The following table is a reference for shortcodes that can be used in your FeedBlitz mailings. The Advanced Template gives you the ability to use your own HTML templates. Please note that the compliance footer will still be inserted into your mailings.
Additionally, remember that javascript, iframes, and PHP code present in a template will render in a browser preview, but will not work in email. Always test your templates in multiple formats and on multiple devices.
The most complete and up to date list of shortcodes can be found here.
Shortcodes Reference
| <$BlogTitle$> | The name of the blog (without enclosing quotes). |
| <$BlogPosting$> | Indicates the start and stop of a single post or feed item. There must be exactly two <$BlogPosting$> tags – The content between these two is repeated for each post in the mailing. It is usually easiest to start with a standard FeedBlitz template or one built using the easy template editor and then edit. You can also use <$BlogBlock$> tags to subdivide the post section – see this article for more. |
| <$BlogRecipient$> | The recipient’s email address. |
| <$BlogDescription$> | This is used to place the email subject line (without the prefix) into the body of the text. It varies depending on whether there are more than one entries in the update. |
| <$BlogURL$> | The blog’s home page URL. |
| <$BlogItemTitle$> | The title of this post. |
| <$BlogItemUrl$> | The link (permalink) URL for this entry. |
| <$BlogItemBody$> | The text of an individual blog entry. |
| <$BlogItemNumber$> | The ordinal value for this entry in the mailing. Used for automatic index construction. |
| <$BlogItemAuthor$> | The author of the entry, if known, or of the entire feed, if available. |
| <$BlogIndex$> | Indicates the part of the template used to construct a table of contents for the email. Content between these tags is replicated for each post. If you use them, there must be exactly two <$BlogIndex$> tags Advanced use: If the first of a pair of the <$BlogIndex$> tags is written like this <$BlogIndex$ tag="1"> then the table of contents is written in 2 columns, with articles organized by tag. We strongly recommend previewing your newsletter before saving the template using this advanced version. |
| <$BlogItemCount$> | The total number of entries included in this update. |
| <$BlogViewOnline$> | Pastes in the URL of this mailing’s online archive, so the subscriber can access it via a web browser. |
| <$BlogFTAF$> | Provides a link to forward to a friend – Sends the entire email to one or more contacts. |
| <$BlogNoLandingPage$> | Text between a pair of these tags is removed from web-based landing pages, including the signup form, confirmation landing page, import courtesy emails and unsubscribe forms. There must be an even number of <$BlogNoLandingPage> tags. If you have an odd number of these tags, all graphics after the trailing tag will be removed on the relevant pages. |
| <$Date$> | In subject lines, this is the date of the email formatted as YYYY/MM/DD In item posts, this is the date and time of the entry’s publication, formatted as YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM ZZZ where ZZZ is the US time zone of the main FeedBlitz server. |
| <$DateUTC$> | Behaves like <$Date$> but always reports in UTC. |
| <$Date format="formatstring"$> | Format the date using a custom formatstring. The formatstring codes are the same as used in C programming library strftime function (see examples below). Here are some common examples for February 9, 2008, 2:45 PM <$Date format="%m/%d/%Y"$> 02/09/2008 <$Date format="%d.%m.%Y"$> 09.02.2008 <$Date format="%Y-%m-%d"$> 2008-09-02 <$Date format="%a, %b %d %Y, %I:%M %p"$> Sat, Feb 09 2008, 2:45 P.M. <$Date format="%B %d %Y, %H:%M"$> February 09 2008, 14:45 <$Date format="%A – %H:%M"$> Saturday – 14:45 All times are formatted in US English, US eastern time zone. |
| <$Feed=url$> | Insert a different RSS feed into the template, e.g.<$Feed=https://feeds.feedblitz.com/feedblitz$>After the opening Feed tag use regular template tags (including a pair of <$BlogPosting$>) tags to define how the new feed should be inserted. Close the third party RSS feed section with a simple <$Feed$> tag.Articles from the included feed will be altered according to the parent feed’s content settings (e.g. maximum character limits) unless overridden with attributes (see below). You may have multiple <$feed$> blocks in your template. |
| <$Feed=url count=number maxchars=number maxcount=number index=number raw=number$> | Count, maxchars, maxcount, index, and raw are optional attributes when including third party feeds in your template. count Always coerce the number of articles shown from the included feed, regardless of their time stamps. maxchars Abridge or extend the content inserted by the <$BlogItemBody$> tag when inside the <$feed$> block. index Start inserting RSS articles other than the most recent entry (the top article is index zero, so use the number 1 to start at the next one, etc.). raw Use raw="1" to insert posts feed as-is, without any modification by the template (i.e. no extra social sharing icons). maxcount Restricts the number of posts included, so maxcount="2" restricts the section to two posts, even if under the automatic campaign’s schedule more would have be included. |
| <$BlogItemThumbnailImage width=number height=number background=color align=value style=css$> | Inserts a thumbnail image, and removes that image from the content inserted by <$BlogItemBody$>. It has four optional attributes: width, height, background, align. Most of the time, you will only need to specify the thumbnail’s width. Width Force the image to be this many pixels wide. Optional. Height Force the image to be this tall. Optional. If you specify BOTH width and height, the thumbnail will be forced to the width specified, and limited to the height you define. In the majorty of email apps, the image will be scaled correctly and any excess beyond the specified height will be cropped. In desktop Outlook, however, the image will be forcibly resized to fit the box; this is a result of the weakness of Outlook’s HTML rendering, and may affect the aspect ratio. Background Specify a background color for any space in the thumbnail slot the image doesn’t occupy. Optional; Leave blank for transparent, which is the default. Color specification is HTML / CSS, so for red you can use "background=#FF0000" or "background=#F00" or "background=red" Align Force the image to float left or right. Optional; the default is left aligned. Specify "left" or "right" here, as in "align=right" Style Supply your own CSS to attach to the thumbnail If there is no image associated with the post, FeedBlitz will use the icon image associated with the feed. If there isn’t one, it will use a blank image to fill the space. |
| <$BlogDeletableItemThumbnailImage$> | Exactly the same as <$BlogItemThumbnailImage$> (including the optional extra parameters), except that in the event no featured image is found, a blank image is always inserted. |
| <$BlogItemFeaturedImage$> | Inserts the URL of the first non-trivial image into the template, and removes that image from the content inserted by <$BlogItemBody$> |
| <$BlogFloatImagesRight$> | Place this tag once inside the <$BlogPosting$> area to cause FeedBlitz to try and align allimages in the article to the right. Useful for wrapping text around images (such as thumbnails) when the underlying RSS does not. |
| <$BlogFloatImagesLeft$> | Place this tag once inside the <$BlogPosting$> area to cause FeedBlitz to try and align allimages in the article to the left. Useful for wrapping text around images (such as thumbnails) when the underlying RSS does not. |
| <$BlogFlowTease$> | Place this tag once inside the the <$BlogPosting$> area and, if you truncate your articles the call to action "teaser" text will be appended to the end of the article without any additional line breaks. Otherwise the default behavior is used, where the teaser text is placed in a new paragraph by itself. |
| <$BlogItemTag$> | Picks one tag from the post, if there. If there is more than one tag or category then a single tag is picked randomly. |
| <$BlogItemTags$> | Places a | separated list of all the post’s tags and categories into the mail |
| <$BlogItemTags sep="separator"$> | Places a separator separated list of all the post’s tags and categories into the mail. Enclose the separator you want with single or double quotes. |
| <$BlogViewOnline$> | Creates the link to the lists’s online archive. Depending on use, the link is either to the main public archive index or to the subscriber’s personal archive. |
| <$BlogPreferencesLink$> | Pastes in the URL to the subscriber’s preferences page, where they can edit non-hidden custom fields and access a portal with all the lists you offer without logging in. |
| <$BlogUnsubLink$> | Pastes in the URL to the subscriber’s unsubscribe page. FeedBlitz automatically adds unsubscription links at the foot of the page, but you can use this URL to add removal links elsewhere in the template if you wish. |
| <$BlogNoTransactionalEmail$> | Text between a pair of these tags is removed from transactional (i.e. subscriber dual opt-in activation) emails, but will otherwise appear on landing pages and broadcast email blasts. There must be an even number of <$BlogNoTransactionalEmail> tags. If you have an odd number of these tags, all elements after the trailing tag will be removed from activation emails. |
| <$BlogItemAd$> | Forces the position of an ad FeedBlitz inserts as part of our ad program, overriding the placement set in your ad profile. |
| <$FieldLookup FieldName$> | When a custom field is inserted into the mailing, the value stored in the database is used. For multi-select custom fields, FeedBlitz allows you to define the value stored in the database (e.g. an SKU #) and friendly text (e.g. the product name associated with the SKU). This short code inserts the associated friendly name, not the database value. If no description for the field value has been entered, the field value is inserted as if it were a normal custom field mail merge. |
| <$BlogSiteFeedUrl$> | Inserts the RSS feed URL powering the list’s automated campaign settings. |
| <$BlogArchivesLink$> | Links to the mailing’s archive are personalized for the recipient. |
| <$MD5_R$> | Inserts the MD5 hash of the (lower cased) recipient email address. |
| <$SHA1_R$> | Inserts the SHA1 hash of the recipient. |
| <$SHA256_R$> | Inserts the SHA256 hash of the recipient. |
As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let us know. You can find all of our great support resources and how to get in touch with us via email, chat or phone on our Support Page.