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Add placeholders to Automated Content Builder templates

  • Updated

The Automated Content Builder (ACB) app enables the creation of documents and presentations tailored to prospects' context and industry-specific needs. Customer data automatically integrates into marketing-approved templates to create impactful, personalized content in seconds.

Templates are Microsoft PowerPoint or Microsoft Word documents. Google Slides or Docs directly imported to the Content Library from Google Drive are automatically converted to PPTX or DOCX format when used in the Automated Content Builder.

Templates must contain placeholders and transformers:

  • Placeholders are codes added in the template that will be linked to preconfigured data nodes. These nodes serve as connectors, replacing template placeholders with pertinent data during the document generation process.
  • If necessary, transformers can be added to the template to apply transformations to the data in placeholders, such as formatting date and time, numbers, currency, or text.

In this article, we will learn about the different types of placeholders and transformers you can add to your templates before uploading them to your ACB Experience.

If you’re new to ACB, we suggest you first follow our use case article on configuring and using a simple template.

You need this to succeed

  • Showpad Content Ultimate or Showpad Content Essential & Plus with the Enterprise add-on
  • Showpad's Automated Content Builder add-on 
  • Showpad admin access
  • The Automated Content Builder app installed
  • An existing Automated Content Builder Experience

Do this step by step

 

Add placeholders to your template

Several types of placeholders are available and can be used to insert different kinds of data into your presentation or document.

When a user creates a document or presentation from a template, data is retrieved from preconfigured data nodes, such as Salesforce, user input, and external APIs, and automatically inserted into the document's placeholders. 

The table below describes the supported types of placeholders that you can add to your presentations or documents before uploading them to Showpad:

Type Example Notes
Text {Placeholder} The placeholder will be replaced by the text provided in the preconfigured data node.
Image {%Placeholder}

For documents, use placeholders directly in the text. The original dimensions of the provided image will be used.

For presentations:

  • Placeholder in the alt text of an image: The image containing the placeholder as its alt text will be replaced by the image provided in the preconfigured data node. The provided image will be resized to the dimension of the template image.
  • Placeholder in a separate text box: the placeholder will be replaced by the image provided in the preconfigured data node. The original dimensions of the provided image will be used. The text box should not contain any other placeholders.

Tip: We recommend using placeholders in the alt text of an image if you’re unsure about the dimensions of the images provided in the preconfigured data node. Using placeholders as text might render incorrectly sized images when users generate a new document based on the template.
List {#Placeholder}
{Placeholder}
{/Placeholder}

Lists consist of an opening and closing placeholder, with other placeholders in between that will be replaced by the elements provided in the preconfigured data node.

For example, if you want to print the name and volume for a list of products, you’ll use:
{#Products}
{Name}
{Volume}
{/Products}
Condition {#Placeholder}
{/Placeholder}

This allows you to control the visibility of elements based on a condition.

For example, if you want to show an optional discount, you’ll use:
{#ShowDiscount}
Discount: {Discount}
{/ShowDiscount}

You can create a data node of type Form asking users the discount value. Then, you’ll need to set condition that the discount field shows only if its value does not equal 0 when configuring the template's placeholders.
Slide {:Placeholder}

This is used to include or exclude a slide based on conditions.

For example, you can decide to show a slide if the organization industry retrieved from Salesforce data is equal to ‘Technology’.

You can configure the conditions by adding rules for the slide’s visibility when you’re mapping placeholders with data nodes in your ACB Experience in the Showpad Web app.
Inverted section {^Placeholder} {/Placeholder}

This is used to show content that should be rendered when a provided list is empty or a condition is false. It should be placed after a list or condition section.

For example, if a list placeholder doesn’t retrieve any elements from the preconfigured data node, you can display another message instead by using:
{#Products}
{Name}
{Volume}
{/Products}
{^Products}No products!{/Products}

This placeholder doesn’t require any configuration in the ACB Experience in the Showpad Web app:

  • When placed after a list, the contents of the inverted section will only be shown when the configured list is empty.
  • When placed after a condition, it will be shown when the configured rules return 'false'.

HTML tags

 {~Placeholder}

This is used to insert dynamically formatted text into your document using HTML code as a placeholder value. 

Different placeholders are used for inline and block HTML elements:

     - Inline: {~Placeholder}
     - Block: {~~Placeholder} 

See the difference between inline and block elements here.  

Only basic HTML tags are supported. Refer to the list of supported HTML tags for each file type:

Word and PowerPoint files

Word files only

     - <p>
     - <h1-h6>
     - <span>
     - <br>
     - <ul>, <ol> and <li>
     - <strong> and <em>
     - <a>
     - <table>, <tr>, <tbody>, …

     - <small>
     - <s>
     - <ins> and <del>
     - <input type="checkbox"> and <input type="checkbox" checked>
     - <sub> and <sup>
     - <mark>
     - <pre>
     - <hr>

Note: To insert a <table>, use {~~Placeholder} in a Word file and {~~~Placeholder} in a PowerPoint file.

Note: We recommend using a descriptive name for your placeholders. For instance, when adding a placeholder for an organization name, you can use a text placeholder like {organizationName}. It’s best to keep names short and to the point.
Special characters, spaces, and numbers are not permitted. However, dots and underscores are allowed.

 

Continue to the next article to learn how to upload templates to an ACB Experience.

 

Group placeholders to map them in bulk

For placeholders linked to the same data, you can use dot notation format: {Object.Field}.

For example, if you want to show multiple fields from the same Salesforce Opportunity object, you can use the following placeholders:
        {Opportunity.Name}
        {Opportunity.Description}
        {Opportunity.Stage}

Note that the object name in the placeholder is customizable. However, the fields name must be exactly the same as the fields contained within the object.

Placeholders linked to the same data node will be displayed under the same group in the list of configurable placeholders. They can be bulk-mapped in a single click, all placeholders will then be automatically populated.

Learn how to bulk map grouped placeholders in this article.

 

Add and configure transformers


Add transformers to your template

In addition to placeholders, you can also use transformers. These can be used to transform the data within the placeholders to adhere to specific formatting standards:

  • Date and time formatting
  • Number and currency formatting
  • Text formatting
  • Etc.

To use transformers in placeholders, add a | (pipe) character followed by the transformer: {Placeholder | transformer}. For example, if you want to format an organization name in lowercase, you would use {organizationName | lowercase } in your template and configure the lowercase transformer in the Web app.

We recommend using a descriptive name for your transformers. It's best to keep names short and to the point.

 

Use Global Showpad Transformers
Showpad offers a selection of pre-configured transformers, ready for use. Directly add them to your files, and the placeholders will adjust according to the added transformer.

To access the list of available transformers, navigate to the Automated Content Builder Experience within the Web app and select the Transformer tab in the left menu.

To explore the details of a transformer, click on the eye icon next to it. This will display a description, an example of its use, and the expected outcome. Click "Show code" to review the underlying code.

ACB_GlobalTransformers

 

Configure transformers in the Web app

You can also configure custom transformers.

  1. In the Web app, navigate to the Automated Content Builder Experience and select the Transformer tab in the left menu.
  2. In the Custom Transformers section, click New transformer.Template_Transformers1.png
  3. Enter the name of your transformer. It must be the same name as the one you use in your document.
  4. Enter a JavaScript function. It must have at least one parameter, which will be the value of your placeholder. An optional second parameter can be added. For example {Placeholder | transformer:'additional param input'}
  5. Click Save. 
    Template_Transformers2.png

Examples:

Type Transformer Code
Transformer without additional input variables {Placeholder | lowercase} (input) => input.toLowerCase()
Transformer with additional input variables {Placeholder | date:'dd/mm/yyyy'} (input, formatParam) => {
     if (!input) return input;
     const date = new Date(input)

     const year = date.getFullYear()
     const month = ("0" + (date.getMonth() + 1)).slice(-2)
     const day = ("0" + date.getDate()).slice(-2)

     const format = formatParam || 'yyyy-mm-dd'

    return format.toLowerCase().replace('yyyy',year).
replace('mm',month).replace('dd',day)

}

 

Continue to the next article to learn how to upload templates to the ACB Experience. 

 

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