ContactReview :: View topic - Detail Record Fields from Info Tab Merged into Email Temp?

Bigjack3 · n00b

Prior to our Upgrade to Prem 9 SQL back end, our company had V6.7 Corp with Dbase back end and we had established a process where we would create a detail record for say an Invoice. Under that detail record we would add:
- Invoice # (Field 1 - Title)
- Invoice Amount (Filed 2 - LinkAcct)
- Inv Due Date (Filed 3 - Country)

We then created email templates that would merge that data into the email when that detail was selected.

i.e. - "Your Invoice # <<CONTSUPP->TITLE>> for $<<CONTSUPP->LINKACCT>> is due on or before <<CONTSUPP->COUNTRTY>>

We are looking to re-establish this type of process for a host of detail records and I cannot determine what syntax should replace <<CONTSUPP->TITLE>> etc to pull in the info Tab fields from a Detail Record in Premium 9

FR support said I should look at the Hackers Guide (which I have) but I do not see how this is done.

Any thoughts? Greatly appreciated.

DougCastell · GoldMine Guru

Your main problem is that when you send an e-mail, the contact might have 1 of those details or it might not. Or it might have 25 of them. The question, for GoldMine (when it's evaluating your email template) is which detail record you want the field data from. It's a tough question to answer. In some situations, the record that is currently highlighted on the contact will drive the data. It's obscure info, however.

This is from my internal knowledgebase:

Bigjack3 · n00b

Thanks Doug.

In regards to our upgrade...it was a brand new deployment as we had to re-license the software. We still have the CE6.7 running on an old XP machine.

The way it works in 6.7 is the user would have to select the specific detail (i.e. highlight the detail on the details tab, so if it was an invoice detail created today vs. yesterday they would highlight the detail record from today) then click communicate/email and select the appropriate template and it would populate data from the selected detail record.

I have played around with the &Profile(s) macro but that seems to just give me a dump of all the info, I am not longer able to merge in specific items and we have a host of email templates set up this way that when we reinvested in GM9 were the main driver for the software.

Also we copied identically the old email template formats into Prem 9 and that is when we realized this functionality was broken.

DougCastell · GoldMine Guru

FYI, it's possible to upgrade and re-license without losing all your old data.

As for the contsupp template thing, I see what you mean. Sad

I would suggest contacting GoldMine support directly and making some noise about this with them. They have put in place some new connections between tech support and development and supposedly have bug fixes, functionality regressions, etc. as a priority these days. Put them to the test! It's why you pay maintenance, right?

Bigjack3 · n00b

Ok, PROGRESS!!!

So I took every field from the CONTSUPP Detail record type listed in the hackers guide and dumped them into a test email template.
(each represented as <<CONTSUPP->FIELDNAME>>

Then I set up a detail record with all fields on the Info Tab filled in (i.e. "Field1" and "Field2" as the input)

1. I then (from the contact screen) Clicked - Communicate - Email and selected the template from the subject drop down.
At this point all fields were blank Sad

(don't give up hope yet)

2. While the email tab was still open, I clicked over to the contact tab
3. Double Clicked the Detail Record that had the data entered as if I were going to edit or add data to it.
4. Clicked "OK" to close the detail record
5. Went back to the email and from the Subject drop down re-selected the template I wanted (I also tried where I selected another template and then re-selected the one I wanted)
6. Magically when the template refreshed all the info I was looking for was in the body text of the email.

Not the cleanest of solutions, but at least we appear to have continuity to our old CE processes.

DougCastell · GoldMine Guru

nice! I can confirm the same behavior in version 2013.1.0.136

Definitely report it to Frontrange support as it is certainly a bug -- an OLD one, but a bug all the same!

DJ · GoldMine Guru

Actually, that is pretty much how I have been sending out my Appointment notices for years. I have a E-mail Template that pulls information from the Calendar. You don't need to go through all the steps that you have done but the key issue is that the Cal record or in your case the Detail record has a Pointer ( Focus ) when you launch and select your E-mail Template.

Here is one section of the template:

Meeting Date: <<wdate(Cal->OnDate, 3)>>

So here is how I've made this work since 1988. With the Template pre-created, I Schedule the meeting for the client, and immediately upon clicking the Schedule a Meeting OK button I click on the Label E-mail. In the Subject line I type ses and click the drop arrow to select the Session Request with DJ Fulfilled E-mail Template. Voila! The template is populated with the appropriate Calendar information, and I just click send.

There are a few instances where the Cal record has lost focus before I launch the E-mail. In those cases, I simply Edit the Cal record, add two or three spaces at the end of the Cal.Ref line and then click the OK button again. Now I immediately click on the Label E-mail, select my Template and all is good.

The key is that the Cal record or the Detail record must have the Focus as you are sending the E-mail.

Bug? I think not. Training issue? I think so.

Thanks for purchasing my book.

DougCastell · GoldMine Guru

the point is that in gmpe current-ish builds, focus isn't enough when it comes to detail records. Once must edit/ok the detail record before it will be picked up in the email template. Try it and you'll see.

DJ · GoldMine Guru

I think that I just said that above. You either have to create it New or Edit it to give it focus.

Read what was already said Doug.

That is how GoldMine has always worked when merging anything other than Contact1/Contact2 fields.