  24. Click Send Now
  25. A new background job will be initiated to send your email immediately in the background. The results of the job can be checked from the Jobs screen.

Editing an existing Communication

When you have existing Communcations in your application and wish to make changes to the content of the email.

Prerequisites: Your application has at least one ad-hoc or system communication defined

  1. Login with a user which has the ContactManager or SecurityAdministrator role
  2. From the admin menu, select Communication->Communications
  3. Open the communication you wish to edit
  4. Select the Contents tab
  5. Modify the To or CC To fields if you would like to change who receives the communication. This can be an expression.
  6. Modify the Subject and/or the Body with any desired changes. These can contain expressions.
  7. Click OK to save the modifications