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Subscriptions

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Subscriptions

Newsletters and more

Subscriptions are quite handy when it comes to sending out information to your customers, think of things like emails, newsletters, and texts. But first, a customer permission is needed, and that can be done via opt-in/out prompts on your front ends. To manage this, what we call "Subscriptions" are needed.

Go to the Subscriptions chapter in the People module of Admin Suite to start configuring your own.


Example: When a new customer profile is being created you'd like front ends to prompt an opt-in/out question to subscribe for the e-mail newsletter. If the user opts in, you'd like to further inquire if they'd like to receive the newsletter e-mail in the morning or evening. To spice it up a bit further, you also want to give users who opt-in a 10% discount coupon.

Authorization

To access this chapter, you need the Subscriptions permission.

Create Subscriptions​

To create a subscription, click the '+' icon in the top right. This button will open a page where you can then configure the subscription to your needs.


A subscription consists of the following fields:

  • Name (required): Give it a name - This will be the name displayed on your front end(s).
  • BackendID (required): Give it a BackendID - Quite handy when using API services.
  • Description (optional): Give it a brief description - This description will be displayed on your front ends under the input pertaining to the name field. Note: If you want to add a hyperlink in the description, use the following format - [Best doc page](https://docs.newblack.io/). Only what is specified between the squared brackets [] would display on your front end(s) as the hyperlinked text, while what is between the parenthesis () only dictates your url/link.
  • Handler (optional): Used to enable confirmations or other custom handling when subscribing/unsubscribing. Newsletter, LoyaltyProgram, and Default are available.
    • Loyalty program: If handler LoyaltyProgram was selected, this field will be visible since you'll need to link the subscription to a configured Loyalty Program. Note: You can activate the loyalty program payment method once users subscribe by linking a loyalty program.
  • Linked Custom field (optional): Used to add a Custom field to the subscription (if needed).
    • Request from front end (yes/no): Checking this box will request input for the specified custom field from your frontend(s).
  • Prefix (string), Start number (integer), and Suffix (string), are fields that impact the data of the user identifier policy. Those 3 optional properties influence a subscriptions user identifier and accordingly dictate how the UserSubscriptionID is formatted. Input in any would be attached to the UserSubscriptionID as specified.
  • Inquiry (optional): You can link an Inquiry here. Which then would display on front ends if subscription is opted in for.
  • Allow unsubscribed by: This fields allows you to influence whether unsubscribing is allowed or not. The values available are as follows:
    • None: Unsubscribing cannot be done by either subscriber or employee.
    • Subscriber: Unsubscribing is only allowed if done by the subscriber.
    • Employee: Only employees can unsubscribe users from this subscription.
    • All: This is the default value, and implies that both subscriber and employee will be allowed to unsubscribe.

User identifier fields​

  • User identifier: Using this field you can determine how the user identifier would look like. There are 3 options:

    • Default: Implies that EVA will generate a random user identifier during the subscription process.
    • Request from frontend: Implies that a user identifier will be fully provided by the frontend user during the subscription process. The user will need to manually input/scan an identifier; otherwise, an error will occur.
    • Custom: Implies that the user identifier will be based on the inputs of the following 3 fields:
      • Prefix: A fixed user identifier prefix (Example: PRE-)
      • Start: A starting user identifier number (Example: 1000)
      • Suffix: A fixed user identifier suffix (Example: -SUF - Combining the inputs, your user identifier would look like this PRE-1000-SUF, and the next subscriber as PRE-1000-SUF and so forth).

  • Set user identifier in custom field (checkbox): The checkbox will only be visible if Default or Request from frontend was chosen as the User identifier. Ticking the box means that the system will place the created user identifier into the specified linked custom field, regardless of its source.

  • Linked custom field: The field will only be visible if the Set user identifier in custom field checkbox is ticked, and will be the custom field where the created user identifier will be placed.

  • Resubscribe handling: Using this field you can determine how the user identifier is impacted in scenarios of resubscribing users. There are 3 options:

    • Update user identifier: The user identifier will be updated
    • Keep original user identifier: The user identifier will not be updated and will remain same as initial one at time of subscribing.
    • Block: Resubscribing is blocked.

After you're done filling in the fields, save your work. Once saved, you'll notice two new cards added: User requirements and Organization unit sets.

Trigger promotion on subscription

You can link a subscription to a promotion using the customer discount condition.

Edit Subscriptions​

To view or to edit an existing subscription, click the desired subscription from the overview. You'll be presented with three cards: General info, User requirements, and Organization unit sets, each covered in more details below.


General info​

Edit any of the fields initially filled in under the General info card at time of creation as well as set translations (if needed) on the front end prompted fields (name and description).

For translations, click the corresponding Translation symbol, and fill in the translated text including country and language.

User requirements​

Not all, but some subscriptions require additional information from your customer to deliver them properly. An example of this would be an email newsletter, which requires an email. If this is not a default user requirement in your environment, you can make special subscription user requirements available. You can use the User requirements card to manage this.


  • Preferred: makes it optional, but the front-end applications will still remind the front end users that it would be good to have.
  • Regular: makes it a requirement.

Organization unit sets​

This card is used to link your subscription to a single or multiple organization unit(s).

Click the '+' icon at the bottom and select the desired OU or OU set.


The modal consists of the following fields:

  • Is active: Determines if the subscription is or is not active for the specified organization unit(s). Based on the choice this will impact where the subscription will be displayed/prompted on front ends or not.
  • Hide from Frontend: Determines if the subscription will be visible on the front end or not.
  • Default selected: Makes the user automatically subscribed instead of needing to do a manual tick to subscribe.
  • Preferred notification: Gives the subscription a preferred note on the front end rather than optional.
  • Confirmation required: A yes would prompt front end users to confirm subscription
  • Priority: Sets the order of the subscription on the front end.