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Last update: August 24, 2024

Notification Templates

Although users can modify or define notification templates through Platform Manager, in real environments, it is more convenient to declare and store the notification templates under the source code control along with the main code of the module’s solution. This method has the following advantages:

  • You can see and control all change history.
  • You get a more streamlined process for template distribution across multiple environments, for example, development and production, without any need to work with templates stored in a database.

There are two ways to declare and distribute predefined notification templates through code:

  • As content files in .csproj of a custom module (preferred).
  • As inline definition in the source code.

Content files in .csproj

Create the Templates folder in the module solution:

ModuleWeb
├── Templates
    ├── SampleEmailNotification_body.en.html
    ├── SampleEmailNotification_subject.en.html
    └── SampleEmailNotification_sample.json

Notification naming convention

Notification template files have the following naming convention: [NotificationTypeName]_[subject|body|sample][.lang?].[html|json]:

  • _subject.html: Contains the content that will be rendered in the email subject.
  • _body.html: Contains content that will be rendered in the email body.
  • _sample.json: Contains the default JSON data that will be used for notification preview.
  • lang: A two-letter language code; it is not required, and in case it is not provided, the template will be used by default for all requested languages, as long as the file for the required language is not found.

Work with .Web.csproj file

Next, you need to edit the .Web.csproj file to allow all files from the Templates folder to be copied upon publishing. Technically, you need to add the following lines into {Your module}.Web.csproj:

{Your module}.Web.csproj
 <ItemGroup>
        <NotificationTemplates Include="Templates/**" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <Target Name="CopyCustomContentOnPublish" AfterTargets="Publish">
        <Copy SourceFiles="@(NotificationTemplates)" DestinationFiles="$(PublishDir)\..\%(Identity)" />
    </Target>

The Notification module performs discovery for template files through the path managed by the Notifications:DiscoveryPath setting, which has the Templates value set by default.

In addition, if you want to use a different discovery path for individual notification types, you can add the following code into Module.cs:

module.cs
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public void PostInitialize(IApplicationBuilder appBuilder)
    {
    ...
    var moduleTemplatesPath = Path.Combine(ModuleInfo.FullPhysicalPath, "Templates2");
    registrar.RegisterNotification<SampleEmailNotification>()
         .WithTemplatesFromPath(moduleTemplatesPath);
    ...
    }

Note

Lines 4 and 5 tell the notification system to discover template files in the /Templates2 relative path for a notification with the SampleEmailNotification type.

Inline Definition in Source Code

There is a less useful but still feasible way to define templates directly from the code:

registrar.RegisterNotification<SampleEmailNotification>().WithTemplates(new EmailNotificationTemplate()
        {
            Subject = "Sample subject",
            Body = "<p>Sample text</p>",
        });

Alternatively, you can load what you need from the assembly embedded resources:

var assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
registrar.RegisterNotification<SampleEmailNotification>().WithTemplates(new EmailNotificationTemplate()
        {
            Subject = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("VirtoCommerce.NotificationsSampleModule.Web.Templates.SampleEmailNotification_subject.txt").ReadToString(),
            Body = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("VirtoCommerce.NotificationsSampleModule.Web.Templates.SampleEmailNotification_body.html").ReadToString()
        });