Content sources

In Acumbamail you can now define content sources. These allow you to upload a list of elements defined by an image, a title, short descriptive text, long descriptive text, a link, author and publication date. You can attach the information with the list of elements by uploading a file or providing a URL from which they are retrieved periodically and automatically. These elements can be later inserted into your email or landing page designs easily. Imagine, as a paradigmatic example, being able to include the products of your e-commerce or a new entry of your blog in the emails of your campaigns.

In this article:

• Access to features
  • Features according to plan
• Content sources
  • Create a content source
  • Supported formats
  • Edit a content source
  • Delete a content source
• Include a content source from the editor

Access to features

You will be able to access the content sources from the "Integrations" option in the main side menu. From "Integrations" select "Content Sources" from the top menu.

Features according to plan

The following table describes exactly what each user will be able to do based on the plans or plan assigned to them.

Content sources are limited in two different ways:

• Number of content sources: This determines how many different content sources you can create and configure, from which the content will be retrieved.
• Number of items: This determines the maximum number of items to retrieve from each content source. This means that even if we find 50 items in a content source, if your plan limits you to a maximum of 10 items, then only the first 10 items detected for each content source will be visible.

Content sources

When accessing this section, a list is displayed with the available content sources, from where you can manage them.

Create a content source

To add a new content source, click the "New Source" button. You will then see a popup from which you can select how to add the content:

• From URL: In this option you will have to provide a URL that we will call periodically and automatically to retrieve the contents. A GET request will be made to this URL and the returned content must be in RSS/ATOM feed (XML) or JSON listing.
• Upload a file: In this option you will have to upload a file with the contents you want to have available in the editor. This would be a static content source. As if retrieving from a URL, the format must be RSS/ATOM feed (XML) or JSON listing.

Depending on the option chosen, you will have to enter a name to identify the source and provide the URL or select the file with the predefined content of the source.

Clicking the "Create" button will create the new content source and you will be redirected to the edit view, where you can check if valid content has been detected or there has been a problem.

If the number of contents detected is different from 0, then they have been successfully recovered. If the number of detected contents is equal to 0, then one of the following problems has occurred:

• Failed to retrieve content from the provided URL or the uploaded file has no content.
• The detected content is not in a valid format.
• The content has a valid format but contains 0 entries or an empty listing.

When there is a problem retrieving the contents of the feed, a warning appears both in the edit view and in the main list of content sources (next to the date and time of last reload).

Supported formats

Remember that it is possible to contribute the content of a source with two different formats.

RSS/ATOM feed (XML)

If you have a website, such as a blog or an e-commerce, where you have configured a feed or RSS / ATOM feed, you will simply have to enter its associated URL and you can access the list of elements described in that feed.

JSON listing

If you do not have an RSS/ATOM feed, you can also prepare an endpoint that, in case of GET requests, returns a list of JSON describing elements of interest, such as products from your online store. In this case, the JSON object must have specific keys to be able to recognize the different elements, these being:

• title: This represents the title associated with the item
• author: This represents the name of the person who created the item
• published: This represents the date the item was created
• summary: This represents the short descriptive text associated with the element. It can be text in HTML format.
• content: This represents the long descriptive text associated with the element. It can be text in HTML format.
• link: This represents a link to which to redirect the user to expand the information regarding the element.
• id: This is a unique identifier that distinguishes the element from others.

Remember that the image associated with the product will be attempted to be recovered from the content associated with the " summary " and " content " keys if they are defined as HTML and contain an image type node.

Click here to see an example of valid content in this format.

Edit a content source

From the list, click on the name of the font you want to edit or from the associated menu, select "Edit".

Preview

Whether the content was added from a URL or uploaded from a file, you can review the detected content by clicking on the "Preview" button, which will open a popup where the associated image will appear (if image has been detected), the title, the short description and the link of each element.

Content reload (only for URL)

If you have provided a URL, the content will refresh every 8 hours automatically. If you need to reload the content immediately, you can click on the "Reload" button.

Update options

If it is a URL, you can update the internal name and the associated URL. If you have uploaded a file, you can edit the internal name and upload a new file. You must click "Save" to save the changes, at which time the contents associated with the source will be reloaded.

You must keep in mind that the detected contents are not cumulative , that is, only the elements currently present in the source will be available. If you uploaded a file with 10 fonts and within it you upload a new file with another 5 fonts, the first 10 are deleted and only the 5 new ones would be available.

Similarly, if you update the URL and it returns different items, the items originally detected for the first source will not be accessible. The old elements will not be selectable to be inserted in your new designs, although if you had already included them previously, those designs will preserve these contents.

Delete a content source

From the list, click on the menu associated with the source you want to delete and choose the "Delete" option. When you delete a content source, it will no longer be selectable from the editor, but content you've already added to your landing page and email design templates will remain visible.

Include a content source from the editor

All sources can be embedded in any of your landing pages or newsletters. To do this, just go to the "Content" tab in the editor and drag the "Content Source" element into your design.

Click the Add Content button. A popup will be displayed where all your active fonts will appear (those with at least 1 selectable item). Choose a source and tap "Next".

Next, you'll need to select the content you want to add, its orientation, and the individual elements you want to be visible for each content. When you confirm your selection, the contents will appear in the row.

Choice of content

Regarding the choice of content:

• This editor element ("Content Source") adds an entire row to your design.
• In the row you can include one, two or even 3 of the contents of your source.
• If you need to display more content, you can drag more "Content Source" elements into your design.

Orientation of each content

There are two possible orientations. The guidance is applied individually to each added content:

• Vertical. A single column is intended to show stacked items in each content.
• Horizontal. Two columns are assigned to show the elements of each content.

Visible elements

Depending on which orientation you have chosen, you can decide which elements will or will not be visible in the column or two columns available for each content. By default, the image, the title, the short description and the link with a button are displayed.