Getting 'Special Delivery' text into Emails

[demalpas]

Hello,

I have looked everywhere for an answer to the above (have spent around 6 hours trying to get things to work and am now ready to throw my teddy into the corner) All I want to do is to get valid fields from the shopping cart printed in the customer email - e.g. Special Delivery Text.

I have been working in test site mode. Could someone please explain to me (if possible not leaving out any essential steps) how to do this.

Many thanks,

Mike de Malpas-Finlay

[leehack]

Your question got answered here - http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=27386.

EDIT: Just noticed that you asked in V7, so won't be the same I expect.

[TraceyG]

Lee is right in that the response I gave in the v7 forum won't work in v8. I'm asking the development team for the correct code for v8 but please ensure that you post in the correct forum so that we can get the right solution for your version.

[demalpas]

Getting 'Special Delivery' text into Emails

Thanks Tracey. Sorry for posting in the wrong forum - I am very new to this!

However, if you are able to let me have a solution for V8, I would be very grateful.

Fingers crossed!

Mike de Malpas-Finlay

[demalpas]

Good morning Tracey,

Could you please give me an indication of how long it might take for the developers to be able to code a solution. Are we talking a few days, a few weeks or ..... more?

Thanks,

Mike de Malpas-Finlay

[TraceyG]

Hi Mike,

It should be days rather than weeks. I've chased the developers for you but I'm afraid that sites that are down take priority over customisations like this. I will post back as soon as I have anything.

[demalpas]

Thanks Tracey.

I will wait to hear back from you.

Mike de Malpas-Finlay

[TraceyG]

Hi Mike,

I'm afraid that I have bad news for you. It looks like the variable for the shipping instructions was not added into v8 for some reason so can't be added to the email.

I have, however, come up with a workaround that I hope will help you. If you are not already using the 'user definable field' for the invoice page, then you do the following:

- go to the 'Design' menu and select 'Text'
- click on the 'Go To' button in the bottom left corner of the window
- set 'Phase' to 0 and 'ID' to 14 and click 'OK'
- this will take you to the 'Invoice User Definable Field'
- tick the box under the 'Show' column for this field
- enter the text for the prompt into the 'Current Value' field (ie, Enter any special delivery instructions)
- click 'OK'
- go to the 'Design' menu and select 'Library'
- on the 'Layouts' tab, expand the 'Checkout Area' group (click on the '+')
- double-click on the 'Invoice Address Fields' layout
- locate the 'Invoice User Defined' variable and 'cut' it from this layout
- click 'OK' to save and close the layout
- still in the 'Library | Layouts | Checkout Area group', double-click on the 'Shipping Phase' layout
- locate the 'Shipping User Definable Prompt' variable and comment it out by putting '<!--' at the beginning and '-->' at the end of it and paste the 'Invoice User Defined' variable that you cut from the other layout, so it looks something like:

<!--Shipping User Definable Prompt-->
Invoice User Defined

- click 'OK' to save and close the layout
- update your site

The invoice checkout page will still look the same online and if a customer fills in the new delivery instructions prompt it will be downloaded with the order and be put in the 'user defined' field on the 'customer' tab under the 'Invoice Contact' details and it will be listed on the online receipt and the customer email under the invoice address.

If you want to move the position of this instruction on the online receipt then look for the 'InvoiceUserDefined' variable and in the customer email you should look for the 'ShipUserDefinedOnlineXML' variable.

[demalpas]

Many, many thanks Tracey. I have only just managed to read your response as my wife has forced me to do something else other than "be on the PC all the time"!!

I will give it a go and let you know how I get on.

Kind regards,

Mike de Malpas-Finlay

[demalpas]

Dear Tracey,

Your code to produce the shipping special instructions in the customer email (copied to the supplier) has worked brilliantly - very pleased - thank you very much.

Kind regards,

Mike de Malpas-Finlay

[TraceyG]

That's good to know Mike, thanks for posting back. I've also raised the issue with development so hopefully they'll put the variable back into the software so that we can do it correctly in future.

[Kate (newbie)]

Shipping Instructions - did it ever get sorted

Please read post before this. Did actinic ever sort it. I am keen to put Special Delivery instructions on my email and don't want to upset my lovely clean coding with Tracey's work around (although its appreciated)

[TraceyG]

Did actinic ever sort it.

I'm afraid not. The workaround will still have to be used.

[pandpdeveloper]

Hi Tracey,

I've tried implementing the workaround (in v9) as instructed at www.pandponline.co.uk/oandg but despite getting a prompt as described I am not getting the variables passed into either the online receipt OR the email (as a customer).

Any ideas?

Let me know if you need access.

[TraceyG]

Hi Paul,

I've just tested it and it works fine, but can you just check that you have 'ShipUserDefinedOnlineXML' variable in the 'Customer Email' layout and 'InvoiceUserDefined' variable on the 'Receipt Invoice Address Details' layout.