Triggers

Caution

Communication Triggers send out automatic communications to your Contacts . Please set your triggers to manual at first and we recommend you send them manually until you are comfortable with their automation.

The Triggers define the situation and criteria for recognising when to send a Communications Template . For example:

When a student registers for an Event
2 days before an Event is due to start

You must have an Email Sending Address and/or SMS Sending Number set up, and appropriate Templates created before being able to create a Trigger.

You can switch the Email Trigger and SMS Trigger views by clicking on the appropriate tab.

Switch between Email and SMS using the tabs.

Once you are in the Triggers setting, you will see a table of Triggers that have been set up. If there are many of these, you can filter them down by using the search tool, or clicking the table headers to sort the tables by.

Please see the section you wish know more about:

Please also see our overall Communication Triggers Documentation for more help on this feature.

Add a Trigger

Please make sure you have an appropriate Sending Address and Template set up before continuing.

Select the Email or SMS tab, according to the desired type of Trigger.
Click
Name your Trigger: This is for self-reference only.
Give your Trigger an Abbreviation: This will be displayed in the Communications section of the Event Personnel or Students section of the Event’s Screen.
Template: Select your Communications Template
Target: Select the appropriate Administrate feature this Trigger applies to : This will reveal a new set of settings for the Trigger.
From: Select the appropriate Sending Address : Remember this Sending Address will correspond to Email or SMS, depending on what you selected in step 1.
Automatic: Select whether this Trigger sends automatically : Recommended setting for a new Trigger is Yes.
Disabled: Select whether or not this Trigger is active or not.
Trigger: Select the condition for how the Trigger activates: The options here will depend on your Target selection.
Audience: select the intended Audience
Companies: [Optional] If you have more than one Company you can select for which Company to apply the Trigger to - default (All).
Regions: [Optional] You can restrict your Trigger to a Region - default (All).
Location: [Optional/Public Events only] You can restrict your Trigger by Location - default (All).
LMS Enabled: Select whether to apply this to LMS Events Only (Self-Paced), Non-LMS Events only (Classroom), or All Events (Blended).
Event Type: Select whether the Trigger applies to Public , Private , or All.
Click

You’ll have now created a Trigger for communications to be sent.

Edit a Trigger

Click on the Trigger you wish to edit.
Click
Make your desired changes.
Click

Your Trigger will then be updated.

Delete a Trigger

Click on the Trigger you wish to delete.
Click
Click
Confirm with

Your Trigger will then be deleted.

Field Descriptions

Here are some further explanations and in-depth knowledge of the fields seen on this page:

Target

The Target defines which Administrate feature (excluding Scheduled) the Trigger applies to. Additional options will be revealed specific to the selection made.

Target	Description	Additional Options Revealed
All Events	For every Event created
Course	For every Events created from a specific or several Course Template(s)	A multi-select box to choose your Courses: use CTRL/CMD to select multiple Courses
Single Event	For a specific Event only: effectively a one-off Trigger	A text box to search/enter the Event
Scheduled	For regularly sent communications Scheduled Target will be sent at regular intervals: Daily, Monthly, Weekly.	A text box to enter email addresses and frequency selection
All Learning Tracks	For every Learning Tracks created
Single Learning Track	For a specific Learning Track	A text box to search/enter the Learning Track

Note that selecting a single event without a start date or end date (as is the case with some LMS events) will limit the selection of available trigger types to those which don’t use the start or end date of the event.

Audience

The Audiences are the group of intended recipients. This is similar to Template Audiences .

Audience	Who?
Students	Students, who are Contacts , that have registered for an Event
All Staff	Administrators and Instructors for the Event
Administrators	Those who organise and manage the Event
Instructors	Instructors are Contacts that deliver the training for your Events.
Booking Contacts	The Contact who booked Unnamed Students

Trigger

Define when, or the condition, to activate the Trigger. Because Triggers can be sent manually or be offset by a number of days, the term “activate” is used here.

There are no Trigger settings for Scheduled Targets .

Activation Point	Behaviour
Targets: All Events, Course, Single Event
Event Start	Activates the Trigger once the Event has started, e.g., useful for sending worksheets for the Sessions . You can offset this by a number of days before or after the Event Start Date.
Event End	Activates the Trigger once the Event has finished, e.g., useful for sending ‘thank you’ messages and further resources self-improvement. You can offset this by a number of days before or after the Event end Date.
On Registration	Activates the Trigger once a student has registered onto an Event , e.g. useful for sending registration confirmations and joining instructions.
Targets: All Learning Tracks, Single Learning Track
Student Completed Track	Activates once the student has completed their Assigned Learning Track

Note that selecting either the Event Start or Event End option will limit Single Event targets to only those events which have the Start or End Date respectively.

Automatic

You can set your Triggers to Automatic or Manual (not Automatic). It is recommended that you set new Triggers to be Manual and check that they perform satisfactorily to your needs before switching them to Automatic.

Status	Behaviour
* Automatic	Communications will send automatically once all the criteria have been met
Manual	The Trigger will activate but won’t send anything. You’ll have to send the communications manually

* Once Automatic has been selected, you will have a message onscreen alerting you so:

Automatic Sending Message

When you see the above message, you’ll also notice the timings for the next runs:

Next Priority Run : sends On Registration Triggers every 5 minutes on the hour, e.g. 12:05, 12:10, 12:15, etc.
Next Full Run : sends every Trigger not set to On Registration on the 37th minute every hour, e.g. 12:37, 13:37, 14:37, etc.

Scheduled Targets

Scheduled Targets are for when you wish to send communications at regular intervals, Daily, Monthly, or Weekly, to auxiliary email addresses. These might be regular notices such as bulletin information or frequent reports to a line manager.

When you select the target, ‘Scheduled’, fields to type the email addresses and select the frequency will be revealed.

All Scheduled communications are sent at midnight UTC.

Frequency	Behaviour
Daily	Sent every day
Monthly	Sent event month, on a specified date: due to February having 28 days, except leap years, this is the latest date that can be set.
Weekly	Sent every week, on a specified day

Trigger Logs

A log and history of all the communications sent and due to be sent can be found at the foot of each Trigger. The log will also record the time each email was sent, opened and clicked. Click on any of the table headers to sort.

Heading	Meaning	Display / Sorting Priority
Status*	The current state of the communication	Alphabetical
Contact	The recipient’s name	Alphabetical
Event	The Event the Trigger being sent for (Email only)	Alphabetical
Sent at	Date and time the communication was sent	No Date/Time > Earlier > Later
Opened at	Date and time the communication was opened by the recipient (Email only)	No Date/Time > Earlier > Later
Clicked at	Date and time the recipient clicked on any links contained in the email (Email only)	No Date/Time > Earlier > Later
Notice	Error Messages	No Priority

* See Send Status

Message Preview and Manually Send/Resend Communications

Click on any of the rows to open a message preview window, where you can manually send/re-send your communications.

Open the email preview to send/re-send communications.

Send Status

Email:

Status	Meaning
Deferred	The recipient mail server asked SendGrid (the third party app we use to send emails out) to stop sending emails so fast. This is not a rejection by the recipient email server. SendGrid will attempt to send the email for another 72 hours.
Dropped	The recipient's email address is on a suppression list and the email won't be sent, in order to protect your Sender Reputation. There are various reasons for the email address to be suppressed, e.g. repeated bounces, repeated spam reports, and repeated Invalid (see below) reports. If you encounter this status, have verified the email address and wish for it to be taken off a suppression list for another attempt at delivery, please contact Administrate Support.
Bounced	The Contact’s email address is no longer valid
Error	See the Notice column for more information
Future	Queued for sending in the future
Historical	A person who, in retrospect, has met the criteria for sending the communication to
Invalid	The Contact’s email address is invalid
Not Yet Processed	The intended recipient didn’t meet the criteria set
Opened	The Contact's has opened the Trigger email
Rejected	The Trigger email has not been delivered because the recipient’s mail server has not accepted the email
Sent	The Trigger email has been sent
Soft-Bounced	The Trigger email arrived at the recipient’s mail server, but then rejected
Timed-out	The Trigger email is too far past the sending date
Unsubscribed	The Contact has the ‘No Mail’ setting checked in their Contact record
Hold	The trigger for the communication is set to Automatic = No and must be manually sent.

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