Getting started with RPL
Responsys Personalization Language (RPL) is the language used for generating text output based on templates. RPL is designed to generate HTML and Text for email, web and other uses.
Although RPL has many programming capabilities, it is not a full-blown programming language like PHP or Java. It is implemented to work only from within the Interact Suite. Other than that, you can accomplish many programming tasks using this language.
The following diagram shows how RPL executes templates and produces output.
Oracle Responsys personalization in the past
For a long time, personalization in Interact was based on what is commonly known as built-in functions. Built-in functions were developed through customer needs over the years and are a Responsys proprietary language. This language is limited as a programming language in its ability to do sophisticated personalization in an efficient manner. Over time, the next generation of the language was envisioned and it was decided to create a language more akin to a programming language to expand the power of personalization capabilities of Interact.
When the Message Designer for Email is turned on for an account, existing campaigns using the built-in functions will continue to work. You can create new campaigns that leverage the Message Designer for Email and RPL.
How do I use RPL instead of built-in functions?
A few things to keep in mind before starting to use RPL:
- You need to assign an RPL-compatible alias for both the data source name and field/column names.
- You cannot use both RPL and built-in functions in the same campaign.
- A campaign that has the Email Message Designer feature enabled can use RPL.
- Campaigns that existed in an account before the new Email Message Designer was turned on will continue to use built-in functions.