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The Digest is a summary sent to each participant by email during fielding. The email is sent at a predetermined time and frequency set by the researcher.
1: Digest Benefits
There are many benefits to using the automated Digest email:
Save time: The Digest notification is automated, which eliminates the need to export reports and draft a reminder email or message relaying what is needed from the participant.
Better participation: The notification lists both overdue and currently due activities, upcoming activities that will be posting before the next Digest email, comments and questions left by the moderator, and comments and likes left by other participants on shared activities.
Participant Specific: Digest will take each participant’s individual progress into account when sending the notification.
Customized: The Digest notification offers custom wording and text formatting, allowing the researcher to make it fit their company voice.
2: Enabling the Digest
To access the Digest, go to Settings > Notifications:
2.1: Configure
The Configure dialog allows you to turn on and off the digest and configure the frequency:
1. Enabled: Forsta Plus Digital Diaries will send out a Digest by email to each participant. The default setting is to have this turned "on." To disable the Digest email, toggle to "off" and be sure to click Save.
2. Scheduling Options: The Digest will go out to each participant at a specified time and frequency. If a time and frequency are not specified, the default is set to 8:00am daily. The time listed is local to the participant and is based on the timezone the participant selected on their profile.
Researchers can choose from the following options to set the frequency of when the Digest message is sent out:
Daily: The Digest is emailed once a day during every day of fielding. Researchers can prevent messages from being sent on weekends by choosing the Weekdays only option.
Weekly: The Digest is emailed once a week during fielding; researchers can choose the specific day. If the project is fielding for more than one week, the Digest message will be sent each week on the selected day of the week.
Monthly: The Digest is emailed once a month during fielding; researchers can choose the specific day of the month. Researchers can prevent messages from being sent on weekends, which will send the Digest on the next Monday instead.
Custom: The Digest is emailed on a custom schedule. Researchers can choose specific days of the week or specific months and dates. If multiple days of the week are selected, the Digest will go out on each of those days every week during fielding. If multiple specific dates are selected, the Digest will go out on each of those dates. Researchers can remove selected dates by clicking the "X" button to the right of each selected date.
Note: Digest messages are not sent out on the first day of fielding.
2.2: Customize
The Customize digest email section allows you to customize the default text that will be present in the Digest email:
1. Project Templates list – containing a list of the created Digest templates and available template controls.
2. Template Preview section – displaying a preview of the selected template. Users can also switch the language of the preview.
When you want to create a new custom Digest email template, you have to click on the Duplicate button on an existing template first.
Clicking on the Duplicate button will pop-up a dialog, which allows you to set the name of the new, duplicate template. Once you have inserted the desired name for the template, you can then click on the Duplicate confirmation button to create it.
After the new template has been created, you can then click on the Edit button to open the template editor page, where you can customize your template.
You will find the following components on the template editor page:
1. Edit title button: Change the name of your template.
2. Language by Segments section: Make customizations to any of the languages set for the segments in the project. The generic Forsta templates have already been translated and you can make any additional changes, w/o the need to translate all text from scratch. Be sure to save edits before switching to a different language.
3. Subject line field: Customize the subject line of the email notification. The default subject automatically pipes the name of the study and today's date variables. You can use up to 256 characters for this field.
4. Digest with activities tab: Customize the body of the digest message, when it contains some action items.
On this tab, you will see separate text boxes for each component of the Digest message (Greeting, Activities due, Activities launching, Moderator questions, Recent comments, Recent likes, Signature). Each text box contains a combination of text and variables that will pipe in certain information on the Digest message (such as the study name, participant's name, and the segment contact). You only can modify the text and variables for the Greeting and Signature components. Optional variables (highlighted in blue) can be removed from the template; mandatory variables (highlighted in gray) cannot be removed, as they display important project information.
Note: Variables can be moved in the templates by dragging and dropping, and can also be formatted.
When you click on the text boxes for the Greeting and Signature components, you will also see the text formatting bar, allowing you to format the plain text and the variables.
You can also add other optional variables, if you want to include more project information, using the “Add Variables” button at the bottom of the page. Clicking on one of the variables will add it where your cursor on the template is.
5. Empty Digest tab: Customize the body of the Digest message when it doesn’t contain any action items for the participant.
You can disable the Empty Digest message when there are no action items for the participant.
6. Enable / Disable Digest Components: Disable or enable the different Digest components in a template, using the feature toggles. You can also collapse or expand the different sections of the template, using the up and down arrow buttons on the right.
When a component is disabled, it will not be displayed on the email message that participants receive.
7. Preview button: Open a preview of the template you are customizing to verify how it looks like, before saving the changes. The mandatory variables data that appears on the Previews is provided just as an example (the real data depends on the actual user and their current progress).
8. Save and Cancel buttons: Save or discard the changes that you made to the template.
3: Example Template
Below is an example of the template that will be emailed to participants once the options have been selected in the Options tab and the text finalized in the Customize tab:
1. Activities Due: A list of all overdue and currently launched activities will appear here. These activities are specific to each participant. The list includes the title of the activity and the hours overdue. At the bottom, the participant will have a button that redirects them to the to-do list. The default setting is "on."
2. Activities Launching: A list of the upcoming activities that will go live before the next Digest email. This list is based on the scheduling options selected when the message is sent. The default setting is "on."
3. Moderator Questions: This section will flag the participant to any new comments left by their moderator. The default setting is to have this turned "on."
4. Recent Comments: Comments are specific to shared activities. If there is sharing, this section will alert the participant to any new comments left by other participants. The default setting is to have this turned "on."
5. Recent Likes: Likes are specific to shared activities only. If there is sharing, this section will alert the participant to any new likes left by other participants. The default setting is to have this turned "on."
4: Disabling Notifications
Upon initial login, participants can opt out of receiving notifications. If the participant turns notifications off, the digest email is not be sent to them.
5: Notes
Digest is currently available in all supported languages.
When enabled, Digest mailings will arrive from “Project Title” sender at a no-reply email address. No-reply emails by server:
EU: mailer@horizons.confirmit.eu
AU: mailer@au.hxplatform.com
PG HX: mailer@hxplatform.pressganey.com