How to create and work with a Communications template

1. Create a new record in the Communications module.

   

   By default, Direction: (Correspondence Details) is set to Sent. Change this to Received if the template is intended for recording received correspondence.

   Note: You could create a template for recording received phone calls, for example. The template could include headings for the details to be recorded, e.g. Time, Date, Notes, etc.

2. Select Template from the Type: (Correspondence Details) drop list.

   The HTML tab displays:

   

3. Enter or select the module name that this template relates to from the Module: (Correspondence Details) drop list (or enter the module name), e.g. if the template is for a letter concerning missing birth details, select ebirths from the Module: (Correspondence Details) drop list.

   This template will be accessible from the module specified here.

4. If the recipient is always going to be the same, e.g. the mother, select or enter this value in the Recipient: (Recipient Details) drop list:

   

   Note: The Field Mappings Registry entry is used to populate the address and contact details fields in the Recipient Details or Sender Details group of fields. An entry can be specified for any number of recipients / senders.
   If you were to enter Mother as the recipient in the Recipient: (Recipient Details) drop list when creating a template, Mother will display as the default recipient when the template is run.
   In order that users are able to select any additional recipients / senders, e.g. Father, it is necessary to enter Father in the Recipient: (Recipient Details) or Sender: (Sender Details) fields and to save the Communications record, or to create a Lookup List entry for that recipient / sender. Until this is done, the title of the recipient / sender will not display in the drop list.

5. On the Communication tab, enter a descriptive title for the template in the Template field, e.g. Missing Details.
6. Select the method of communication that the template will be used to record from the Method drop list, e.g. Email, Facsimile, Letter, Telephone.
7. Enter the text of the letter in the Letter Text area.

   See How to enter text for a Letter / Letter Template below for details.

8. Save the Template.

Note: Using special markers / place holders it is possible to extract information from any module and include it in the content of a Template. This includes multimedia. Details below.

There are several ways to create the content of a Letter / Template:

• Text can be entered and formatted directly in the Communication Text area of the Communication tab:

  

  Note: See How to use special markers / place holders in a Template to discover how to replace names, addresses and other variable information with place holders: when a letter is generated using a template, any place holders will be substituted with the required information.

  The HTML of content entered on the Communication tab can be viewed and edited on the HTML tab if necessary:

  

  Note: The HTML tab only displays for Templates.

  • If you are more comfortable working in a word processor such as MS Word, you can:
    1. Create the letter in the word processor:

       

    2. And copy and paste the content into the Communication Text field:

       

To create a template that can be used time and again, identity and address information needs to be replaced with a special marker / place holder. When the template is used from a POS or registration record, the special markers will extract information from specified sources and include it in the content of the correspondence.

Images stored in the Multimedia module can also be included in the correspondence. See How to use special markers in a Template for details.

With special markers it is possible to include information from other Vitalware modules in a Template.

Information can be extracted from:

• The module that the Communication template is associated with.

  This is the module name specified in Module: (Correspondence Details) on the Details tab of the Communication module. See How to create a Communications template for details.

• Any other module, including the Multimedia module.

Source module	Data	Syntax
The registration or POS module that the Communications template is associated with	A field in the associated module	#ColumnName# The place holder will be replaced with data from the ColumnName field. In this example, a template configured for the Births module, the child's name is replaced with #ChildGivenNames#:
	A reference field in the associated module	The syntax for extracting data in a reference field in the associated module is: #RefColumn.ReferencedDatabase.ColumnName# For example, if the template is designed for the Births module, you could include the name of the hospital using: #ChildPlaceOfBirthRef.eparties.NamOrganisation#
Any other Vitalware module		The syntax for extracting data from any other module is: #dbname.irn.ColumnName# For example, if there is a Parties record for your organization (with an IRN of 460), you would reference its address details as follows:
Communications module		Information from the Communications module can be accessed using the following syntax: #dbname.ColumnName# This will pick up information from the details specified on the Details tab of the current Communications record. For example, to use the Recipient's address, you would enter: #eletters.RecipientAddress#
Parties module	Details about the sender / creator of the Template	If the sender of the correspondence is the same as the creator of the template, name, address and other details can be drawn from the creator's Parties record. This requires that the Staff member's login id (vw in the previous screenshot) is recorded in the User Id: (Internet Details) field of their Parties record. The syntax to be used is: #eparties.ColumnName# For example, to display the sender's first name: #eparties.NamFirst# If the sender and the creator of the template are not the same, the sender's Parties details can be accessed by referencing the IRN of the Parties record using the following syntax: #eparties.irn.ColumnName# If the IRN of the sender's Parties record is 7 and we want to display their first name, we'd use the following place holder: #eparties.7.NamFirst# In this example it's assumed the sender is the same as the creator (user vw): When we run this template from a record in the Births module, a letter similar to the following will be generated:

 

Data

Syntax

Special functions

A number of special functions are available and are accessed using the syntax: #efunctions.FunctionName# Functions include: Current date: #efunctions.CurrentDate# Current time: #efunctions.CurrentTime# The formats of Date and Time are specified in the Date Output Registry entry and Time Output Registry entry. Separating Given Names so that only the first name displays: #efunctions.FirstName# For example: #efunctions.FirstName.ChildGivenNames# will take only the first name from the ChildGivenNames field. Selecting a row in a nested table: #efunctions.Row# The syntax for referencing a row in a nested table is: #efunctions.Row.Row Number.module.IRN.nestedtable# For example: #efunctions.Row.0.eparties.4.NamOtherNames_tab# Note: Nested tables in Vitalware use a 0 based index, that is the first row in a table is 0, the second row is 1, etc. Therefore to access the first row in a nested table, the code would be: #efunctions.Row.0.eparties.4.NamOtherNames_tab#. This code will display data from the first row of the Other Names nested table for the Parties record with an IRN of 4. If we're referencing data from our own Parties record (that is, the Parties record of the person creating the Letters Template), it is not necessary to reference the IRN of the Parties record). For example, the following would work: #efunctions.Row.0.eparties.NamOtherNames_tab# The previous example could be updated with the following special functions: When we run this template from a record in the Births module, a letter similar to the following will be generated:

Note: If you want to include an image in your template, the image must be saved in a record in the Multimedia module.

1. In the Multimedia module, locate the record of the image you want to include in the Communications template and note its IRN.
2. In the Communications module, locate the template you want to use and select the HTML tab.
3. An image is included using the IMG tag in the following format. Enter the code where you want the image to display in the template:

   <IMG alt="Your text description for the image " src="#emultimedia.<MultimediaIRN>.Multimedia#" />

   where <MultimediaIRN> is the IRN of the Multimedia record for the image you wish to display.

   If the IRN of the image record in the Multimedia module is 5, the image reference for a Birth certificate would be similar to:

   <IMG alt="Birth Certificate" src="#emultimedia.5.Multimedia#" />

   Note: The IMG tag does not support tif (tiff) images. In order to point to a TIFF, you will need to use the EMBED tag. The IMG tag does support jpg, gif and png.

   Note: The image will not display in the template itself, but when the template is run from a POS or registration record, the image will then display.

Multimedia may also be included by:

It is also possible to resize an image in the template:

The use of a table can greatly simplify the lay out of a template, especially if the template indents text, aligns elements of the text differently (left, right and center), and includes one or more images.

Working with anything but the most simple table design will require some knowledge of HTML. However, it is a simple matter to insert a table using the Insert Table button available on the Communication tab:

1. Place the cursor where you wish the table to display and click the Insert Table button.

   A simple table will be inserted, comprising one row and two columns with a border:

   

Note: A border can be useful while laying out your template, but generally you will want to remove the border when you're satisfied with the layout. On the HTML tab, in the opening Table tag, change border=1 to border=0.

An advantage of using tables becomes apparent when aligning text differently on the same line. In a table, it is simply a matter of adding text to cells in a row and then applying paragraph alignment as required:

Without a table, this fairly simple layout would require considerably more complex HTML coding.

If we remove the border by changing:

<TABLE border=1 width="100%">

to

<TABLE border=0 width="100%">

the template displays as: