Template tags

Buttondown uses a templating language to mix programming code into plain old HTML. By adding logic and variables to your email you can customize your content per-subscriber, or to repeat structures in your email without having to hand code them multiple times.

Variables allow you to programmatically add text to your email. You may have previously worked with variables in the form of "mail merges".

Variables are wrapped in double curly braces. Here's how this looks:

{{ variable }}

Like a mail merge, the variable code is replaced with the correct text when an email is sent out. For example, if you wanted to add a personalized greeting to your email, it might look like this:

Check out our articles on template variables and metadata to learn what's possible!

Filters are tools that you can use to modify the output of a variable. This uses the same double curly brace syntax, but the variable name is followed by a pipe and the filter you'd like to use.

For example, if you wanted to make sure your email subject line was always capitalized, you could add the capfirst filter, like so:

{{ email.subject|capfirst }}

As Buttondown's templating language is built on Django you can use any of their available filters.

Tags are bits of code that are added to your HTML content that can do all sorts of things, including logic!

Tags are wrapped in a single curly brace and a percentage sign, and look like this:

{% tag %}

The for and if else loops should cover most use cases in Buttondown.

If you want to send a weekly digest of all your blog posts, you could iterate over the list of these items with a for loop:

{% for email in emails %}
    <h2>{{ email.title }}</h2>
    <p><a href="{{ email.url }}">Read more</a></p>
{% endfor %}

You might want to also be able to access a counter for each iteration. You can do this by using the forloop object. Here's how you could use it to add a number to each blog post:

{% for email in emails %}
    <h2>{{ forloop.counter }}. {{ email.title }}</h2>
    <p><a href="{{ email.url }}">Read more</a></p>
{% endfor %}

If you wanted to send your premium subscribers a special message you could use an if/else loop, like this:

{% if subscriber.subscriber_type == 'premium' %}
    Thanks for being a paid subscriber!
{% else %}
    Thanks for reading!
{% endif %}.

You could also use elif (else if) tags to send different messages to your premium subscribers, free subscribers, and non-subscribers. Here's how this would look:

{% if subscriber.subscriber_type == 'premium' %}
    Thanks for being a paid subscriber!
{% elif subscriber.subscriber_type == 'regular' %}
   Want to support my writing? <a href="{{ premium_subscribe_url }}">Upgrade now!</a>
{% else %}
    Like what you read? <a href="{{ subscribe_url }}">Subscribe now!</a>
{% endif %}.

Have a situation that needs something more than a for or if else loop? Fear not! There are lots of other pre-built tags on the Django site.