Within this section, you will find:
- Email Templates
- Amazon SES Settings
- SendGrid Settings
Email Templates
To access Email Templates, you will need one of these two permissions:
Administer All Email Templates - If you are a Full Admin at a consortia or a single library
Administer Library Email Templates - If you are an Admin at your Library System within a consortium
Email templates can currently be used by Koha or Symphony libraries to send a Welcome email upon self registration of a new patron within Aspen.
Note: ILS Based Self Registration must be enabled in your Library System(s) to use this functionality. Learn more about Self Registration.
Note: If using Koha, the System Preference autoMemberNum must be set to Do to trigger the email.
To create a new Welcome email, go to Aspen Administration > Email > Email Templates > Add New
Fill in the following fields:
Name - Name your email template - this is internal only
Template Type - From the dropdown the only current option is Welcome
Language - Select the language translation you'd like this Welcome email associated with. If a library has a Spanish self registration form and an English self registration form, you might consider having an email template in each language.
Subject - The subject line of your email
Plain Body Text - The body of your email. Currently, this is a text only field.
The welcome email is sent after a patron has successfully self registered.
The following template variables are available:
- library.displayName - The name of the active library where the patron registered
- library.baseUrl - The URL to the aspen instance where the patron registered
- library.email - The contact email of the library where the patron registered
- user.firstname - The first name of the patron who registered
- user.lastname - The last name of the patron who registered
- user.ils_barcode - The barcode of the patron who registered
Template variables are case insensitive and should be enclosed within percent symbols. I.e.
Welcome to %library.displayName%.
Libraries - The Library System that this email is associated with; by selecting libraries, this turns on/activates this email template
Amazon SES Settings
Amazon SES allows Aspen to send e-mails using Amazon's Simple Email Service (SES) platform.
These emails are used in functions such as sharing lists or titles, pin/password reset or the Aspen Materials Request System.
By default, we set up your Aspen server with our email credentials and the email address: noreply@aspendiscovery.org
To allow SES to send mail on your behalf, they have a verification process which can be done one of two ways. We can either verify email addresses individually, or we can verify a full domain.
- For an individual address, we'll generate verification emails from SES, which you'll just need to open and follow the verification link.
- For the full domain, you would need to add a few records (TXT, DKIM, SPF) to the DNS configuration, which we will provide.
We do recommend verifying the full domain if possible, but it's not required.
To get started off, let us know whether you'd like to verify the full domain or an individual email address (for example, "noreply@yourlibrary.org").
Our Systems Team will have to help with this piece so please put in a support ticket if you are interested in setting this up.
For Patrons:
Aspen Material Requests - Patrons will receive an email from staff when their Materials Requests are in certain statuses. Learn more.
Donation Receipts - If a library is using an ecommerce platform and accepting donations, users can choose to email themselves a donation receipt. Learn more.
Lists - Patrons can email a list to themselves or others from the List. Learn more.
Pin/Password Resets - While the notice is often created and managed in the ILS, the email can appear to be sent from Aspen.
Searches - Patrons can email a list to themselves or others from Search Tools > Saved Searches with a search.
For Staff:
Aspen Custom Form Submissions - Staff can receive an email when there is a new submission.Learn more.
Aspen Materials Request - Staff can receive an email when there is a new submission. Learn more.
Error emails from PayPal - If the ILS cannot be updated during a transaction, an email can be sent to staff if an email is defined. Learn more.
Error emails from Searches - If there are search errors, these can be sent to an email defined in Aspen Administration > System Variables.
Self Registration:
The Welcome Email if it is set up within Aspen for Koha and Symphony. Learn more.
Other Settings
Send Grid is another service which allows emails to be sent through Aspen. This is a legacy option that is no longer in use by ByWater partners.
SMTP settings allow you to set up sending emails from Aspen using an SMTP server.
These settings are located in Aspen Administration > Email > SMTP Settings.
- Click Add New.
- Fill in the required fields for:
- Server Name
- Host
- Port
- 'From' email address
- 'From' name
- SMTP username and password
- By default, SSL mode is set to "Disabled." You can switch this to SSL or StartTLS depending on your configuration.
- Save your changes.
