Embedding connections to content on the hosted FTP server

Use the custom tag <UAEConnect> to embed a connection to content on the FTP server that is hosted by Unica. Add the tag to the HTML code for an email template or in an HTML snippet. You cannot embed a connection to the FTP server in a landing page template.

About this task

In an email communication, embed the connection to the FTP server in the following format.
<UAEconnect n="[content source path]" t="[retrieve time]-[View As Web Page update]"/>

The attribute for the content source path must define path to the file on the hosted FTP server that provides the content. You cannot include OLT personalization fields in the path to the file.

The retrieval time indicates when the system downloads source content. You can configure the connection to retrieve content when you send the message or when you publish the email communication.

If the communication contains a View As Web Page link, the value for View As Web Page update indicates whether the system includes or excludes the external content in the web page view of the message. Updates to the web page version of an email message occur only when you publish the communication.

Note: By default, the system updates content when the email message is sent and the system adds the content to the web page version of the message. If you do not specify values for retrieve time and View As Web Page update, the system uses the default values.

Procedure

  1. Indicate the location of the content source by entering the appropriate prefix for the path to the source.
    For content on the hosted FTP server: n="file://<file path>" The file path is a relative path to the FTP account home directory.
    Note: The credentials for the FTP server are different from the credentials that are required to upload OLT files to HCL Unica

    To request an FTP server account for use with content connections, contact your Unica representative.

  2. Specify when to retrieve the content.
    • To retrieve when the communication is published: t="publish-<web page update>"
    • To retrieve when the message is sent: t="send-<web page update>"

Example

The table illustrates the format of the <UAEconnect> tag for typical content connections.

UAEconnect tag format

Source Location

Content Retrieval Time

Update View As Web Page

Tag Format

Email

FTP server

Publish

Yes

<UAEconnect n=?file://dir/file.extension? t=“publish-webpublish?/>

No

<UAEconnect n=?file://dir/file.extension? t=“publish-noweb?/>

Send

Yes

<UAEconnect n=?file://dir/file.extension? t=“send-webpublish?/>

No

<UAEconnect n=?file://dir/file.extension? t=“send-noweb?/>

What to do next

You can preview the message to see how the connected content displays in the message. The version of the content that you see in the preview depends on the content retrieval settings and whether you preview from the Message Editor or a mailing tab in Campaign.