- 12 Jul 2022
- 4 minutes to read
Seminar notification placeholders
- Updated on 12 Jul 2022
- 4 minutes to read
When adding a notification to a seminar you can use placeholders to include a range of information about the seminar, event, session, or even the user participating in the seminar.
Seminar and event placeholders
Seminar and event placeholders can be added to the Title and Body of any notification message and will be replaced with the appropriate value in the sent notification.
Placeholder | Description |
---|---|
[coursename] | Name of course. |
[seminarname] | Name of the seminar activity. |
[seminardescription] | Description of the seminar activity. |
[cost] | Cost of the event. |
[reminderperiod] | Amount of time before the event that the reminder message is sent. |
[sessiondate] | Date of the event the Learner is booked on. |
[startdate] | Date of the start of the event. If there are multiple sessions it will use the first one. |
[finishdate] | Date at the end of the event. If there are multiple sessions it will use the first one. |
[starttime] | Start time of the event. If there are multiple sessions it will use the first one. |
[finishtime] | Finish time of the event. If there are multiple sessions it will use the first one. |
[duration] | Length of the event. |
[details] | Details about the event. |
[attendeeslink] | Link to the attendees page for the event. |
[lateststarttime] | Start time of the event. If there are multiple sessions it will use the last one. |
[lateststartdate] | Date at the start of the event. If there are multiple sessions it will use the last one. |
[latestfinishtime] | Finish time of the event. If there are multiple sessions it will use the last one. |
[latestfinishdate] | Date at the end of the event. If there are multiple sessions it will use the last one. |
[registrationcutoff] | The deadline for registrations. If not set, this will default to [starttime]. |
[booked] | The number of attendees booked for the event. |
[capacity] | The total number of bookings available for the event. |
[mincapacity] | Minimum bookings setting for the event. |
[coursenamelink] | Name of the course with a URL link to the course page. |
[eventpagelink] | URL link to the event page. |
[seminarnamelink] | Name of the seminar activity with a link. |
Session placeholders
When creating seminar events with multiple sessions you can include details for each session by using individual session placeholders. Session placeholders work differently from seminar and event placeholders and must be included in a loop. To add session placeholders, add [#sessions] where you would like the loop to start, and add [/sessions] where you would like it to end. You can then add the following placeholders between these tags.
Placeholder | Description |
---|---|
[#sessions] | To start the loop. |
[/sessions] | To end the loop. |
[session:starttime] | Start time of the session. |
[session:startdate] | Start date of the session. |
[session:finishtime] | Finish time of the session. |
[session:finishdate] | Finish date of the session. |
[session:timezone] | Time zone of the session. |
[session:asset:name] | Name of the asset assigned to this session. |
[session:asset:link] | Link to the details page for this asset. |
[session:facilitator:name] | Name of the facilitator assigned to this session. |
[session:facilitator:link] | Link to the details page for this facilitator. |
[session:room:name] | Name of the room assigned to this session. |
[session:room:link] | Link to the details page for this room. |
Fixing broken session placeholders
When you have added a seminar session placeholder to a notification and it isn't recognised in the email this may be because there is hidden or missing HTML code in the notification. Follow these steps if a session placeholder isn't working:
- Navigate to the seminar notification.
- In the Atto text editor, expand the advanced buttons row by clicking the down-arrow icon ().
- Click the <> button in the advanced buttons row.
- Delete the HTML code for the placeholder.
- Switch back to the non-HTML view and try to insert the placeholder again.
If this doesn't work then start again from the original notification message.
User placeholders
You can use user placeholders to include information about the recipient of the notification.
Placeholder | Description |
---|---|
[firstname] | User's first name. |
[lastname] | User's last name. |
[middlename] | User's middle name. |
[firstnamephonetic] | Phonetic spelling of the user's first name. |
[lastnamephonetic] | Phonetic spelling of the user's last name. |
[alternatename] | Alternate name the user is known by. |
[fullname] | User's full name. |
[username] | User's username. |
[idnumber] | User's ID number. |
[email] | User's email address. |
[address] | User's address. |
[city] | User's city. |
[country] | User's country. |
[department] | User's department. |
[description] | User's description. |
[institution] | User's institution. |
[lang] | User's language. |
[skype] | User's Skype ID. |
[phone1] | User's phone number. |
[phone2] | User's mobile phone number. |
[timezone] | User's time zone. |
[url] | User's URL. |
Custom field placeholders
You can also use placeholders for custom user profile fields using the following format: [user:fieldshortname], where fieldshortname is the short name of the user profile custom field. For example, you could set up a text profile field called Undergraduate grade with the short name unigrade. You would then use the placeholder [user:unigrade].
There are also placeholders available for event custom fields, which follow the format [session:fieldshortname], where fieldshortname is the short name of the seminar custom field. One example of where you could use an event custom field placeholder is in adding room names or video conferencing links to a seminar notification.
For example, the placeholder [session:videoconflink] could be used to pull a webinar URL from an event custom field with the short name videoconflink.
You can set up any type of seminar custom fields by navigating to Quick-access menu > Seminars > Custom fields, then selecting the tab for the type of custom field you would like to create.
You can use placeholders for these different custom field types using the following formats. In each of these placeholders, fieldshortname represents the short name of your custom field.
Type | Placeholder format | Example |
---|---|---|
Event | [session:fieldshortname] | A custom field to highlight which building an event is located in: [session:buildingloc] |
Asset | [#sessions][session:asset:cf_fieldshortname][/sessions] | A custom field to highlight whether special training is required for a piece of equipment: [session:asset:cf_equipmenttraining] Must be included in a session loop. |
Facilitator | [#sessions][session:facilitator:cf_fieldshortname][/sessions] | A custom field to display the facilitator's qualifications: [session:facilitator:cf_trainerqual] Must be included in a session loop. |
Room | [#sessions][session:room:cf_fieldshortname][/sessions] | A custom field to highlight which floor the room is on: [session:room:cf_roomfloor] Must be included in a session loop. |
Event cancellation | [sessioncancel:fieldshortname] | A custom field to display the rescheduled date for an event: [sessioncancel:newdate] |
The Totara Academy has a whole course dedicated to using Seminar Management in Totara Learn. Here you can learn more about how to use seminars, see best practice, and give it a go yourself.
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