PressPrimer Certificate sends one automatic email: the certificate email, delivered to the recipient when a certificate is issued. This article covers configuring and customizing it.
Email Settings
Navigate to Certificates > Settings > Email. From here you can:
- Enable or disable the certificate email. It is enabled by default.
- Set the From name and From address. These default to your site name and admin email.
- Customize the Subject and Body.
The certificate PDF is attached to the email automatically.
Tokens
Use tokens in the subject and body to personalize each email. Tokens are replaced with real values when the email is sent. There are two kinds, and the Email settings tab lists both with click-to-copy.
Email Tokens
{recipient_name}: The recipient’s name as it appears on the certificate.{subject}: The certificate’s display name, which is the template name unless the template sets its own.{credential_id}: The certificate’s credential ID, in its grouped display form.{verification_url}: The link to verify this certificate on your site.{issuer_name}and{site_name}: Your site name.
Certificate Merge Fields
Any merge field from the certificate designer works in the subject and body too, wrapped in double braces. The email uses the same values printed on the certificate, so the two always agree. A few examples:
{{source.course_title}}: The course that earned the certificate. Quiz and assignment fields like{{source.quiz_title}}and{{source.score}}work the same way.{{recipient.first_name}}: The recipient’s first name.{{certificate.expiry_date}}: When the certificate expires, blank when it never does.
See Merge Fields for the full list, including custom user and post meta. A merge field with no value, or a mistyped one, prints nothing rather than leaving braces in the email.
Source fields are blank on manually issued certificates, since there is no course or quiz behind them. A subject like “Your {{source.course_title}} certificate” reads well for triggered certificates but comes out as “Your certificate” for a manual one. If a template is issued both ways, {subject} is the safer choice for the subject line, with the source fields used in the body. It gives you the same result with a guaranteed fallback: a display name of “{{source.course_title}} Certificate” makes {subject} read “Botany 101 Certificate” on triggered certificates and drops back to the template name on manual ones.
Defaults
The default subject is “Your certificate: {subject}” and the default body greets the recipient, announces the certificate, and includes the credential ID and verification link. It is a solid starting point, and because {subject} follows the certificate’s display name, setting a display name is often all the subject line needs.
Resending
Merge field values are stored with each certificate when it is issued, and a resend reads from that record. So a resent email always says what the original certificate says, even if the template has changed since. The one consequence: a merge field you add to the email settings later is not part of older certificates’ records and prints blank when one of them is resent. Certificates issued from then on include it.
Deliverability
Certificate emails are sent through WordPress like any other site email. If your site’s emails tend to land in spam, a transactional email or SMTP plugin will improve deliverability for certificate emails and everything else your site sends.