When sending email through Bronto, you may have seen the option to “Enable sender authentication” during the send process. In this post, we’d like to shed some light on Sender Authentication: what it is, how it works, and why you should be using it.

What is Sender Authentication?

Email Sender Authentication is a broad term that describes a number of technologies with a common goal: to verify the identity of the sender of an email. By identifying the server that is sending the email, authentication systems make it easier for email receivers to identifying phishing and other types of malicious emails.

Bronto has incorporated two of the most widely-used Sender Authentication technologies to help verify your messages: SenderID and Domain Keys (DKIM).

Related posts:

1. Show Subscribers You Care With A Dedicated IP Address Remember when radio stations used to have shows filled with...
2. Are You In Your Contacts’ Address Book? To ensure that your contacts will continue to receive messages...
3. Slow Down For The Holidays: Throttling Your Messages With the Holidays fast approaching, you may notice that your...

We have discussed how to use these fields in Getting Personal With Your Contacts, but this post will concentrate on how to create the fields using the API.  The SOAP message you will generate to create a field of type text will look like this.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns1="http://api.bronto.com/v4">
  <SOAP-ENV:Header>
  <ns1:sessionHeader>
    <sessionId>ceeac55f-cf56-458d-a3b3-0a2058e0f3d7</sessionId>
  </ns1:sessionHeader>
  </SOAP-ENV:Header>
<SOAP-ENV:Body>
<ns1:addFields>
  <fields>
    <name>Favorite Color Field</name>
    <label>What is you favorite color</label>
    <type>text</type>
    <visibility>public</visibility>
  </fields>
</ns1:addFields></SOAP-ENV:Body>

The attributes in this SOAP message should be familiar to anyone who has created a contact field in the Bronto application, but they are documented here.

Here is a sample of the PHP code that would generate this SOAP message.

$client = new SoapClient('https://api.bronto.com/v4?wsdl', array('trace' => 1,
'features' => SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS));
setlocale(LC_ALL, 'en_US');
try {
  $token = "YOUR TOKEN HERE";
  $sessionId = $client->login(array('apiToken' => $token))->return;
  $session_header = new SoapHeader("http://api.bronto.com/v4",
                                   'sessionHeader',
                                   array('sessionId' => $sessionId));
  $client->__setSoapHeaders(array($session_header));
  $field = array('name' => 'Favorite Color Field',
                 'label' => 'What is you favorite color',
                 'type' => 'Text',
                 'visibility' => 'public');
  $res = $client->addFields(array($field))->return;

  if ($res->errors) {
    echo "There was a problem creating your field:<br>";
    echo $res->results[$res->errors[0]]->errorString . "<br>";
  } else {
    echo "Field has been created.  Id: " . $res->results[0]->id . "<br>";
  }
} catch (Exception $e) {
  print "uncaught exception\n";
  print_r($e);
}

After creating these fields, you can add personalized customer data using the API, as discussed in the post Storing Field Data With The API. Contact fields give you the flexibility to associate data with contacts at a very granular level. You can use this data to add a personal note, add data to URLs in your message, or just include data about the contact. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

Andrew Kanes
Support Engineer at Bronto

Related posts:

1. Clear that List using the API v4 Last fall, Alex explained how to Clear Contacts From...
2. Create a Header Without Logging into Bronto Did you know you can now create headers and footers...
3. The Pluses And Minuses Of List Management What happened to all my lists?!?!? You might be asking...

Earlier in this month, Brad wrote a blog post on getting started with transactional emails in Bronto. Today I would like to follow up on that post and discuss the process for setting up transactional messages in your Bronto account.

Once transactional messaging in enabled for your account (after contacting client services), you can begin setting up transactional messages in the application. Let’s take a look at the ways this is accomplished.

Passing In Message Content VIA The API

First, you need to create a message in the application. This message may contain field tags %%field%%, special tags %%!field%%, and/or API message tags %%#field%%. This message will act as a sort of template for the transactional email. The message should use a manage preferences link when asking the contact to opt in to marketing communication.

One thing to note, if you are using a message which you have previously sent out interactively via the application, or you wish to make a test delivery of the message prior to using it as a transactional message with the API, the system will assume you want to use the message as a bulk/marketing message and an unsubscribe link will be automatically appended. To remove this link prior to beginning to use the message for transactional deliveries, it is important to re-save the message in the application. Re-saving the message will remove any automatically appended links until the next delivery from inside the application.

API message tags are user defined tags that allow you to insert HTML content into the body of your message (not supported in subject lines) using the API. The content you add via API message tags will be added to your message at send time. These tags are useful if you want to sync content from your system (database, CRM, etc.) with messages you send in the application.

The syntax for creating an API message tag is %%#userdefined%%, where userdefined can be anything you want it to be. Check out

Click To Enlarge

Setting Up An Automated Message Rule

An API type automated message rule will need to be set up next. The setup of this automated message rule is the same as for normal API triggered automated message rules. If you are using Legacy Version 3 of the API, you need to specify an API Handle in the Type Settings. The API Handle will be needed in the API call. For Version 4 of the API, you can reference an Automated Message Rule using the id assigned to the rule. To obtain an id for a given Automate Message Rule, call the readMessageRules function.

Click To Enlarge

The setup of the automated message rule is the same as for normal API triggered email messages, except that the Enable Transactional Deliveries flag on the Advanced page must be checked. This tells the application that messages triggered via this rule may be sent to any contact regardless of status.

Click To Enlarge

You should make note of the sections called out in the screen shot below when you get to the Message Overview page for the transactional message.

Click To Enlarge

Configure the API Call

Next, an API call must be made to ensure that the contact record exists in the application. The best method for this is to call the readContacts function using the email address as the filter criteria. This will return the contact if they exist in the application. If no data is returned, then the contact does not exist. The contact should then be added using the addContacts (writeContacts in Legacy Version 3) function with a status of transactional. A message can then be sent using the addDeliveries (writeDeliveries in Legacy Version 3) function.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

Rob Slade
Bronto Client Services

Related posts:

1. Give Them What They Want With API Message Tags This post only applies to Legacy Version 3 of...
2. Separate Your Way To Success This post only applies to Legacy Version 3 of the...
3. Automatically Sending Welcome Messages When a contact sign’s up to receive messages from you,...

We recently added an addToList function which will take care of this for you. This function will perform an append, or non destructive add, to the list associations for the contacts that you pass in. The function accepts a listId and an array of contacts. Each of those contacts will be added to the list without touching their current list associations.

Here’s a sample in PHP that shows how to read a contact and add it to a list using the addToList function.

// Your API token
$TOKEN = "insert_your_api_token_here";

// the list id to which to add contacts
// note: you can get the list id in the app or by using the readLists function
$LIST_ID = "aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffffgggghhhhiiii";

// the contact that you want to add to the above list
$CONTACT_TO_ADD_TO_LIST = "email@example.com";

ini_set("soap.wsdl_cache_enabled", "0");
$wsdl = "https://api.bronto.com/v4?wsdl";
$url = "https://api.bronto.com/v4";

// login and get sessionId
$client = new SoapClient($wsdl, array('trace' => 1, 'encoding' => 'UTF-8'));
$client->__setLocation($url);

$sessionId = $client->login(array("apiToken" => $TOKEN))->return;
$client->__setSoapHeaders(array(new SoapHeader("http://api.bronto.com/v4",
                                               'sessionHeader',
                                               array('sessionId' => $sessionId))));

// filter to find an active contact with the given email address
$filter = array(
    "status" => "active",
    "email" => array(
        "operator" => "EqualTo",
        "value" => $CONTACT_TO_ADD_TO_LIST)
);

// find the contact
$contact = $client->readContacts(array(
    "filter" => $filter,
    "pageNumber" => $i
))->return;

// if the contact is found add it to the list
if($contact) {
    $add_to_list_params = array(
        "list" => array("id" => $LIST_ID),
        "contacts" => $contact);
    $return_value = $client->addToLisT($add_to_list_params)->return->results;
    if($return_value->isError) {
        echo $return_value->errorCode.": ".$return_value->errorString."\n";
    }
    else {
        echo $contact->email . " added to list\n";
    }
}
else {
    echo "Contact not found or not active\n";
}

?>

Hey that sounds cool and all, but I need to remove a set of contacts from a list. Don’t fear – we also have a removeFromList function that works similarly to addToList.

So just remember, when you are using the update functions you are actually updating the contact object. The lists that you provide in that call are all that the contact will be subscribed to after the update is complete. So, make your list management tasks easier by using addToList and removeFromList.

Alex Durzy
Support Engineer at Bronto

Related posts:

1. Clear that List using the API v4 Last fall, Alex explained how to Clear Contacts From...
2. Spring Cleaning: Clearing Contacts From Lists This post only applies to Legacy Version 3 of the...
3. Filtering Result Sets Did you know that all of the read functions available...

A few months ago, Lucas Weber wrote a post called DIY Integrations: Getting Contacts Into Your Account With Direct Add that explained how to use Direct Add. With the Spring 2010 release, we have moved this feature to a new location and made some improvements to it. This post will walk you through how to use Direct Add and where to find it in the application.

Obtain the URL

In order to begin using Direct Add, you need to enable the feature and obtain the Direct Add URL. To do this:

1. Go to Home->Settings->Data Exchange.
2. Scroll to the Direct Add section and click the Enable Direct Add for adding new contacts checkbox.

Understand the URL

The Direct Add URL works by you specifying parameters that correspond to a contact to add, fields and data you want to associate the contact with, and lists you want to add the contact to. We will be adding these parameters to the image URL in the following format: &email=email@example.com&field1=field,operation,value&list2=listid. For example:

The first part of the URL is given to you as part of the code snippet you got from the Direct Add section on the Data Exchange page. This is unique to each account and allows the application to identify your account. The next few parameters, q, fn, and id allow us to know how to process the data that is to follow, as well as identify your account. The last bit, is the actual string that we created earlier.

Construct The URL

At a really high level, Direct Add works by specifying a contact that you want to add, field data that you want to include for the contact, and a list you want to add the contact to. This is accomplished by adding parameters to a URL contained in an image tag in the following format: &email=example@example.com&field1=fieldname,operation,value&list2=listid. Notice that for fields, you specify the field name, followed by set, and then a specific data value. For lists, you only need the list ID.

Fields

In order to specify a field to add, you will need to use the exact spelling of that field as you specified it within the application. You can see a listing of all your contact fields by going to Contacts->Fields. Because you are adding a new contact, you will only be able to use set as the operator when adding field data.

Note – set adds a value to the specified field. Field types supported: number, decimal, currency, date, text, text area, checkbox, radio button, and pull-down. Also, be sure to use only lower case letters for the operators.

Lists

In order to specify a list to add the contact to, you will need to make note of the id that corresponds to the specific list. For any list, you can go to Contacts->Lists and click on the name of the list you want to use. On the Overview page for that list, you will see an id number for the list. Make note of the list id, as it will be used in the Direct Add URL.

Multiple Adds

You can add more than one field and or list at a time. The application supports adding up to 10 parameters (fields, lists, or a combination of both) within one call. Additional fields and lists are included by adding another value parameter to the image URL. Multiple fields and lists are separated by the ampersand character (&). You also need to increment the number after each field or list. For example:

Setting Up The Direct Add Image Tag And Adding It To Your Site

Once you have a clear understanding of how the Direct Add URL works, you can begin setting up Direct Add.

To setup Direct Add:

1. Go to Home->Settings->Data Exchange.
2. Click the Enable Direct Add for adding new contacts checkbox.
3. (Optional) Click the Add contacts with “unconfirmed” status. (By default all contacts are added with “active”
   status) checkbox to give contacts added via Direct Add a status of unconfirmed. This setting only applies to contacts being added via Direct Add and does not apply to contacts being added to the application by other means (manual creation, import, etc.).
4. (Optional) Click the Send a welcome message checkbox to send a welcome message. If you choose to send a welcome message, you will need to do the following:
   1. Choose to have the welcome message sent:
      • Only when the contact being added is new.
      • Every time the Direct Add URL is used.
   2. Choose the welcome message to send using the message picker.
   3. Specify a From Name for the welcome message.
   4. Specify the From Address for the welcome message.
5. Add the Direct Add img tag to a page on your site.
6. Add any field and list parameters onto the URL that you want to pass back to the application. The email parameter is included on the Direct Add URL be default.
7. Add values to the email, field, and list parameters. There are a number of ways you can accomplish this, with the most common being using javascript. The example below is of a page displayed to a website visitor after they have filled out a form requesting to receive email messages from the website. The page contains a message confirming the data the person provided/selected (the example below assumes they entered in their first name, last name, and email address and selected a message preference). The page also contains the Direct Add img tag, and some javascript that populates the Direct Add URL with the appropriate data.
   You may need to to scroll to the right to see the entire code example below:

   <html>
   <body>
   	<p>
   	  Dear <span id="firstname">Joe</span> <span id="lastname">Example</span>,
   	</p>
   	<p>
   	  Thank you for signing up to receive messages from Example Shop. We will be sending:
   	</p>
   	<p>
   	  <span id="msgpref">HTML</span> messages to <span  id="email">joe@example.com</span>
   	</p>
   <script type="text/javascript">
   	// The following variables need to be set to some value that is
   	// available on the page, passed in, etc. Where you get these
   	// values will be different for each client's web site. Someone
   	// who is familiar with the client's web site will have to provide
   	// the values based on the type of page (order confirmation,
   	// receipt, etc.) shown to users after a form has been filled out.
                   var firstname = document.getElementById('firstname').innerHTML;
                   var lastname = document.getElementById('lastname').innerHTML;
   		var email = document.getElementById('email').innerHTML;
   		var msgpref = document.getElementById('msgpref').innerHTML;
   	// Note the incrementing number for the field and list parameters
   	// (field1....field2.....list3.....field4) etc.
   	// Make sure you get the proper Direct Add img tag from the
   	// Data Exchange page in your account. The img tag below uses
   	// a generic img tag.
   		document.writeln('<img src="http://app.example.com.com/public/?q=direct_add&fn=Public_DirectAddForm&id=blkycggbjquivddbiddxylaufhfdbkj&email='+email+'&field1=firstname,set,'+firstname+'&field2=lastname,set,'+lastname+'&field3=msgpref,set,'+msgpref+'&list4=33333ec000000000000000000000003f3" width="0" height="0" border="0" alt=""/>');
   </script>
   </body>
   </html>

Finishing Up

This was a lot of information to cover, but hopefully you now have a good idea of how Direct Add works and how you can use it to add contacts to your account. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

John Gunther
Technical Writer/eLearning Specialist
Editor of Brontoversity

Related posts:

1. Importing Contacts: Updating Existing Contacts And Adding New Contacts Often times, when managing your Bronto contacts, you’ll want to...
2. Welcome Friend! Adding New Contacts Using the API This post only applies to Legacy Version 3 of...
3. Are You Aware of Direct Unsubscribe? Typically contacts in Bronto can unsubscribe by either clicking the...

Templates are single web pages that can be created with any HTML or web page editor. The designer can code particular sections of the templates with tags designated for template design. The end user can then compose a message based on the template by simply supplying the content necessary to complete each section.

Things To Keep In Mind

When designing your template, it is important to remember that you are designing for email and not necessarily the web. Here are a few pointers:

• Use table based layouts instead of CSS based.
• Use inline CSS to provide a default style for your content.
• Optimize images for the web.
• Less is more. Keeping your layouts simple will help to reduce rendering problems.
• All templates MUST be XHTML compliant.

Terms You Need To Know

We’ll begin by taking a look at some common terms you’ll see throughout this post.

• Block – Blocks are editable regions in your template. For example, the logo, article header, and article content may all be editable blocks.
• Attribute – Attributes define the specifics of a block, such as the font style or appearance of content placed into the block.
• Section – Sections are areas in the template that the user can clone in order to extend the template to accommodate additional content. Sections can contain one or more blocks.

Coding Templates

You’ll be using <div> tags to create template blocks. Attributes can be added to these tags to define the block, and also how the end-user will supply content for the block. Thus, a template-specific tag would take the following form:

							<div block="1" linked="1" key="body_one" description="Enter the body content" name="Body Content 1" display="plainlarge">

Technically, these attribute additions would make the <div> tag not XHTML-compliant. However, this doesn’t affect the XHTML compliance of any messages based on templates since the end user’s content would replace the extended <div> tags before messages are sent.

Attributes

Each template-specific <div> tag can have the following six attributes:

• block – The block attribute is required to make an editable block. Any <div> tag that does not have this attribute will not be editable. Set the block attribute to a number to create an editable block. A good way of keeping track of your editable blocks is to assign them sequential numbers. For example the first editable block of your template would use block="1" as it’s block attribute, and the next editable block would use block="2".
• key – Each block tag has its own unique key, a simple word that enables the template system to differentiate one block from another. This attribute is also required for all editable blocks. key attributes may only contain letters, numbers and underscores. No spaces are allowed. Also, it is recommended to keep the id in lowercase in order to ensure that the template is as transferable as possible. Here is an example of this attribute: key="heading_1". The keys should follow a consistent naming convention.
• linked – linked is an optional attribute that you can use to create linked template blocks. For all blocks that you wish to link, set the linked attribute to the same value. For example, linked="1". By doing so, all blocks with the same key attribute that are set to linked="1" will change to reflect the same content when one of them is edited. This attribute is useful for repeated content within the template, such as a date or section headings included in both the message table of contents and the message body.
• name – The name attribute is an optional attribute that determines the label the end-user will see when editing a template. Here is an example: name="Title". If you do not set the name attribute, then the key value will display in the template editor.
• description – The description attribute is an optional attribute that determines the label that the end-user will see below the block name when editing a template. Here is an example: description="The title of your newsletter".
• display – The display attribute is another required attribute. It determines the type of form control used by the end user when composing a message based on the template. Available display types are plain, plainlarge, rich, survey, image, and link:
  • plain will load a one line input box.
  • plainlarge will load a multi-line text area.
  • rich will load the standard WYSIWYG editor.
  • survey loads the survey editor that includes functionality to include radio buttons, checkboxes, menus, etc.
  • image will allow for the selection of an image. The user can browse and select images stored in the hosting area, or specify the URL of the desired image. Also, the user can specify a URL to go when that image is clicked, a border for the image, alt tag text, and horizontal and vertical padding for the image. You’ll want to make sure to use a border size of “0″ if you apply a URL to an image, otherwise you’ll get an unattractive blue border.
  • link allows the user to enter the URL for an <a href="">. For example, the display attribute may appear as: display="rich"

So, here is one last look at a standard editable block tag that can be used in your template:

							<div block="1" key="heading_1" name="Main Heading" description="Main Heading goes here." display="plain">
								Main Header can be placed here.
							</div>

Repeatable Sections

Repeatable Sections are areas in the template that can be cloned in order to extend the template to accommodate additional content. For example, a newsletter template may be coded to have a repeatable section containing a section header and a section body, with each header/body section designed to represent an “article” for the newsletter. This type of design would allow the end-user to clone the section as many times as necessary to accommodate the story sections intended for the newsletter.

Coding Repeatable Sections

To specify a repeatable section, add the section attribute to the <div> or <span> tags that wrap the template blocks you wish to group in the section. For example:

							<div section= "1">
								<div block="1" key="company_logo" name="Logo" description="Select your company's logo to appear at the bottom of the page." display="image"></div>

								<div block="1" key="body_text" name="Body text" description="Enter text for the message body" display="image"></div>
							</div>

This example would repeat the logo section and body and allow you to place different content into each repeatable section. You can have more than one repeatable section in a template.

Sections can only be wrapped around other <div> tags or block-level elements, such as <p> or <table>. You cannot use sections to add columns or rows to a table.

Using Repeatable Sections

Repeatable sections are denoted in the template UI with a dotted red outline and a green “add” icon in the upper-right corner that allows the user to clone the section.

After cloning a section, a new section will appear that displays the default section content. You will be able to add new content to this section. Also, you can reorder or delete the cloned sections by using the “up”, “down”, and “delete” icons which are described in the Using The Template Editor section of this document.

Example Code

Below, you will find an example of a completely coded custom template. You can copy and paste this example code and use it as a reference for creating your own custom template. You could also see what this example custom template looks like by copying and pasting the code into a text editor or HTML editor, saving the file as an HTML file, and then opening the HTML file in a browser. Additionally, the screen shot at the top of this post shows what the example template code actually looks like.

To copy the example code, scroll to the top of the code example and move your cursor over the top right side of the code example.

	<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
	"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
	<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

	<head>
	 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
	 <title>
	  Example Template Design
	 </title>
	</head>
	<body bgcolor="#000000">
	 <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	  <tr>
	   <td width="600" align="center" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
	   <!-- Notice the attributes assigned to the <div> below-->
	    <div block="editable" name="headerimage" description="Editable Image Section" id="image" key="image" display="image">
	     <a href="http://www.google.com">
	     <img src="http://hosting-source.bronto.com/8428/public/googlelogo.gif" width="276" height="110" border="0" alt="Software Main Logo Image" />
	     </a>
	    </div>
	   </td>
	  </tr>
	  <tr>
	   <td width="600" height="15" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
	   </td>
	  </tr>
	  <tr>
	   <td width="600" valign="top">
	    <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	     <tr>
	      <td width="215" bgcolor="#035F39" valign="top">
	       <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	        <tr>
	         <td bgcolor="#035F39" height="10" width="215" colspan="3"></td>
	        </tr>
	        <tr>
	         <td width="14" bgcolor="#035F39"></td>
	         <td width="187">
	          <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	           <tr>
	            <td width="187">
	            <!-- The section attribute designates a repeatable section-->
	             <div section="1">
	              <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	               <tr>
	                <td height="1" width="187" bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"></td>
	               </tr>
	               <tr>
	                <td width="1" bgcolor="#000000"></td>
	                <td width="185" valign="top" bgcolor="#035F39">
	                 <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	                  <tr>
	                   <td width="185" height="5" bgcolor="#29A853" colspan="3"></td>
	                  </tr>
	                  <tr>
	                   <td width="185" bgcolor="#29A853" align="center" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:20pt; font-weight:bold; color:#ffffff;" colspan="3">
	                  <!-- An example of an editable header block-->
	                    <div block="editable" name="header" description="Header goes here" id="header" key="header" display="plain" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:18pt; font-weight:bold; color:#ffffff;">
	                     Headline Here
	                    </div>
	                   </td>
	                  </tr>
	                  <tr>
	                   <td width="185" height="5" bgcolor="#29A853" colspan="3"></td>
	                  </tr>
	                  <tr>
	                   <td width="185" height="5" bgcolor="#035F39" colspan="3"></td>
	                  </tr>
	                  <tr>
	                   <td width="5"></td>
	                   <td width="175" bgcolor="#035F39" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10pt; color:#ffffff;">
	                   <!-- An example of an editable body block-->
	                    <div block="editable" name="body" description="Body goes here" id="body" key="body" display="rich" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10pt; color:#ffffff;">
	This body section will use WYSIWYG editor to insert images or text. Mauris molestie sapien nec diam. In vehicula rutrum augue. Maecenas hendrerit lorem sed leo. Mauris congue odio nec nisi. Proin neque. Maecenas auctor. Donec turpis. Cras nunc. Donec non nulla. Curabitur fringilla, nisi pretium fringilla consectetur, ligula lorem iaculis ligula, in malesuada justo mi et lectus.
	                    </div>
	                   </td>
	                   <td width="5"></td>
	                  </tr>
	                  <tr>
	                   <td width="185" height="5" bgcolor="#035F39" colspan="3"></td>
	                  </tr>
	                 </table>
	                </td>
	                <td width="1" bgcolor="#000000"></td>
	                 </tr>
	                 <tr>
	                 <td height="1" width="187" bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3">
	                 </td>
	                </tr>
	                <tr>
	                 <td width="187" height="10" colspan="3"></td>
	                </tr>
	               </table>
	              </div>
	             </td>
	            </tr>
	           <tr>
	            <td width="187">
	            <!-- Another repeatable section-->
	             <div section="2">
	             <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	              <tr>
	               <td height="1" width="187" bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"></td>
	              </tr>
	              <tr>
	               <td width="1" bgcolor="#000000"></td>
	               <td width="185">
	                <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	                 <tr>
	                  <td width="185" height="5" bgcolor="#29A853" colspan="3"></td>
	                 </tr>
	                 <tr>
	                  <td width="185" bgcolor="#29A853" align="center" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:18pt; font-weight:bold; color:#ffffff;" colspan="3">
	                   <div block="editable" name="header2" description="Header goes here" id="header2" key="header2" display="plain" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:18pt; color:#ffffff; font-weight:bold;">
	                    Another Side Headline Here
	                   </div>
	                 </td>
	                </tr>
	                <tr>
	                 <td width="185" height="5" bgcolor="#29A853" colspan="3"></td>
	                </tr>
	                <tr>
	                 <td width="5" bgcolor="#29A853"></td>
	                 <td width="175" bgcolor="#29A853" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10pt; color:#ffffff;">
	                 <!-- A second editable body block -->
	                  <div block="editable" name="body2" description="Body goes here" id="body2" key="body2" display="rich" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10pt; color:#ffffff;">
	This body section will use WYSIWYG editor to insert images or text. Mauris molestie sapien nec diam. In vehicula rutrum augue. Maecenas hendrerit lorem sed leo.
	                  </div>
	                 </td>
	                 <td width="5" bgcolor="#29A853"></td>
	                </tr>
	                <tr>
	                 <td width="185" height="5" bgcolor="#29A853" colspan="3"></td>
	                </tr>
	                <tr>
	                 <td height="1" width="187" bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"></td>
	                </tr>
	               </table>
	              </td>
	              <td width="1" bgcolor="#000000"></td>
	             </tr>
	             <tr>
	              <td width="187" height="10" colspan="3"></td>
	             </tr>
	            </table>
	           </div>
	          </td>
	         </tr>
	        </table>
	       </td>
	       <td width="14" bgcolor="#035F39"></td>
	      </tr>
	      <tr>
	       <td bgcolor="#035F39" height="10" width="215" colspan="3"></td>
	      </tr>
	     </table>
	    </td>
	    <td width="385" bgcolor="#035F39" valign="top">
	     <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	      <tr>
	       <td bgcolor="#035F39" height="10" width="385" valign="top" colspan="3"></td>
	      </tr>
	      <tr>
	       <td width="14" bgcolor="#035F39"></td>
	       <td width="357">
	        <!-- A third repeatable section -->
	        <div section="3">
	         <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	          <tr>
	           <td height="1" width="357" bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"></td>
	          </tr>
	          <tr>
	           <td width="1" bgcolor="#000000"></td>
	            <td width="355" bgcolor="#BCEBDE">
	             <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	              <tr>
	               <td width="355" height="10" colspan="3" bgcolor="#BCEBDE"></td>
	              </tr>
	              <tr>
	               <td width="355" align="center" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:16pt; font-weight:bold; color:#000000;" colspan="3" bgcolor="#BCEBDE">
	                <!-- A third repeatable header-->
	                <div block="editable" name="header3" description="Header goes here" id="header3" key="header3" display="plain" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:16pt; font-weight:bold; color:#000000;">
	Main Headline Goes Here
	                </div>
	               </td>
	              </tr>
	              <tr>
	               <td width="355" height="10" colspan="3" bgcolor="#BCEBDE"></td>
	              </tr>
	              <tr>
	               <td width="355">
	                <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
	                 <tr>
	                  <td width="5" bgcolor="#BCEBDE"></td>
	                  <td width="345" bgcolor="#BCEBDE" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10pt; color:#000000;">
	                   <!-- A third editable body block-->
	                    <div block="editable" name="body3" description="Body goes here" id="body3" key="body3" display="survey" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10pt; color:#000000;">
	This body section will use WYSIWYG editor to insert images or text or a
	survey. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent
	pellentesque odio a lorem. Aliquam mauris. Pellentesque nec dolor.
	                    </div>
	                  </td>
	                  <td width="5" bgcolor="#BCEBDE"></td>
	                 </tr>
	                </table>
	               </td>
	              </tr>
	              <tr>
	               <td width="355" height="15" colspan="3" bgcolor="#BCEBDE"></td>
	              </tr>
	             </table>
	            </td>
	            <td width="1" bgcolor="#000000"></td>
	           </tr>
	           <tr>
	            <td height="1" width="357" bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"></td>
	           </tr>
	          </table>
	         </div>
	        </td>
	        <td width="14" bgcolor="#035F39"></td>
	       </tr>
	      <tr>
	       <td width="385" height="10" colspan="7" bgcolor="#035F39"></td>
	      </tr>
	     </table>
	    </td>
	   </tr>
	  </table>
	 </td>
	</tr>
	 <tr>
	  <td width="600" bgcolor="#29A853" align="center" style="color:#ffffff; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:14pt; font-weight:bold;">
	   <a href="http://www.google.com" style="text-decoration:none; color:#ffffff;">Visit Widgets.com!</a>
	  </td>
	 </tr>
	 <tr>
	  <td width="600" height="10" bgcolor="#035F39"></td>
	 </tr>
	 <tr>
	  <td width="600" bgcolor="#035F39" align="center" style="color:#ffffff; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10pt; font-weight:bold;">
	%%!account_address%%  %%!account_telephone%%
	   <a href="%%!unsubscribe_url%%" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:#ffffff; font-size:8pt;">Unsubscribe</a> | <a href="%%!manage_url%%" style="color:#ffffff; font-size:8pt;">Manage Preferences</a> | <a href="%%!forward_url%%" style="color:#ffffff; font-size:8pt;">Forward to a Friend</a>
	  </td>
	 </tr>
	 <tr>
	  <td width="600" height="10" bgcolor="#035F39"></td>
	 </tr>
	</table>
	</body>
	</html>

Upload And Go

After the web page is designed and coded, add the template tags as described below to define which sections of the template will be editable. The final step is to upload the template and all related images. To begin uploading a template, go to Content->Templates and click Upload Template. Below is a screenshot of what the template will look like to someone using in your account.

Designing your own templates can open the door to a lot of innovative and creative design options. If you have any questions or need some advice, feel free to leave a comment below.

John Gunther
Technical Writer/eLearning Specialist at Bronto
Editor of Brontoversity

Related posts:

1. Tips & Advice for Creating Bronto Templates In addition to the stock email templates available, clients also...
2. Bulletproof buttons – now easier than ever There has been lots of talk in the industry recently...
3. Adding Blocks Of Re-Editable Dynamic Content In the past, the only way for you to edit...

After reading that article, it’s likely you’re ready to jump right in and send transactional messages through your Bronto account – but how? In this post, we’ll provide a brief primer for getting started using Bronto for your transactional communication.

What Is A Transactional Message?

Before you can start sending, you’ll need to know exactly what classifies as a transactional message. Transactional email facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer in an existing business relationship. Examples of transactional emails include order confirmations, shipping notices, changes in account status, etc. Transactional emails are exempt from CAN-SPAM compliance in the US, but all transactional emails must adhere to our best practices:

• They must not have false or misleading headers or subject lines.
• The subject line must only reference the transactional purpose for the email. Marketing messages in the subject line are not permitted.
• The From Line must be the name of the company or entity who is party to the relationship with the contact.
• Transactional information must be presented above or before any marketing content in the message.
• The transactional information must be presented more prominently than any marketing content.

If you’re not sure whether your messages meet the transactional criteria, don’t worry! We’ll review the messages for you to ensure they follow our guidelines.

How Do I Enable Transactional Email?

If you have created your message content and are ready to get started, you’ll need to notify our Client Services team to review your content and enable the transactional feature.

First, load the message(s) you wish to send transactionally into your Bronto account.

Next, create a support case within your account using the Support link found in the upper right of any page. For Groups or Agency accounts, the Support link will be found on the Groups or Agency Dashboard. In your support case, be sure to include the names of any messages you’d like our team to review.

Once the support case is received, our Deliverability team will review your messages for compliance within two business days. If the messages meet our transactional guidelines, we will enable transactional email for your account and update you accordingly.

If the messages do not classify as transactional, our team will respond with the reasons why and, when applicable, suggest changes that might make the messages compliant with our guidelines.

That’s it! In my next post, I will walkthrough the process of setting up transactional emails in your account.

As always, if you have any questions about transactional email, feel free to post in the comments or open a case from the Support link within your account.

Brad Gurley
Support Associate at Bronto

Related posts:

1. Setting Up Transactional Messages NOTE: You need to be comfortable with both the...
2. Adding Dynamic Subject Lines For quite some time, Bronto users have had the...
3. Got The Email Rendering Blues? Background images not rendering in Outlook? Tables not looking quite as...

To sync Dynamic Content to the subject line of a text message:

1. Choose to create a new or edit an existing HTML message. This will take you to the Edit Message page.
2. Click Make Subject Dynamic.
3. Choose the conditional. For the first block, by default, you can only choose if.
4. Choose the operator. The available operators are:
   • In List
   • In Segment
   • Field Is Blank
   • Field Is Equal To
   • Field Is Not Equal To
   • Field Is Greater Than
   • Field Is Less Than
5. Choose a value. The values that you can choose from depend on the operator you choose in the previous step.
6. Click OR to add an additional value.
7. Add the Content that will be displayed if the Dynamic Content conditions are met.
8. Optional) If you wish to add nested conditionals to a Dynamic Content block, click Logic. You can add 2 nested conditionals per Dynamic Content block. To add additional Dynamic Content blocks, click Add Block.
9. Click Insert Dynamic Subject.
10. Make sure the Sync HTML and Text Subjects checkbox is checked.
11. Click the Text Version tab.
12. Click Re-generate from HTML version. You will see the Dynamic Code that represents the Dynamic Content you added in the subject line of the HTML version of your message now displayed in the subject line of the text version of your message.

If you are a comfortable with using Dynamic Code, you can always add Dynamic Code directly to the subject line of your plain text messages. For everyone else, you can use the steps above to add Dynamic Content to the subject line in the text version of your messages. If have any questions, please leave them in the comments section below.

John Gunther
Technical Writer/eLearning Specialist at Bronto
Editor of Brontoversity

Related posts:

1. The Logical Way To Send Email: Dynamic Content We have been blogging a lot in recent weeks about...
2. Adding Dynamic Subject Lines For quite some time, Bronto users have had the...
3. Adding Blocks Of Re-Editable Dynamic Content In the past, the only way for you to edit...

In this post, we’re going to look at how to accomplish this in Bronto using our Direct Add feature in conjunction with a simple welcome message that leads the contact to the Manage Preferences page, which will act as step two of the process.

Step 1: Setting up your Manage Preferences page

The first step in the process is to make sure that your Manage Preferences page is set to collect the information that you would like to get after your contact signs up. This is as simple as adding the fields that you would like to collect to your standard manage preferences page. We’ve covered this in previous posts on Brontoversity, so I won’t go into much detail. If you need a refresher on editing webforms, please check out the following post:  Getting Comfortable with New Webforms.

Step 2: Setting up your welcome message

The second step in making this work is to create the welcome message you would like to use to point your new contact to the Manage Preferences page. You will create this message just like any other message in the account, by going to the Messages->Create New Message. The message can be any type, although plain text is not recommended because links do not work in plain text messages. We’ll be using the WYSIWYG editor for our example. As with any welcome message, you should be sure to thank the contact for signing up, and provide them with an example or description of they type of communication they will receive from you and when.

When using the welcome message as the gateway to the second step of the signup process though, you’ll want to ensure that you feature a prominent link to the Manage Preferences page. To link to the manage preferences page, just type the text that you would like to be your link, highlight it, and click the Insert / Edit Link button in the WYSIWYG editor. In the pop-up, select Manage Preferences URL from the Link List drop-down, and then click Update. This will create a link to the Manage Preferences page that is customized to whatever contact this message is sent to.

Once this link is in place, and you are happy with the look and feel, content, and subject of the message, go ahead and Save and Close the message.

Step 3: Setting up your Direct Add URL

The next step in the process to to set up your Direct Add URL to send out the welcome message automatically, as soon as the Direct Add code is triggered from your site. Setting this up in Bronto is pretty simple, all you need to do is go to the Home>Settings and then click Data Exchange on the left sidebar. Once on the Data Exchange page, just check the checkbox next to Enable Direct Add for adding new contacts to enable Direct Add.

Once the setting is enabled, it is time to choose our settings for the current Direct Add URL. The URL that appears in the box below the settings is dynamic and will change as you modify the parameters using the checkboxes above. For our two step process, you’ll want to leave the Add contacts with “unconfirmed” status (By default all contacts are added with “active” status) box unchecked, and check the Send a welcome message box. You can leave the drop-down set to only when contact is new.

Checking the option to send a welcome message will expand the settings options. Here you can define the from name, from address and choose the welcome message you would like to send when a new contact fills out the form. You’ll want to choose the welcome message you set up in step 1.

We’re going to skip over the basics of implementing Direct Add on your site, as that has been covered in depth in a couple of previous posts, linked here for your convenience:

DIY Integrations: Direct Add
Adding Contacts to a Specific List with Direct Add

So once you’ve got your welcome message set up, and your Direct Add code embedded on your site, you should be all set. Now, when a new contact fills out your form and is added to your Bronto account, they will be automatically sent an email containing a prominent link to the Manage Preferences page where they can give you whatever additional information they would like.

Let us know if you have questions or comments on this post. If you are already implementing this method, let us know how it’s going in the comments below.

Lucas Weber
Bronto Client Services

Related posts:

1. Are You Aware of Direct Unsubscribe? Typically contacts in Bronto can unsubscribe by either clicking the...
2. Adding Contacts With Direct Add This post was originally published several months ago, but has...
3. How To Send A Subscription Confirmation Message At Bronto, we’re very serious about permission based marketing. We...

Last fall, Alex explained how to Clear Contacts From Lists in v3 of the API. You now have the same ability in v4 API using the clearLists function. All you need to do is specify the list id returned from the addLists or readLists function. After you call clearLists, all your contacts will be removed from the list, however, they will remain in Bronto.

Here is a sample SOAP message that would clear two lists.

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:v4="http://api.bronto.com/v4">
   <soapenv:Header>
      <v4:sessionHeader>
         <sessionId>b058d5e0-7cb4-4578-b16f-a4c049079207</sessionId>
      </v4:sessionHeader>
   </soapenv:Header>
   <soapenv:Body>
      <v4:clearLists>
         <list>
            <id>0bbb03ec0000000000000000000000038e93</id>
         </list>
         <list>
            <id>0bbb03ec00000000000000000000000390d0</id>
        </list>
      </v4:clearLists>
   </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

This PHP script would create a SOAP message like this.

<?php
/**
 * This example will clear two lists of all contacts on those lists.
 * You must edit the code to refer to the list id you wish to clear.
 */

$client = new SoapClient('https://api.bronto.com/v4?wsdl', array('trace' => 1, 'features' => SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS));
setlocale(LC_ALL, 'en_US');

try {
        $token = "#####API TOKEN###########";

        print "logging in<br>";
        $sessionId = $client->login(array('apiToken' => $token))->return;

        $session_header = new SoapHeader("http://api.bronto.com/v4",
                           'sessionHeader', array('sessionId' => $sessionId));
        $client->__setSoapHeaders(array($session_header));

        $ids = array(array('id' => '0bbb03ec0000000000000000000000038e93'),
                   array('id' => '0bbb03ec00000000000000000000000390d0'));

        $res = $client->clearLists($ids)->return;

        if ($res->errors) {
                print "There was a problem clearing your lists:<br>";
                print $res->results[$res->errors[0]]->errorString . "<br>";
        } else {
                print "Lists have been cleared<br>";
        }
} catch (Exception $e) {
        print "uncaught exception\n";
        print_r($e);
}
?>

Now you are able to quickly and easily clear your lists without having to find everyone on the list. We do suggest you exercise caution when using this function, as there is no rewind button. I hope you find this new functionality useful. Let us know if you have any questions.

Andrew Kanes
Support Engineer at Bronto

Related posts:

1. Spring Cleaning: Clearing Contacts From Lists This post only applies to Legacy Version 3 of the...
2. The Pluses And Minuses Of List Management What happened to all my lists?!?!? You might be asking...
3. Create a Header Without Logging into Bronto Did you know you can now create headers and footers...