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Scheduled Reminders

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Tim Otten edited this page Sep 2, 2019 · 5 revisions

At time of writing, Mosaico does not have built-in support for Civi's "Scheduled Reminder" system. There are a few approaches - some are implemented, some are proposed. Below is a listing/comparison.

(1) Map "Mosaico Templates" to "Message Templates"

The mosaicomsgtpl extension allows you to use "Mosaico Templates" as CiviCRM "Message Templates". It's based heavily on the techniques from v1.x of this extension.

  • Pro:
    • Versatility - The message templates can be used in many part of CiviCRM, including "Scheduled Reminders", individual/transactional emails, and even the traditional CiviMail UI.
    • Technical Simplicity - The implementation/technology side is fairly thin.
  • Con:
    • The user needs to really understand the workflow (Mosaico Template => Message Template => Scheduled Reminder). Otherwise, they're prone to confusion over (a) editing Mosaico content inside CKEditor and (b) how to manage tokens.

(2) Link "Scheduled Reminders" to "Mailings"

The trackmailing extension allows you to trigger CiviMail for each scheduled reminder.

  • Pro:
    • Reporting/Statistics - Adds support for tracking opens/bounces/click-throughs of the scheduled reminder.
    • The user edits content in the "New/Edit Mailing" screen which supports "Mosaico". This avoids the problem of re-editing in CKEditor.
  • Con:
    • The user still needs to understand the workflow ("Mailings" => "Scheduled Reminders") - but it's fewer steps.
    • "New/Edit Mailing" UI has scheduling/submission elements that are not sensible for this kind of mailing record. The token selection again is in a tight spot.
  • Comment:
    • A couple incremental ways to improve this approach:
      • Add some more links in the "Scheduled Reminder" page for opening the "New Mailing" / "Edit Mailing" / "View Mailing Stats".
      • Update the "Mailings" UI and data-model to distinguish between normal/one-off mailings and continuous/as-needed/reminder mailings. (Ex: civicrm_mailing.mailing_type='reminder')

(3) Allow "Message Templates" to have "types"

Update the "Message Template" system to support template_type (in the same way that mailings do). Propagate that change to everything supporting "Message Template".

  • Pro:
    • Workflow - The UI elements for editing Mosaico content would be available in-situ anywhere
    • Better prospects for improving the token selector.
  • Con:
    • Not implemented.
    • Expensive to implement. Must be done in core. Would probably require a large funder/MIH.
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