Pages General¶

Templatesets¶

Customize the look and feel of your Pages using Templates. Our templating system separates the graphic design work of creating pages with your organization's style from the campaign work of setting goals, crafting your message, and creating content.

Templates define everything about the appearance of your pages from your page layout and colors, to the fields displayed in your user forms and the image for your thermometers. Each Page you create in ActionKit combines input from multiple Templates.

A Templateset is just a group of all the available Templates; each ActionKit Page combines input from multiple Templates.

To set a Page's appearance you just select the appropriate Templateset from the dropdown on the Edit Content screen.

You can access a list of all your existing templatesets by clicking Appearance and then Customize Page in the sidebar on the right of the Pages Tab.

Click on a column header to sort the list by that header. Click a second header to sort first by that header, and second by the previously selected header.

You Create A New Templateset by copying one of the existing templates.

You can designate a default set for each language. The default is pre-selected on the Edit Content screen when you create a new Page and select the relevant language on the Action Basics screen.

Set the default by clicking in the default circle on the row for your templateset. This removes the default setting from the current default set for the language and sets the selected set to the default. You must confirm that you want to do this.

Templateset Fields¶

Templateset fields are a type of custom field, like custom page fields or user fields. They're associated with the templateset and allow you to make templateset-specific customizations.

For example, if your site used a few different templatesets which were mostly similar but used different colors, you could define a custom templateset field for heading color, and reference it from within your template code. You could then copy the templateset and choose a different color without making any changes to the code.

Templateset fields you've created are available on the Settings screen for each templateset.

To add custom templateset fields, select Custom Templateset Fields under Appearance on the sidebar on the right on the Pages Tab and click Add allowed templateset field. Enter the name and other settings for your templateset field and then save.

To use the field in your templateset, go to the Settings screen for your templateset to set the values for the templateset fields. And then include {{ templateset.custom_fields.YOUR_FIELD_NAME_HERE }} in your templates to use the field.

Manage Library¶

The library provides integrated storage through an Amazon S3 account you set up for media like images and videos. Follow the link to view a list of images, search, edit, or upload a new image.

The file name must only includes letters, numbers, and _ (no spaces or other characters). Upload your image and you’ll be given a url to use to access the image.

Toggle open the Options section while you're uploading an image to set the directory, change the filename or set the content-type. If your images don't seem to be displaying properly, check that the content type is correct.

Click the "Edit" link for an image to change the filename or directory after it has already been saved. Note that you may break links to the old URL so you will see a warning before you save.

If your library isn't working, confirm that the correct Amazon account information is entered on your Amazon S3 Config screen.

Account Tools¶

These are screens your end users can access to manage their own profile. You can have only one of each of these screens:

• login
• set/reset password
• view account profile
• edit account profile

Click Account Tools on the Pages Tab to see a list of URLs.

Your default Templateset defines the appearance of these screens. You can change your default Templateset here, but note that the Templateset you select will become your default set for all Pages.

Each screen type has templates that you can edit to change its appearance. The templates are as follows:

• login.html, the login screen
• logout.html, the logout screen
• password.html, where users request a password reset email
• reset_password_email.html, the email with the link to reset a password
• reset.html, where users set or reset their password
• user_view.html, the "My Account" page (accessible at yourinstance.actionkit.com/me/)
• user_update.html, the "Edit My Account" page

Like other templates, you can edit all of these through the "Customize Page" link on the Pages Tab.

Though you aren't likely to need it often, it is possible to create account tools links that will use a templateset of your choice. Just add ?page=page_name to the link: for example, https://mysite.actionkit.com/login/?page=petition1 uses the templateset from https://mysite.actionkit.com/sign/petition1/.

Legislative Targets¶

The U.S. House and Senate are automatically available as targets for Petition, Letter, Call or Whipcount page. Each state's house and senate are also available, but have to be activated following the steps for Adding a new target group below before they will display in the Target Groups box. You can create a group from a subset of any legislative body (e.g. a particular committee) by following the same steps.

To activate state legislatures or to create a new target group from a subset of state or federal legislators (like Blue Dog Dems or House Democrats), you must first add them:

1 Click Legislative in the Targets section under Related tools on the Pages Tab.

2 Select Add Legislative Target Group.

3 Name the group. Pick something that will be obvious to others on your staff.

4 Select a type from the drop down (you can only select one per group, so if you want to target US Senators and US House Reps you need to create two groups).

5 Select one or more states for state legislative targets or to narrow federal legislative targets by state. For example, select U.S. Senate then enter "CA" to target Senators Boxer and Feinstein. If you don't enter a state, you'll get all legislators in the body you selected in every state (e.g., every state senator in all 50 states).

6 Narrow your target list further by party or individual if desired.

To limit to or exclude specific people click in the relevant box and select names or type to search by name or seat. You can also select records in bulk by copy-and-pasting in a group of district codes ("AZ_03 MI_13 CA_12") or a comma-separated list of names ("Conyers, Grijalva, Pelosi").

You'll see a running count of targets in the group at the bottom of the screen.

After you save your group, the name will be a selection in the Target groups box for all Petition, Letter, Call and Whipcount Pages.

Note

If you want to target any state legislative bodies, you must first activate each one following the steps above. Each state body you activate will then be available as a target group for all staff.

Custom Targets¶

You can also create and select custom target groups. Custom targets can be anyone: Governors, school board members, CEOs, whoever you want. A custom target group can consist of one target or many.

Custom target groups can have the following jurisdictions:

• City and state
• City and country
• County and state
• State
• Country

By default, All users is selected, which means all actions on the Page are directed to all targets in the group.

Groups with a jurisdiction work like legislative targets where the target only receives actions from their constituents. Specifically:

• You can use snippets to show your users information about their target.
• Only users who we know live in the states or countries specified can take action on a Call Page (you can provide a fallback URL for others). Recognized users see the correct target automatically.
• Signature deliveries only include constituents.
• You can use the target constituents checkbox as a shortcut to limit a Mailing to users in the states or countries specified.

To start, select Add Custom Target Group on the Pages tab or click Custom in the Targets section on the Action basics screen of your Page.

Enter a name that’s descriptive (e.g. "Chamber of Commerce" for the group or "Chamber President" for an individual).

Select a jurisdiction if that's relevant. If you select a jurisdiction you must specify the targets jurisdiction (e.g. if you select state, we need to know the target's state).

Then add your target or targets by:

• Entering the relevant contact information in the boxes. To add additional targets to this group click the blue Add another special target link.
• Uploading a CSV of custom targets. The first line of the file should be a header row containing the column names. Column names can include: title, first, last, phone, fax, email, gender (for pronouns), state, country; of these, first or last is required.

We ask for the target's gender so you can use "snippets" in your bulk mailing to select the preferred pronoun for each target. For example, if you target state governors, the emails could say, "She supported this" for the female governors; "He supported this" for the male governors; and "They supported this" when gender is left null in the upload file, for any governors that prefer the prounoun They.

Once you add a custom target group, it will be available in the Target groups box on the Action basics screen during page creation.

Delivery Jobs¶

Delivery Jobs have several uses. You can create a PDF for in-person delivery or press events. Delivery jobs are the first step in setting up a bulk delivery-- a mailing to a petition or letter page's advocacy targets with a link to a secure site where the targets can download signatures as a PDF or CSV file. A delivery job is created automatically to track downloads for batch delivery.

The steps for creating a PDF are outlined here.

Languages¶

Add or edit language-related information using this button.

Name the Language (use something obvious like "Spanish"). Languages are saved in the core_language table.

You'll see a list of translations to make. These are the standard error messages that a user will see if they don't enter a required field or they enter something invalid, like a 4-digit zip code.

If you add custom messages to your Templatesets you can translate them here as well.

Read more about using Languages in association with Pages, Mailings and users.

Multilingual Campaigns¶

Multilingual Campaigns allow you to associate multiple Pages with each other for tracking and reporting. If you've selected a Goal, the thermometer for Pages that share the same Multilingual Campaign shows the combined results.

Also, your end users will see links at the top right of the page so they can toggle to their preferred Language.

You can add a Multilingual Campaign from the Pages Tab or from the Multilingual Options section on the Action basics screen when you're creating a page.

Create a Multilingual Campaign for each Page that you plan to translate. Then select the Campaign and the Language when you create each translation.

On the Pages Tab, if you click the grey Multilingual Campaigns link, you'll see summary information for each Campaign including the count of action takers and a list of the Pages showing each Language.

Read more about Languages and Multilingual Campaigns.

Products¶

ActionKit provides basic support for product sales and give aways. Products can be premiums, merchandise for sale, or something less tangible (for example, 'adopting' an endangered tiger).

Products are used with donation pages. If you have set up any products, you'll be able to select them in the More options section on the Action Basics screen when you create your page.

The default layout offers users options to select a product and to make an additional donation. You can change the layout, offer products with no option for an additional donation, or allow users to donate without selecting a product on a page with products by editing the donate.html template.

Our product system is not designed to function as a storefront. If you need shipping and tax calculations and fulfillment tracking, we recommend using an external storefront and integrating the data using our API.

Candidates¶

Use this option to add candidates for use on bundling Donation Pages.

Add one or more candidates from the Candidates button under Donations on the Pages Tab. If you've uploaded a photo for the candidate to your library, you can enter the URL to include it on your Page.

When you create your Donation Page select the candidate(s) to include on the Action basics screen. Read more about creating bundling pages in the description of the candidate selection box for Donation Pages.

Suggested Ask Rules¶

Suggested ask rules are used when you want to tailor the ask amounts on the donation page and in the mailing to the user's past giving. You can use the suggested ask functionality to specify a default amount and to modify the list of amounts based on their donation history.

We give you the option to base the ask rule on the donor's highest previous gift, second highest gift, or average gift size. You specify breakpoints for each donation tier so that you can create a slate of potential donation amounts that makes sense.

The suggested ask can be used on donation pages and in mailings.

Read more about uses and implementation.

Account Tools¶

These are screens your end users can access to manage their own profile. You can have only one of each of these screens:

• login
• set/reset password
• view account profile
• edit account profile

Click Account Tools on the Pages Tab to see a list of URLs.

Your default Templateset defines the appearance of these screens. You can change your default Templateset here, but note that the Templateset you select will become your default set for all Pages.

Each screen type has templates that you can edit to change its appearance. The templates are as follows:

• login.html, the login screen
• logout.html, the logout screen
• password.html, where users request a password reset email
• reset_password_email.html, the email with the link to reset a password
• reset.html, where users set or reset their password
• user_view.html, the "My Account" page (accessible at yourinstance.actionkit.com/me/)
• user_update.html, the "Edit My Account" page

Like other templates, you can edit all of these through the "Customize Page" link on the Pages Tab.

Though you aren't likely to need it often, it is possible to create account tools links that will use a templateset of your choice. Just add ?page=page_name to the link: for example, https://mysite.actionkit.com/login/?page=petition1 uses the templateset from https://mysite.actionkit.com/sign/petition1/.

Fraud Filters¶

Fraudsters will sometimes use Donation Pages to test whether stolen credit cards are functional or not. These carding attempts can incur transaction and chargeback fees for your organization.

Clients who use PayFlow Pro, Authorize.net or Braintree as their payment gateway can set global- and per-page fraud limits.

The fraud scores are generated using the MaxMind minFraud service. We incur a small charge for each fraud score calculated, but do not pass that charge along to you.

MaxMind looks at a lot of factors: whether the user's IP address is that of a known fraudster, whether the country of the card issuer matches the user's current location, HTTP request headers that can help tell automated scripts from real users, and more.

The filters can reject some real donations although the benefit of avoiding fraud may outweigh any donations lost, especially if you're having a problem with fraud.

The filtering process logs details to the core_donationattemptlog table, where you can review exactly how many attempts were rejected and the details of the rejections.

By default, ActionKit blocks donations from IPs in 5 high risk countries: Brazil, Estonia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Vietnam. If any of those are high value for your organization, we can remove those countries on a per-client basis. Note that this comes with an increased risk of carding attempts, which can incur transaction and chargeback fees.

Read more if you want to enable fraud filters for your instance.

Tags¶

Tags are categories that you can associate with a Page or Mailing. They may represent issue areas or campaigns (e.g. food_safety or Paris_climate_talks_campaign).

You can use Tags to group Pages or Mailings. Tags are displayed on the Dashboard and the Browse all listing, and you can filter by Tag, so for example, you can quickly view the list of all the Tages you have created for a particular campaign.

Tags can also be used to group users for mailing targeting and analysis. Users who take action on a Page are associated with that Page's Tag(s).

Every user who takes action on the Page is associated with the Page's current Tags. There is no way to associate only some of those who took action on a Page with a Tag (for example, you can't tag only donors giving over $X on a page).

Read more about managing Tags including how to add Tags and reorder your Tag list.

Custom Page Fields¶

Custom page fields are a powerful and flexible tool that allows you to add a section of content or code to an individual page.

For example, if you want to ask users to tweet about an action they've taken, you could add a page field called "twitter" and include a suggested message specific to the page. If you have a Protect Parrots petition your sample message might be "Parrots are smart. I just signed to save them here: action_URL"

Page fields you've created are available on the Action basics screen for each page.

Use this syntax to include page fields in your templatesets or to reference them when creating a page: {{ page.custom_fields.YOUR_FIELD_NAME_HERE }}. Or, if your custom page field contains template tags or filters that need to be interpreted, then use this syntax instead: {% include_tmpl page.custom_fields.YOUR_FIELD_NAME_HERE %}.

AJAX Signup Widget¶

From Pages > Other > Embed AJAX Signup you can embed a simple action form on your site. For example, you could add a sign up form to your website wrapper or a simple survey to your home page. This widget doesn't provide all the functionality of a full-fledged Page (users aren't recognized, no thanks page and tell-a-friend, no thermometer, etc.) but you can edit the basic form, include custom fields, and customize the thank you message. The widget only works for petition, letter, survey, and signup pages.

Users who submit through the widget are added to your mailing list the same way as other action-takers. You must make it clear to users they're signing up for updates, and link to your privacy policy.

Notifications¶

Notifications are emails to someone aside from the action taker, prompted by actions on the Page.

You can use these for a variety of purposes including:

• sending an email to the honoree about gifts made in their honor,
• alerting field organizers to each new event created in an event campaign,
• notifying a campaign director every 1,000 new actions on a page,
• emailing your development staff for each new recurring commitment.

Create your notifications and then select the ones you want to associate with each page on the After action info screen. Each action can prompt multiple notification emails.

Notification emails will only send if there are values for the subject line, to emails, from email, and mailing body. So you can use conditional content to control whether the notification requirements have been met.

We provide a few sample notifications that you can use or customize:

• In honor of: This example shows how you'd prompt a notification email to the honoree after each gift in his/her honor. First you need to add an action field with the label 'action_in_honor_of_email' to the Donation Page template you'll be using. Then you can use the to line in the example -- {{ action.custom_fields.in_honor_of_email }}. The example also shows some conditional content you might include in the notification email by adding additional custom action fields to your template.
• Tell staff about monthly donation: In this example, the subject includes the criteria to prompt the sending of the email. Whichever staff you select from the list or enter in the "to" line will receive this notification after each new monthly donation is created. The body includes some conditional content.
• Notify every 1000: In this example, the send criteria is in the body and the subject includes conditional content.

Here are some other examples that aren't included in your instance but that you might add:

• Notify someone when a donation is greater than $250:

Subject: {% if action.order.total > 249 %}New $250+ Donation!{% endif %}

* Notify event hosts of new attendees:

To: {% for host in action.event.hosts %}{{ host.email }}{% if not forloop.last %},{% endif %}{% endfor %}

Subject: Subject {{ user.first_name }} has RSVPed for your event

Read about adding notifications.

LTE Signature¶

When your user submits an LTE, ActionKit appends their contact information and emails the letter to the newspaper chosen.

Using the default user signature template, the user information, or signature, looks like this:

First Last

Number Street

City, ST Zip

(XXX) XXX-XXXX

You can change the format by creating a new user signature template and selecting it from the drop down in the User signature section on the Action basics screen. You add a new template by clicking the :green: + or under Other on the Pages Tab.

The default user signature template looks like this:

{% if user.first_name %}{{ user.first_name }} {% endif %}

{{ user.last_name|default_if_none:'' }} {{ user.address1|default_if_none:'' }} {% if user.city %}{{ user.city }}, {% endif %}

{% if user.state %}{{ user.state }} {% endif %}

{{ user.zip|default_if_none:'' }} {{ user.phone|default_if_none:''|format_phone }}

Snippets can be used in signature templates. They are not clickable so you need to cut and paste the snippet into the template. Use snippets to include information like occupation in the signature by creating a custom user field for occupation and adding the field to the user form in the LTE template. Then add {{ user.custom_fields.occupation }} at the bottom of the signature template.

Spam Check Log¶

The spam check log shows you actions that meet spam check criteria and could be an important tool in managing your sender reputation.

Spammers look for ways to get their content and links onto a webpage, even if the displayed content is not rendered as HTML. The ultimate targets are search engine indexers or users unaware enough to click the links.

They may attempt to use your pages for this, particularly if you display recent comments on an action page. Comment spam presents a real risk to your email reputation.

Spammers submit non-deliverable emails at real (and usually) large domains, for example gmail.com and yahoo.com. The emails will bounce the first time you send a mailing to them, but there is a potential reputation cost to trying to email a large number of bad addresses.

You may want to enable our spam checking system if you develop problems with comment spam.

The system provides several filters that you can use to catch spammers and settings for unsubscribing them and suppressing their actions.

You can review the actions that fit the spam check criteria (whether or not you have the system enabled) by looking at the spam check log.