Custom event mail templates

The mails attendees get about your event — the ticket, the reminder a day before, the waitlist mails, the date and venue change notices, the new-event announcement — normally use Gathin's design. With Pro you can send them in your own: write the HTML once, keep it in your community's Mail templates library, and choose per event which mail uses which template.

Custom templates are opening to communities gradually. If you don't see Mail templates in your community's sidebar, it isn't open for yours yet.

What stays Gathin's

• The subject line. A template replaces the body only.
• A short footer saying the mail was sent by your community via Gathin. It is added to the end of every custom mail and can't be removed. The preview shows it.
• Mails to organizers (new registrations, being added as an organizer) are always Gathin's.

Which mails

Ten mails can be replaced:

• Ticket — when someone gets a ticket, and when their ticket is sent again
• Reminder, 24 hours before — to ticket holders
• Saved event, 24 hours before — to people who saved the event
• Joined the waitlist and Approved from the waitlist
• New event announcement — to your members
• Date changed and Venue changed — one version for ticket holders, one for people who saved the event

Each template is made for one of these, and that can't be changed later: which fields it may use depends on the mail.

Preparing a template

The easiest start is Gathin's own version. At the bottom of the Mail templates page pick a mail and Download it, or Open in the editor. It already has every field and the table layout mail clients need.

If you design in a mail editor (Stripo, Mailchimp, a Figma plugin…), export HTML with its images. Keep in mind:

• Lay it out with tables and inline CSS, about 600 px wide. That is what Gmail, Outlook and phone mail apps render reliably.
• No scripts, forms, iframes, videos or SVG, and no linked stylesheets (<link> or @import): put styles inline or in a <style> block.
• Links may go to http(s), mailto:, tel: or one of the fields below.
• The whole HTML can be at most 100 KB. Gmail cuts longer mails off, and the footer and QR code would be the first to go.
• Write it in your audience's language: a template has one language. Gathin's own ticket mail is in English and the others are in Turkish, so the downloaded versions are too.

Fields

Write a field as {name}, in curly braces. When the mail goes out it is replaced with the real value. Each mail has its own list; the editor shows the one for the template you're editing above the code, each field under a plain name ("Event name", with {event_title} beneath it; hover for a short description and a sample), and puts a field where your cursor is when you click it.

• The ticket mail has to contain {qr_code_link}. It is the address of the entry QR image, so use it as an image: <img src="{qr_code_link}" width="200" alt="QR code">. Without it, the template can't be saved.
• A field the mail doesn't have is refused, not left empty. That protects you from a typo like {qrcode_link} sending a ticket nobody can scan.
• {event_image} and {channel_logo} are image addresses too — use them in src.

Images

Templates can only show images uploaded to Gathin (and the image fields above), at most 20 per template, each up to 1 MB, as PNG, JPG, GIF or WebP. You don't need to upload them one by one:

• When you import, pick the .html file and its images together, or drag the whole exported folder in. Paths like images/logo.png are matched to the picked files by file name.
• Images embedded in the HTML (data:) are taken out and uploaded.
• Images from other sites (https://…) are copied over when that site allows it; otherwise add the file and it is matched by name.
• An image in an HTML saved from a forwarded mail (cid:…) has no file behind it — add the image itself.
• srcset isn't supported in mail: remove it and keep src.

After the upload every image address in the HTML points at its hosted copy. Anything that couldn't be resolved is listed with the reason; you can add files, or open the editor anyway and fix it there.

Import, edit, preview, test, save

1. On Mail templates, click Import template, give it a name, pick the mail it replaces, and choose the files.
2. The editor opens. Nothing is saved yet; the import is kept in that browser tab if the page reloads.
3. Edit the HTML. Lines with a problem are marked, unknown fields are underlined, and the size counter warns before 100 KB.
4. Preview, beside Save, opens the mail full screen as it will arrive as it will arrive, footer included — with sample values, or with one of your events (and, for the ticket mail, one of its ticket types). Switch between desktop and phone width.
5. Send a test to me mails the same thing to your own account's address, up to 5 times an hour.
6. Save. Gathin checks the template again and lists every problem at once, each with its line; click a line to jump to it.

If another admin saved the template while you were editing, your save is refused rather than overwriting their work. Copy your HTML, load their version, and apply your change again.

Choosing templates for an event

In the event's admin, open Mail templates. Each mail has a row: pick one of your templates for it, or leave Gathin's default. Preview shows the choice with that event's own data. Save once for the whole page.

The ticket mail can also differ per ticket type — a VIP ticket can get its own design, and so can the RSVP (LCV) join ticket. A choice per ticket type beats the event's choice. The other mails go out once per person, and someone may hold several ticket types, so they are set for the whole event only.

Deleting a template

A template still chosen somewhere can't be deleted. The delete dialog lists the events and ticket types that use it, each linked to that event's Mail templates page; set those to another template or Gathin's default first, then delete it.

When something changes

• Pro ends: every mail goes out in Gathin's design. Your templates and choices are kept, and they come back as soon as Pro does. The library stays readable meanwhile, and you can still preview.
• A template can't be used when a mail goes out (an error, a template removed at the wrong moment): that mail goes out in Gathin's design. An attendee never gets no mail.
• You save a change: every event that uses the template gets the new version right away.

Your community can keep up to 50 templates.