Generic salutation replacement for outbound CiviMail

[vwishrad]

Does anyone know where in CiviMail we can add a salutation like "friend" or "member" as an automatic replacement for records where the salutation (or first name) field is blank. We just sent out an email and a number of our records started "Dear ,"

I'm sure it's in there somewhere. I just can't find it.

[petednz]

No sure - but we start ours with 'hi' since it works for both those with names and those without - but we are a pretty informal bunch down here ;-)

[Donald Lobo]

I'm sure it's in there somewhere. I just can't find it.

curious as to how u r sure it in there?

as far as i know, its not in there One possible option is to implement the tokenValues hook and do your own substitution if the default tokens are blank

http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/CiviCRM+hook+specification#CiviCRMhookspecification-hookcivicrmtokenValues

lobo

[vwishrad]

Sorry, but we're just not developers at this shop, so I have no idea how to implement your solution. I'm pretty disappointed in CiviCRM. The ability to add a replacement salutation is the salutation field is null is a pretty basic functionality in 95 percent of CRMs. We were told from the outset that something as basic as this was possible.

This means were going to have to find every single record in our database without a salutation field and add "friend" or "member".

Annoying.

[Donald Lobo]

can u clarify on "We were told from the outset that something as basic as this was possible". I dont think anyone on the forums made that statement. If it was a consultant you might want to go back and touch base with them.

You might want to consider hiring someone from http://civicrm.org/professional/ to either incorporate the feature into the community or implement a hook for you (and hopefully share with the community)

The nice thing about open source is folks can step up and make a difference. Its also free

lobo

[petednz]

There may have been some misunderstanding of requirements by whoever reviewed civicrm for you - you can easily add Greeting Types - here /civicrm/admin/options/greeting_type?group=greeting_type&reset=1

But this doesn't get around your issue. As I said, we get around it by using the term 'hi' as this works for both 'hi john, we have ...' and 'hi, we have

If you have no mysql skills to add 'friend' to all records with no first name, another route may be to make a group of 'everybody' then remove 'everybody with a first name' from that group, then use the remaining group via Batch Update by Profile and add 'friend' in to the required field.

Ohterwise it seems like you are complaining that the car is disappointing cause you don't like the dial on the radio.

[vwishrad]

I can't deny that I like the system very much; however it is buggier than I'm used to. I've worked on a variety of CRM platforms -- Convio, Get Active, Kintera, Blackbaud, etc -- and while I'm thrilled to be able to work on an open source platform, the lack of some core functionality does take some getting used to. We did an exhaustive amount of research to find the right platform, but there are a few things we were surprised by after implementation. The inability to substitute a default name field is standard on just about every CRM and e-mail blast tool out there -- I am just surprised it's not there.

But this is a community and I realize that I'm just as responsible as anyone to make sure it gets added.

[Donald Lobo]

1. can you be more specific about: "it is buggier than I'm used to". Have you filed these bugs in the issue tracker? Any big ones that are present that have not been fixed? If not, can you please raise these bugs on the forum. Its hard for us to fix bugs if we are not aware of them

2. Can you point us to some documentation on how other "CRM and e-mail blast tool out there" does this. will help us figure out how we can potentially integrate this. Better yet, work with your consultant to add this feature to CiviCRM and contribute it back. The community and the core team will be quite thankful . Finally please note that this is relatively easy for your consultant to add using civicrm hooks

lobo

[Donald Lobo]

A sample hook implementation for this is described here: http://civicrm.org/node/637

lobo

[petednz]

I have no idea what you are asking for. You want help in putting the word 'hi' in an email, followed by the token {first.name} or whatever it is called?