Recurring Staff Notifications for Outgoing Messages

This article shows you how to create a recurring Deliver mailing that notifies staff about upcoming outgoing mailings. This approach uses a user-based recipient list query, an independent subquery export with a dictionary output, and Liquid markup to list the upcoming mailings in the message body.

This example is useful when staff need a weekly view of communications scheduled to go out from Slate.

   

       

⭐ Get Inspired

   

   

This article was adapted from a post by Technolutions staff in the Slate Community Forums' Get Inspired space. Have a great idea for a Get Inspired post? Let us know!

Build the recipient list query

1. Create a recipient list query with a User base. This returns one row per staff user who should receive the notification.

2. Add an Independent Subquery Export.

3. Set the independent subquery export base to Message Mailing.

4. Set the output to Dictionary.

5. Add exports for the mailing details you want to include in the staff notification.

Useful exports include start date, status, name, subject, URL, and username.

📝 Note

Use computer-friendly export names because Liquid markup references those names in the Deliver mailing. Keep names lowercase and avoid spaces.

📖 Subquery Exports & Outputs

Add Liquid markup to the mailing

In the Deliver mailing body, use a Liquid for loop to display each row in the dictionary export. In this example, the dictionary export is named upcomingmailings.

{% for mailing in upcomingmailings %}
<ul>
  <li>
    {{mailing.username}} is sending this mailing: {{mailing.start | date: "dddd MM/d/yyyy"}} - <a href="{{mailing.url}}">{{mailing.name}}</a>
  </li>
</ul>
{% endfor %}

You can also add a summary sentence that counts the number of mailings and the number of unique users sending them.

{% assign mail = upcomingmailings | map: "username" | uniq %}There are {{upcomingmailings.size}} emails going out this week from {{mail.size}} users.

The assign tag creates a new variable called mail. The map filter extracts the username values from the upcomingmailings dictionary export, and uniq counts each username once.

📖 The For Tag and Liquid Looping

Schedule the mailing

1. Schedule the Deliver mailing to run on the cadence staff need, such as once per week.

2. Review the recipient list query filters so the dictionary export only returns the mailings that should appear in that notification window.

3. Set Deduping Settings to Allow Recurring Delivery of this Message to the Same Recipient.

📝 Note

If recurring delivery is not allowed, staff may stop receiving the recurring notification after the first delivery.