SmartTemplates

Pro features are power functions which are an incentive for users to regularly support the SmartTemplates project through an annual contribution, called SmartTemplates Pro / SmartTemplates Standard license. My aim is that instead of very few people trying to carry the project with sometimes large donations to try involving more supporters. It is a lot of work to keep the project going and up to date with all the latest code changes which happen every four(!) weeks on the Mozilla code base. Staying in sync with the complex Thunderbird application and to support multiple OS platforms (Windows, Linux and Mac) and 19 languages, writing support emails and fixing bugs is actually a big amount of work. I would rather actually spend more time on this than just burning away my weekends, but for this it needs to be financially viable.

SmartTemplates is completely funded by its users, mainly through the various licenses available at fastspring.com - to find out our current prices click one of the links below:

What Pro Features exist?

Here is a list of Pro features that are unrestricted to licensed users.

For non-licensed users, the Pro features can be restricted and, when used, will show a notification bar in order to promote buying a license. I feel this is the best way as it gives you a chance to try them out and get an idea on what other great future functionality will be funded by supporters:

Feature Comparison

Features Unlicensed version Standard License Pro License
Max Number of external Templates 5 25 unlimited
Max Number of Template submenus (categories) 3 3 unlimited
Smart Snippets Test only Some restrictions
Standard Variables
this includes most standard headers, such as %subject% %from% %to% %cc%
Set Spellcheck Language %spellcheck()%
Preheader function
preview for mobile mail clients
Mail Tags
Date Formatting function %dateformat()% trial only
Clipboard support
using clipboard for transferring data.
CardBook support
using data from the CardBook address book.
HTML File Injection from Template%file()%
Style Sheet Injection from Template%style()%
Changing mail headers
setting Cc, adding Fwd, modify subject etc.
Set Mail Priority %header.set(priority)%
Text Manipulation
%deleteText% %replaceText% %matchTextFromBody% %matchTextFromSubject%
Quote Modification
Remove text, images etc. based on quote level.
Clean and shrink long reply threads.
Forwarded Mail Content
Remove contents of forwarded mail: %deleteForwardedBody%.
Date Calculation
Offsets for time / date
Automatic forwarding / replying with Filters
using FiltaQuilla 3.4

Insert Snippets in Composer

While writing emails, use the insert Snippet button to inject a section of html at the cursor position. In the Pro version of SmartTemplates this menu has no restrictions and can be subdivided in as many categories as you like:

SmartTempaltes Pro only: You can use the placeholder text *selection* to insert the currently highlighted text in the Email. This can be used to wrap / decorate text or build other HTML containers around information you have already inserted in the Email.

Text Manipulation

Note: the new %matchTextFromBody% and %matchTextFromSubject% functions use regular expressions - these are powerful keys for finding text patterns. The first parameter must be the regular expression within double quotes. The second parameter is a number which denotes the "match group". Match groups are usually designated with round parentheses (). Use 0 to match the complete expression, 1 for the first group etc.

To learn about regular expressions, please visit: www.regular-expressions.info. For testing your patterns, I recommend this online tester: regex101.com

Quote Modification

[issue 31] From SmartTemplates 2.8: New variables to remove text / tags from quoted parts and save space.

A note on quoteLevel, for images I would recommend 2 if you want to remove images to retain some context in your replies. This will dramatically decrease email sizes in long threads which contain a lot of images (e.g. screenshots).

Update - from version 3.11 of SmartTemplates the above commands can also be used to remove text from the forwarded email (as long as it is forwarded inline). Use quoteLevel = 0 for this to work: %deleteQuotedText("searchText",0)%.

Forwarded Mail Content

The command %deleteForwardedBody% removes the content of the original email when forwarding it inline (not as attachment). This feature can be used to first process information from automated mails (with text manipulation and header functions of the type %header.*.matchFromBody% ) while removing the original information. [issue 236]

Advanced Date Functions

%dateformat% function for inserting / updating current time. [Bug 26588]

The format variables are taken from the regular formats such as %Y% for 4-digit Years, with the % symbols stripped. Use as follows:
%dateformat(formatString)%

Supported Formats: Y, y, n, m, e, d, k, H, l, I, M, S, tz_name, B, b, A, a, p1, p2, p

Examples:
%dateformat(A, e/n/Y, H:M)% creates: Wednesday, 23/02/2018, 14:23


%X:=calculated()% Switch for modifying date & time displayed. [Bug 26307]

%X:=calculated(d,h:mm)% where d = is the number of days to add. h = number of hours and mm number of minutes. Note this needs to be reset using %X:=calculated(0)% to reset it for the rest of the Email.

Wrap the format strings in double quotes, and add the parameter toclipboard to force copying the date to clipboard instead of inserting it into the email. Use the additional parameter current to always enforce current time (without that, it will interpret it as the timestamp of the replied to / forwarded original mail) - easier than having to insert the cumbersome %x:=today% at the start of the line.

  %dateformat("A, e/n/Y H:M",toclipboard)%
  %dateformat("A, e/n/Y H:M",current,toclipboard)%

Clipboard Support

Copy Text Data to Clipboard

%toclipboard("some text")% Copies the literal text within the quotation marks to clipboard. You can use the clipboard as a placeholder variable to hold data for the commands following below. Imporant - to include commas, they need to be escaped with a backslash like this: \,.

Insert Data from Clipboard

%clipboard% Use this simple command to insert clipboard contents directly into the template.

SmartTemplates Pro now supports using "clipboard" as argument for text and header manipulation functions:

header manipulation - examples

Template text and Quote replacements

Copy Variable Results to Clipboard

[issue 187] SmartTemplates Pro: Support transferring headers / variable results to clipboard

Use the parameter toclipboard to transfer header contents such as email addresses to the clipboard: %from(mail,toclipboard)%

Use it when replying or forwarding messages to extract text from the original message body or subject to the clipboard, for example:

  %matchTextFromBody("Please reply until (.*)",1,toclipboard)%
  %matchTextFromSubject("\[Support\] (.*)",1,toclipboard)%

You can use it for copying the date with dateformat as well: Wrap the format strings in double quotes, and add the parameter toclipboard to force copying the date to clipboard instead of inserting it into the email. Use the additional parameter current to always enforce current time (without that, it will interpret it as the timestamp of the replied to / forwarded original mail) - easier than having to insert the cumbersome %x:=today% at the start of the line.
Examples:

  %dateformat("A, e/n/Y H:M",toclipboard)%
  %dateformat("A, e/n/Y H:M",current,toclipboard)%

A valid SmartTemplates Pro License is required for this feature to work.

CardBook Support

This uses data from the CardBook address book for all address fields. You need to install Cardbook 84.6 or higher to retrieve the addresses from it. Enable this feature on the advanced settings page:

I also added platform switches to chatname, which select a specific chat name based on the what it is for, such as %from(chatname.skype)% You can find all currently supported switches on the variables page under the section 'Address Book Fields' and can be combined with all address-related variables such as %to%, %from%, %cc%, %recipient% or %identity%.

Mail Header Manipulation

The following functions are using Regular Expressions (search patterns) - these are for advanced users only but can give you great rewards in automating emails. More info below.

The hdr parameter represents a mail header that has textual content, such as (to, from, subject). This cannot be used for headers containing dates such as the sent time.

The regex parameter is a search pattern in the form of a regular expression; for more documentation, please check the site Regular-expressions.info. There is also a useful regular expressions tester for trying out your search patterns. For best results, make sure to switch the "Flavor" field to ECMAScript (JavaScript).

The group parameter is the number of the matched expression, for an explanation see here. Usually setting this to 1 will do what is needed most of the time (replaces first found expression with first match).

Additionally, you can now use the matchFromSubject and matchFromBody functions in the following way:

%header.set.matchFromBody(hdr,regex,"replacement text")%

The main difference is that match group is a number - which will insert / set / append The matched text found during the search, whereas replacement text is a text that is used instead if the search pattern is found. For usage simply add the double quotation marks around the 3rd parameter.

Examples

To learn about regular expressions, please visit: www.regular-expressions.info. For testing your patterns, I recommend this online tester: regex101.com

Files and Images

For the correct file path syntax, click the %file% label in the Variables tab in the SmartTemplates settings window. This will open a standard file prompt and then insert the correct code into the template.

Filter for automatic Forwarding / Replying

Auto-Forward / Auto-Replying Emails with smart template - this requires the Add-on FiltaQuilla version 3.4 or later.

To enable this feature, you must first open FiltaQuilla settings on the Actions tab:
configure filtaquilla to work with SmartTemplates
Next you can create new message filters, activate either Forward or Reply with Smart Template. Then create a new message filter from the tools menu; in action select "Forward with SmartTemplate" and push the open file button to select an external template file:
adding forward action in a filter

When forwarding files, you can use %header.set(to)% and %header.append(to)% to populate the recipients (address book groups should also work) or %header.set(bcc)% for undisclosed recipients.

The command %suppressQuoteHeaders% will now remove all quote headers - the ones inserted by Thunderbird automatically and the ones that may be configured in SmartTemplates account settings.
You can also use %sig(none)% to suppress inserting any signatures.

Preview texts for mobile Email clients

This feature was added in SmartTemplates Pro 4.4.

Added %preheader()% variable for injecting preview text for mobile email clients. See also [issue 274]

You can add a short text only sentence that describes the content of your email. If you need to add commas within the "text", you have to escape them with a preceding backwards slash, like this:

%preheader("I love vanilla ice cream\, but my brother prefers chocolate.")%

You can also insert the contents of the clipboard within the text

Usage:

%preheader("text content")%
%preheader("text content",className)%
%preheader("text content","inline rules")%
%preheader("text content",className,"inline rules")%    
%preheader("Some text - *clipboard*")%
%preheader(clipboard)%
  

Insert Mail Tags

The SmartTemplates Pro variable %tags% can insert the mail tags of the replied / forwarded mail into the email text. Please note that tags are specific to the mail client and cannot be "sent" to another recipient. To try out, get the Latest version: [issue 320]

Usage

%tags%
%tags(optional parameters)%

Optional parameters

A comma delimited list of parameters can be added to change the behavior:

color - a preset with a colorful label (using the color of the label for font and border)
color-filled - another preset with a colored label (using the color of the label for background, with white font)
filled - tags with white font, filled with dark color
dark-filled - tags with black font, filled with white color - useful for dark backgrounds.
size=fontSizeValue - font size, fontSizeValue is either a simple decimal numeric value such as 0.8, 1.0, 1.2 etc. and will be multiplied with the standard size unit of 1em, or a full value of number+unit, eg 100px, 0.6em, 14pt etc.
delimiter="delimitString" - delimitString = what to put in between the tags. Commas within here need to be prefixed with a backslash like this: \,. If this is not given as parameters it defaults to , (a single comma followed by a single space)
format="formatString" custom html snippet to format every tag.
toclipboard copies the result to the clipboard instead of inserting it
uppercase - converts label texts to uppercase
lowercase - convert label texts to lowercase
capitalize - capitalizes all label texts to (first letter of each word in uppercase, the rest in lowercase)
camelcase - only converts the first letter to lowercase, leaves any internal mixed case intact.

Examples

Similar to address fields, %tags% also supports using the double square bracket Syntax: This will hide the contents of the complete contents of the line if no tags are retrieved from the email.

[[ %tags% <br>]]
[[ %tags(color)% <br>]]
[[ %tags(color-filled,uppercase,delimiter=" ",size=1.1)% <br>]]
[[ %tags(filled,lowercase,delimiter=" - ")% <br>]]  

formatString This is designed as either plain text or html snippet and can contain single or multiple instances of the placeholders $label$ and $color$. Make sure to enclose it in double quotes and prefix any commas within with a backslash: \,:

$label$ placeholder for the tag text
$color$ 6 digit hex value of the mail tag's color

%tags% Important, To Do, all new Taggy, Custom-1
%tags(color)% Important, To Do, all new Taggy, Custom-1
%tags(color-filled,uppercase,delimiter=" ",size=1.1)% IMPORTANT TO DO ALL NEW TAGGY CUSTOM-1
%tags(filled,lowercase,delimiter=" - ")% important - to do - all new taggy - custom-1
%tags(dark-filled)% Important, To Do, all new Taggy, Custom-1
%tags(format="<span style='background-color:$color$; color:white; border-radius:0.7em; padding-inline:1em'> ↦$label$ </span>")%
↦Important, ↦To Do, ↦all new Taggy, ↦Custom-1

Running "sandboxed" JavaScript

To do more flexible things with SmartTemplates a user (Benito van der Zanders) once contributed a JavaScript feature - this is able to run some user supplied script in order to insert SmartTemplates variables in a flexible manner. While I cannot guarantee that this is going to work forever, it has come in handy for some advanced users. Please note that Thunderbird may have some problems with certain commands being executed by a script invoked by a user / Add-on, so I give no guarantees for this functionality.

You can currently use it as follows:

Enable the Thunderbird config setting extensions.smartTemplate4.allowScripts=true and extensions.smartTemplate4.sandbox=true. Then add a code section in between the following SmartTemplates "code brackets" %{% and %}%. You need to define an anonymous function that must always return a string - this will then be inserted into the email. E.g.:

%{%  
(function() {
  var date = new Date();
  const hours = date.getHours();
  if (hours < 12) { return "Good morning"; }
  if (hours < 17) { return "Good afternoon"; }
  return "Good evening"; 
} )()
%}%

The syntax (function { functionBody }() ) defines an anonymous function and then calls it directly using the '()' Syntax. You can also use the more modern Lambda expression Syntax: (() => { functionBody }() )

You can use SmartTemplates variables (without the % signs) within code, they should be replaced within the function like a variable would in your HTML template. If the parameters of a variable contain keywords such as %from(firstname,mail,lowercase)% they need to be enclosed in double quotes, to avoid the JavaScript throwing errors: from("firstname,mail,lowercase").

However since Thunderbird 115, the any %variable% functions now run asynchronously, which means they do not return a value but a "Promise". This is ok if the script block returns it directly, for example like this:

(function() {
  return from("name,capitalize,bracketMail"); 
} )()

Usually you need to read the variable string result within the script in which case you need to use the keyword await and also need to to declare the function as asynchronous:

Example 1: load hardcoded test / a different template depending on who you reply
%{%  
(async () => {
  let mysender = await from("mail");
  switch(mysender) {
    case "thunderbirddaily@gmail.com":
      return "<p>Special text for thunderbirddaily.</p>"
        + "<p>Another paragraph!</p>";
    case "axel@gmail.com":
      return await file("W:\\User\\axel\\stationery\\QuickFolders - Links (English).html");
    default:
      return "<p>default case!</p>";
  }
})()
%}%

Here the keywords file and from('mail') are replaced in the script with the SmartTemplates variables %file(path)% and %from(mail)% and then resolved by SmartTemplates. Notes: backslashes in strings need to be escaped: "\\"
Keywords / unquoted parts within smartTemplate functions like %from()%, such as mail, firstname, toclipboard etc. should be wrapped in quotes - otherwise the script parser will think they are undefined variables and return an error. For example: %from(firstname,email)% must become await from("firstname,email")

Example 2: Greeting based on time of day
%{% 
( () => {
var date = new Date();
if (date.getHours() < 12) {return "Good morning";}
else { return "Good afternoon"; }
} )() %}%
Example 3: Reading email from clipboard and reacting accordingly

In the next example, the template will insert content based on whether an email address is found in the clipboard. If no email is found the sender's address is used instead. This function both reads the clipboard and writes to it in order to communicated between different code blocks. Important: if you use %clipboard% outside of code blocks (in the template text itself) it may not be executed in the same order as the code blocks. I think code blocks are generally executed / replaced first before the rest of the template is processed.

Please note that I am currently working on the syntactically problem of making await work with smarttemplates variables that have no parameter, by using the syntax await smartVar(). Please see [issue 329] to see progress on this and download trial versions.

%{% 
  (async () => {
  var val = await clipboard("text");
  if (val && val.includes("@")) {
    console.log("Clipboard has email address")
    return "";
  }
  console.log("no email in Clipboard:", val);
  await from("mail,toclipboard");
  console.log(`Copied from address to clipboard`);
  return "";
})()
%}%

%{% 
  (async () => {
  var val = await clipboard("text");
  switch(val) {
    case 'joe@domain.com':
      return "<p>Hello Joe!</p>";
    case 'customer@somedomain.com':
      return await file('N:\\stationery\\Support_Template.html');
    default:
      return `<p>Dear ${val}</p>`;
  }
})()
%}%

Other Benefits of having a Yearly License

You know that you support the project and that the development and support will be continue. There is a huge amount of work involved not just programming and keeping SmartTemplates up to date but also supporting users, coming up with better ways of doing things, fixing bugs, and keeping SmartTemplates usable across various platforms and host programs (at the moment I support Thunderbird, SeaMonkey and Postbox). I am constantly helping people with using SmartTemplates and their mail program and how to get the most out of email on the desktop.

All notification messages that indicate Pro features are omitted.

The donation screen (which is normally shown after every Update) is hidden.

Alternative Monetisation Models

There are quite a few software developers (and also some users) who believe that software should generally financed by advertisement or even by selling information about their users. I am firmly opposed to this way of making money as it impacts both productivity and privacy rights; also in the world of Email I would find this way of generating value deeply problematic - even if it was strictly opt-in. There is a lot of personal information in our daily mail and a lot of knowledge that is being stored and retrieved with this powerful tool.

One of the reasons for a personal Email Client on the desktop is the fact that we can store our data on our personal hardware and use it any way we like. On the other hand, if we use a web mail client (like gmail) we can never be sure whether the information is used otherwise and whether we get targeted with distracting information (be it by injecting advertisements or via targeted advertisement emails) - it is one of the goals of any mail desktop client to eliminiate these distractions as much as possible, and focus on one thing only: managing communication.

SmartTemplates is an especially powerful set of tools to harness this information and it will evolve and keep saving time and make your experience of mail more meaningful and intuitive.