Mailings (VBScript)

You can use the Outbound E-mail Script Extension to implement Mailings. The VBScript Templating Framework is supported for backwards compatibility. It is recommended to use the Modular Templating Framework based on the .NET platform.

Mailings combine content (the e-mail Page) with Contacts (the recipients of a Mailing). A Page Template is used to transform an e-mail Page into a publishable e-mail. The Page Template specifies how the Page as a whole and how Components included on the Page are displayed.

The VBScript Templating Framework communicates with the Content Manager through the COM-based Tridion Object Model (TOM) API. The Outbound E-mail Script Extension facilitates VBScript Templating in Outbound E-mail. The script extension enables any simple VBScript (or JScript) Template to use this function when content is published or previewed.

To use Outbound E-mail effectively, you must make some modifications to Component Templates and Page Templates used by Outbound E-mail to perform the following tasks:

  • Selecting whether the Page is being rendered for publication, e-mail or preview
  • Sending e-mail in different formats (plain text and HTML)
  • Inserting Multimedia Components
  • Formatting plain-text e-mails
  • Formatting HTML e-mail (as opposed to HTML Web content)
  • Tracking whether a Contact has opened an e-mail
  • Tracking whether a Contact has clicked a link in an e-mail
  • Sending personalized e-mails (e-mails that contain Contact-specific information)
  • Sending personalized content in e-mails (based on Target Group membership)

The Outbound E-mail Script Extension API contains an alphabetical list of the methods and properties that you can use to write Page Templates or Component Templates in VBScript or Jscript.