Email and Document Templates

This section describes email and document content templates in CARE. These are different from study templates (saved study configurations): content templates define the text of emails (e.g. password reset, session links, study closed) and the initial body of documents created from a template.

You manage content templates from Dashboard → Templates. They are used for:

System emails (password reset, verification, registration)
Session start and session finish emails
Assignment emails (when a reviewer is assigned to a task)
Study-closed emails (when a study is closed and participants with open sessions are notified)
Pre-filled document content when creating a new document from a template

When to Use Which Template Type

Each template has a type that determines where it can be used and which placeholders (e.g. ~username~, ~link~) are replaced when the template is sent or applied. Only the placeholders listed below for each type are actually replaced; others will appear as literal text or be empty.

Email - General (type 1) Used for system emails. Assign the template in Dashboard → Settings to the keys for password reset, verification, or registration. Placeholders that are replaced: ~username~, ~firstName~, ~lastName~, ~link~.

Email - Study Session (type 2) Used for emails when a session is started or finished. Assign the template in Settings to Session start and Session finish. Placeholders that are replaced: ~username~, ~link~.

Email - Assignment (type 3) Used when a reviewer is assigned to a document or submission. Assign the template in Settings to Assignment. Placeholders that are replaced: ~username~, ~assignmentType~, ~assignmentName~, ~link~.

Email - Study Close (type 6) Used when a study is closed and participants who still had an open session are notified. Assign the template in Settings to Study closed; the study must have Enable Study Close Email Notifications turned on (see Checkboxes So Emails Actually Get Sent below). Placeholders that are replaced: ~username~ (the session owner), ~studyName~.

Document - General (type 4) and Document - Study (type 5) Used when creating a new document and pre-filling its content from a template. No placeholders are replaced; use these for static boilerplate. Type 4 is for general documents; type 5 is for documents used in studies.

Flow to Create and Use a Template

Create: In the Dashboard, open Templates and click Add. Choose the type and enter a name (and description).
Edit: Open the template. Write the body; for email types, use the Placeholders sidebar to insert allowed placeholders (e.g. ~username~, ~link~) where they should be replaced.
Assign: In Dashboard → Settings, open the section that contains the email template settings. You will see one setting per email use (e.g. password reset, session start, session finish, assignment, study closed). Each is a dropdown: choose a template from the list, or leave None (use default email) to use the built-in text. For document templates (types 4 and 5), you do not assign them in Settings; choose a template when creating a document (e.g. Dashboard → Documents → Create).
Publish (optional): Publishing makes the template visible to other users. Once published, it cannot be unpublished or deleted (see below).

If you leave a template setting at None (use default email) or the system cannot load the template, CARE uses a default (fallback) email for that feature, so the action (e.g. sending the email) still completes with built-in text. To use your own text, assign a template and ensure the relevant checkbox below is enabled.

Checkboxes So Emails Actually Get Sent

For template-based emails to be sent, the relevant option must be enabled:

Session start and session finish emails — The study must have Enable Email Notifications turned on. When creating or editing the study (e.g. in the study coordinator), enable the Enable Email Notifications switch; otherwise session start/finish emails are not sent even if you assigned templates in Settings.
Study closed emails — The study must have Enable Study Close Email Notifications (or “Send study closed emails”) turned on. In the study settings, enable that switch; otherwise study-closed emails are not sent even if you assigned a template in Settings.
Assignment emails — When creating assignments (Single Assignment or Bulk Assignment from the Studies dashboard), you must check the option to send email notifications (e.g. “Send email notification”) in that modal before confirming. If it is unchecked, no assignment emails are sent even if you assigned a template in Settings.

Where Templates Are Used

Publishing and Deletion

Publishing (making a template public) makes an email template (types 1, 2, 3, 6) visible to other users. Once a template is public:

It cannot be unpublished.
It cannot be deleted.

This is enforced so that templates already in use (e.g. referenced in Settings or in studies) are not removed, which would break those features. If you need a different version, create a new template or duplicate an existing one, and avoid publishing until the content is final.

Update-from-Source for Copies

If you copy someone else’s public template into your own list, CARE keeps track of the relationship between your copy and the original (the “source template”). When the source is changed, your copy will show Update available in the Templates table. You can then open the update modal and choose whether to update your existing copy with the latest content from the source, or to create a new copy that contains the updates while keeping the old copy unchanged and independent of future source changes.

Errors and Placeholders Not Replaced

Wrong template type If you change the type of a template after writing content, placeholders that are not allowed for the new type will not be replaced when the template is used (they may appear as literal ~name~ or empty). Choose the correct type when creating the template.

Document templates (types 4 and 5) No placeholders are replaced in document templates. Any ~...~ in the text will remain as-is.