The fourth step in creating a project is the Invitation. In this step you enter the text of an e-mail that will be sent out to the target group when the project starts. On the left side of the wizard is a checkbox Invite respondents at activation. By default, this is checked; and invitations will only be sent (by e-mail) when this box is checked.
From e-mail address and name
You can specify the name and the e-mail address that will appear in the e-mail application of the respondents. This information is entered in the From and name textboxes. You can specify only an e-mail address or a combination of an e-mail address and a name. When you also specify a name, this name will show up in the respondent's e-mail application instead of the e-mail address.
Subject
Enter the subject line for the invitation e-mail here. You can use custom attributes in the subject line.
Attachments
You can send attachments along with the invitation. The maximum size for an invitation can be set by the administrator. The default size is 250 kB. Click on the Attach button to select the attachments. Next to this button, you see the name of files attached separated by a semicolon. Deleting a name from this list will also remove the file from the attachment.
Special tags
In the message text you can use three special instructions: <USER>, <URL> and <EMAIL>. The first one will be replaced with the name of the recipient. The second one will be replaced with a unique URL for each recipient. When recipients click this link they will automatically go to the web address where the dialogue is presented to them. The value <EMAIL> will be replaced by the e-mail address of the respondent. You can manually type the <USER>, <URL> and <EMAIL> tags, or you can insert them by right clicking your mouse and select these tags.
Using custom attributes
If custom attributes have been defined, these can be inserted in the email (and even in the subject line). These tags are replaced with the particular value in the database for the respondent. If the respondent comes from a database where this custom attribute has not been defined, this value is left blank. You can insert custom attributes by right clicking your mouse. An overview of all the custom attributes appears from which you can select. The custom attribute tags will appear in blue on your screen.
Figure 23: Creating a new project step 4: Making an invitation text
Special markup
If a template for the invitation e-mail was created, you can use special markup in your e-mail. You can choose your fonts, font styles and font sizes. A toolbar with the markup tools will be shown if an e-mail template is available.
Customizing the invitation with rules
Click on the Rules button to define rules in your invitation. These rules are used to vary certain pieces of text, based on the value of custom attributes.
Figure 24: E-mail rules
Creating rules for an invitation works similar to creating a target group rule. A rule consists of a condition and one or two pieces of text. You can choose to put one piece of text in the e-mail if the condition is satisfied and another piece of text if it is not. For instance, you can choose to write 'Dear Sir,' in the invitation if the condition 'gender=male' is met and 'Dear Madam,' if it is not.
You can create the condition below the word IF. First, you choose a custom attribute. Then you define the comparison (for instance: equals, larger than or smaller than). After the comparison, you can input what the custom attribute has to be compared to.
After the word THEN, you write the text that has to be displayed if the comparison succeeds. Optionally, you can write the text that has to be displayed if the comparison fails after the word ELSE.