Siebel Email Administration Guide > Configuring Communications Templates >

Creating Advanced Templates

You specify advanced templates for outbound communication requests. You can manually specify advanced temples, or a module like Siebel Workflow that can invoke business service methods can specify them. For information about the fields for the Templates list and the Advanced form, see Fields for Templates.

Advanced templates have the following characteristics that simple templates do not have:

• You can associate a delivery profile with an advanced template.
• You specify a recipient group for an advanced template. (You specify a business object is for a simple template.)
• You can specify to create activities for requests that use the advanced template.
• You can specify to include a bookmark URL for the recipient source record.
• You can create template items for advanced template. For more information, see Specifying Template Items for Advanced Templates.

NOTE:  For an advanced template, a communications profile you specify as the delivery profile must already exist before you can specify it for the template. For more information about creating profiles, see Process of Setting Up Communications Driver Profiles.

To create an advanced template

1. Navigate to the Communications screen, then the My Templates view.

   Administrators and other advanced users can navigate to the All Templates view of the Communications screen.

2. In the Templates list, complete the following steps:
   1. Add a new record. (Alternatively, you can add the record in the Advanced form.)
   2. Specify the name of the template for the new record.
   3. Specify the channel type, such as Email, Fax, Pager, or Wireless Message.
   4. Specify the language and locale that is applicable to the template.
   5. Optionally, provide a short description for the template.
3. Click the Advanced view tab.
4. In the Advanced form, complete the following steps:
   1. Specify the name of the template if you did not already do so in the Templates list.
   2. Specify the channel type for the template if you did not already do so in the Templates list.
   3. Specify the delivery profile for the template.
   4. Specify the language and locale for the template if you did not already do so in the Templates list.
   5. For an email or fax template, specify whether this template is an HTML template or a plain-text template.

      NOTE:  The HTML Template setting affects the text you enter in the Text field. It does not affect template items.

   6. For a template that is intended for public use, select the Public check box when the template is ready for public availability.
   7. For an email template, specify whether to include a Siebel bookmark with the message.
   8. Select the Create Activity check box if you want to set activity logging for any outbound communication request that specifies this template.
   9. Optionally, specify the recipient group, which determines the kind of recipients that the template is sent to.

      The recipient group you specify determines only the substitution fields that are available for the template text. The actual recipients are determined when using the template for a communication request.

   10. Specify a subject line for the template, as applicable for the channel type.
   11. Optionally, enter the template text.

       As appropriate, copy and paste fields from the list of available substitution fields. Include the brackets around the field names. The Text field allows you to use editing and formatting controls. For an HTML email or fax template, formatting you apply is preserved. For a plain-text template, formatting is eliminated when you save the template. For more information, see Editing and Formatting Controls for Text in Templates.

       The Available Fields list is populated with field names. For more information, see Fields for Templates (for the Advanced form).

       A template that includes template items does not have to include template text.

5. Optionally, add template items to the template.

   A template that does not include template text must generally include one or more template items to provide content. You can combine template text and template items in the same template. The template text appears in the message body before the content for the specified template items. For more information, see Specifying Template Items for Advanced Templates.

6. Test the template to verify that it functions as required and that field substitution behavior works correctly.

   To test a template, send it in the intended usage context, for example, by creating and submitting an outbound communication request. Perform this test before you make a template publicly available.