Mail Form Processing 

Use

This function enables you to process different types of mail forms – letters, faxes, Internet mails,  and SMSs. You can also process export files containing campaign-related data.

Activities

File Export Channel

Use this format if you do not want execute the entire campaign by yourself. You can use this format to instruct external marketing agencies to execute the campaign for you, for example by sending the E-mails or printing and sending  out the letters. For this purpose, you can exchange the required information with the agency with the help of files that have a certain format. These files contain campaign-related business partner data. 

With the File Export channel, you can export campaign-related business partner data to a file, that is fully integrated into the standard campaign execution.

The following are special features of the channel:

·        You can export the data by using different formats. The default formats supported are CSV (resulting in an Excel file) and XML (resulting in an XML file).

·        The declaration of the fields that must be exported is required be done with the help of a File Export form, which is a mail form with a special usage type.

·        File Export form can contain attributes and text.

·        Each row of the form belongs to one field.

·        The form must be maintained in only one language.

·        Empty rows are ignored.

·        Multiple spaces between attributes and the text of a row are replaced by a single space.

·        If an address has been assigned to the File Export form, the address lines are added as fields in front of the other fields. The field count corresponds to the number of address lines specified on the user interface.

·        International address versions are not supported.

Internet Mails and Faxes

Pages and windows are not relevant in Internet mail processing. For technical reasons, Internet mail forms are required to have one page and one window to build the mail form structure, and they do not influence the layout. Furthermore, in People-Centric User Interface, these elements are not displayed on the screen and exist only in the background. You just have to create the mail subject, text blocks, address in case of plain text e-mail, attachment or table.

Letters and Faxes

Each mail form consists of one or more pages. The first page in the structure tree is the start page, at which processing starts. Processing of a page (that is, of the respective nodes) takes place in the sequence specified in the structure tree.

If a page is processed (filled) and processing of the mail form is not finished yet (if not every text or all data is displayed), the system processes another page. The page used as next page is determined manually when creating the mail form.

A particular page is repeated until form processing is finished.

Main Window and Subwindows

·        Each page contains one or more windows. The system takes the formatting rules for the texts and data in a window from a Smart Style. The texts are included depending on the data in the way that is determined by the output control. Each window points to an output control.

·        All windows of one page must have different technical names. However, each window can occur on several pages. If a window occurs on several pages, it always points to the same output control.

·        You can flag one window as main window. It must be flagged as main window on all the pages on which it appears. All other windows are called subwindows.

·        Processing a window means processing the assigned output control. Processing of a window on one page ends as soon as the window is filled. For the main window, processing of the output control is interrupted at this point and resumed right there as soon as the main window is processed again on a subsequent page. For subwindows, processing of the output control starts again at the beginning if the subwindow is processed again on a subsequent page.

·        The main difference between a main window and a subwindow thus is that the contents of the main window, which is determined by the output control, can be distributed to several pages (flow text, automatic page break for texts and data). This is not possible for subwindows.

·        Processing of a window can be connected to conditions (only on the first page, not on the first page, and so on). If such a condition is false, processing of the window is suppressed entirely on the current page.

Output Control

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The output control of a window describes how the contents of the window are composed and formatted in accordance with the given data. The conditions for composition and formatting are the same for letters, faxes, Internet mails, and SMSs.

·        The output control is defined by the nodes in the structure tree, whose root node is the window. The nodes of the tree have different types and different attributes, respectively (type of processing, number of successors, and so on). You can assign output options and conditions to each node.

·        Processing an output control means processing the successor nodes of the root node in the sequence in which they appear in the tree. Processing of a node consists of these steps:

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                            a.      If a condition is assigned to the node, the system first evaluates this condition. If it is false, the system does not process the node including all its direct successors.

                            b.      The system executes the action assigned to the node (for example, displaying a text in the window, processing program lines, and so on).

                            c.      The system processes the direct successors (children) of the node in the tree. The sequence in which they are processed (sequentially from top to bottom, at certain events, alternatively, repeatedly) depends on the type of node.

                            d.      If output options are assigned to a node, these output options apply for any output in the window which is described by the node and its successors.

·        You can use these conditions when processing a node:

¡        Simple IF condition (using AND and OR)

¡        Complex IF condition (using program coding)

¡        Event queries (for example, first page, page break)

¡        Any combinations

·        You can determine the following output options:

¡        Assigning a Smart Style

¡        Boxes and shading (any output triggered by the node and its successors is framed in a box or shaded according to the specification)