Curated Newsletter Sections

Define sections in your newsletter to make curated simple.

Overview

Curated Newsletters can optionally have defined sections of content. This is purely to make adding and editing content in the FeedOtter UI more pleasant.

Sections are defined in the <head> of your HTML email, similar to custom fields.

<html>
<head>
<script type="application/ld+json" id="sections">
        [
	{"prettyName": "Section 1", "name":"section1", "max":1,"autoload":"false", "preloadFeed":""},
	{"prettyName": "Section 2", "name":"section2", "max":3,"autoload":"false", "preloadFeed":""},
	{"prettyName": "Section 3", "name":"section3", "max":4,"autoload":"false", "preloadFeed":""}
        ]
</script>
</head>
<body>

<h3>Header for Section 1 Post</h3>
<!--## [% for post in feedotter.posts_section1 %] ##-->
<tr>
<h1>[[post.post_title]]</h1>
</tr>
<!--## [% endfor %] ##-->

<h3>Header for Section 2 Posts</h3>
<!--## [% for post in feedotter.posts_section2 %] ##-->
<tr>
<h1>[[post.post_title]]</h1>
</tr>
<!--## [% endfor %] ##-->


<!--## [% if feedotter.posts_section3 is not empty %] ##-->
<h3>Header for Section 3 Posts</h3>
<p>This will be hidden if there are no posts selected for Section 3 in the UI.</p>
<!--## [% for post in feedotter.posts_section3 %] ##-->
<tr>
<h1>[[post.post_title]]</h1>
</tr>
<!--## [% endfor %] ##-->
<!--## [% endif %] ##-->
</body>
</html>

Section Properties

prettyName - The label that will show in the FeedOtter UI.
name - The technical name you will use to refer to this section in code.
max - The maximum number of posts allowed in this section.
autoload - Supports "true" or "false". If "true" a feed is required in the preloadFeed parameter.
preloadFeed - Expects a valid RSS feed url.

Here is an example of a Curated email with its sections marked:

By dividing a curated newsletter into sections we can give the email editor a better interface in FeedOtter to drag and drop articles into each section individually.

Hiding a Section When There is No Content

You may wish to use an IF statement to show or hide a section if there is no content in a section. Here's a code example:

<!--## [% if feedotter.posts_section3 is not empty %] ##-->
//display section content loop here....
<!--## [% endif %] ##-->

What this conditional is telling FeedOtter is that if your featured section does contain content, this area of the HTML email template should also be displayed in your newsletter.

Autoload and Preload

When using sections you can choose to "preload" content directly from an RSS feed into a section. This can be useful if you have one or more sections in your newsletter where you want content to prefill automatically when a new issue is created.

To prefill a section:

Set "autoload" = "true"
Set "preloadFeed" = The full URL of your RSS feed.

Changing the Section 1 values to preload 1 post from the FeedOtter blog automatically

{"prettyName": "Section 1", "name":"section1", "max":1,"autoload":"true", "preloadFeed":"https://www.feedotter.com/feed"},

Place your updated HTML email code in the Setup area of your newsletter. Autoloading content only works when creating new Issues via the the New Issue button.

Last updated 3 months ago

<html> <head> <script type="application/ld+json" id="sections"> [ {"prettyName": "Section 1", "name":"section1", "max":1,"autoload":"false", "preloadFeed":""}, {"prettyName": "Section 2", "name":"section2", "max":3,"autoload":"false", "preloadFeed":""}, {"prettyName": "Section 3", "name":"section3", "max":4,"autoload":"false", "preloadFeed":""} ] </script> </head> <body> <h3>Header for Section 1 Post</h3>  <tr> <h1>[[post.post_title]]</h1> </tr>  <h3>Header for Section 2 Posts</h3>  <tr> <h1>[[post.post_title]]</h1> </tr>   <h3>Header for Section 3 Posts</h3> <p>This will be hidden if there are no posts selected for Section 3 in the UI.</p>  <tr> <h1>[[post.post_title]]</h1> </tr>   </body> </html>