Customise email templates

Sending an email from Kotahi takes three things: a mail provider to send it, a template to send, and an event to send it on. Group Admins and Admins can set all three.

1. Connect a provider

Nothing sends until Kotahi has SMTP details. See Settings: Email and notifications.

2. Write the template

Choose Configuration → Notification Templates, then Create, or open an existing template to edit it.

A template has a Description — how you will recognise it in a list — a Subject, and a Body.

The body can carry variables that Kotahi fills in when it sends. They use the Handlebars syntax:

Variable	What it inserts
{{ manuscriptTitle }}	The manuscript’s title
{{ manuscriptNumber }}	Its short ID
{{ senderName }}	The name of whoever triggered the email
{{ recipientName }}	The name of whoever receives it
{{ authorName }}	The author’s name
{{{ loginLink }}}	A link to log in to your group
{{{ manuscriptLink }}}	A link to the manuscript
{{{ manuscriptTitleLink }}}	The title, as a link to the manuscript

{{{ manuscriptLink }}} resolves differently for each recipient. An editor is taken to the Control page, a reviewer to the Review page, an author to the Submission page. One variable, the right destination for whoever opens the email.

Links use three braces rather than two.

3. Send it on an event

Choose Configuration → Notification Events, find the event, and assign your template to it.

Until an event has a template, nothing is sent when it occurs.