Visualforce Email Templates In Salesforce

Earlier, while sending emails, we faced issues with plain text or HTML emails. Such emails limit the sender to format the text; the text appears to be less appealing and engaging, the emails are more prone to be spammed, and more. 

But days have gone by, and it is time to switch to Visualforce. For your information, in Salesforce, you can create four types of email templates: HTML (using Classic Letterhead), Text, Custom, and Visualforce. 

Yes, Visualforce email templates allow users to send personalized and targeted emails; admins and developers can create email templates. Above all, the recipient of the visualforce email is authorized to conduct advanced operations on data. 

In this blog post, we will learn about Visualforce Email Templates in Salesforce, the process of designing, how to use them, and more.

What Is Salesforce Visualforce Email Templates?

Making the best use of Visualforce markup language and a powerful tool, Visualforce Email Template, Salesforce developers can create custom email templates. Using these templates to improve communication and interaction, you can send dynamic and personalized emails to business partners, customers, and other stakeholders. 

Visualforce Email Templates arrive with numerous features and functionalities, like customization, tracking and analytics, responsive design, etc.

All Visualforce email templates must be contained within a single <messaging:emailTemplate> tag. This is analogous to regular Visualforce pages being defined within a single <apex:page>tag.

How to Use Visualforce Email Templates

<div class="blog-innertxt">
<ul class="benefits-points">
<li>The &lt;messaging:emailTemplate&gt; tag must contain either a single &lt;messaging:htmlEmailBody&gt;&nbsp;tag or a single &lt;messaging:plainTextEmailBody&gt; tag.</li>
<li>Several standard Visualforce components are not available for use within &lt;messaging:emailTemplate&gt;. These include &lt;apex:detail&gt;,&lt;apex:pageBlock&gt; and all related pageBlock components, and all input components such as &lt;apex:form&gt;. If you attempt to save a Visualforce email template with these components, an error message displays.</li>
</ul>
<h2>How To Use Visualforce Email Templates In Salesforce?</h2>
</div>

Do one of the following:

<div class="blog-innertxt">
<ul class="benefits-points">
<li>If you have permission to edit public templates, from Setup, enter Email Templates in the Quick Find box, then select Classic Email Templates.</li>
<li>If you do not have permission to edit public templates, go to your personal settings. Enter Templates in the Quick Find box, then select Email Templates or My Templates—whichever one appears.</li>
</ul>
</div>

<div class="blog-innertxt">
<ul class="benefits-points">
<li>1. Click New Template.</li>
<li>2. Choose Visualforce and click Next.</li>
<li>3. You cannot send a mass email using a Visualforce email template.</li>
<li>4. Choose a folder in which to store the template.</li>
<li>5. To make the template available for use, select the Available for Use checkbox.</li>
<li>6. Enter a name in Email Template Name.</li>
<li>7. If necessary, change the Template Unique Name. This unique name refers to the component when you use the Lightning Platform API. In managed packages, this unique name prevents naming conflicts in package installations. This name can contain only underscores and alphanumeric characters, and must be unique in your org. It must begin with a letter, not include spaces, not end with an underscore, and not contain two consecutive underscores. With the Template Unique Name field, you can change certain components’ names in a managed package and the changes are reflected in a subscriber’s organization.</li>
<li>8. If desired, choose a different character set from the Encoding dropdown list.</li>
<li>9. Enter a description for the template. Both template name and description are for your internal use only.</li>
<li>10. Enter a subject line for your template in Email Subject.</li>
<li>11. In the Recipient Type dropdown list, select the type of recipient to receive email created from the template.</li>
<li>12. If desired, in the Related To Type dropdown list, select the object from which the template retrieves merge field data.</li>
<li>13. Click Save.</li>
<li>14. On the View and Edit Email Templates in Salesforce Classic page, click&nbsp;Edit Template.</li>
<li>15. Enter markup text for your Visualforce email template.</li>
</ul>
</div>

NOTE: If you are including an image, we recommend uploading it to the Documents tab to reference the copy of the image on our server. For example:

<apex:image id=”Logo” value=”https://yourInstance.salesforce.com/servlet/servlet.ImageServer?
id=015D0000000Dpwc&oid=00DD0000000FHaG&lastMod=127057656800″ />

<div class="blog-innertxt">
<ul class="benefits-points">
<li>1. To specify the version of Visualforce and the API used with this email template, click&nbsp;Version Settings. If you’ve installed managed packages from the AppExchange, you can also specify which version of each managed package to use with this email template. Generally, use the default value for all versions, to associate the email template with the most recent version of Visualforce, the API, and each managed package. To maintain specific behavior, you can specify an older version of Visualforce and the API. To access components or functionality that differ from the most recent package version, you can specify an older version of a managed package.</li>
<li>2. To view the details of the template, click&nbsp;Save. To continue editing your template, click&nbsp;Quick Save. Your Visualforce markup must be valid before you can save your template.</li>
</ul>
</div>

How to Design Email Templates?

/********************* Email Template 1 *************/
Example 1: Contact Cases
Recipient

<messaging:emailTemplate subject="Account and Cases Information {!recipient.Name}" recipientType="Contact" >
<messaging:htmlEmailBody >
    <html>
    <head>
    </head>
    <body>
        Dear {!recipient.Name},<br/>
        Please find your all open cases:<br/>
        <table>
        <tr>
            <th>Case Number</th>
            <th>Case Origin</th>
            <th>Case Status</th>
        </tr>
        <apex:repeat value="{!recipient.cases}" var="case">
        <tr>
            <td>{!case.CaseNumber}</td>
            <td>{!case.Origin}</td>
            <td>{!case.Status}</td>
        </tr> 
        </apex:repeat>
        </table>
    </body>
</html>
</messaging:htmlEmailBody>
<messaging:plainTextEmailBody >
Congratulations!
This is your new Visualforce Email Template.
</messaging:plainTextEmailBody>
</messaging:emailTemplate>

/******************** Email Template 2 ***************/
Example 2: Account Cases
Recipient and RelatedTo

<messaging:emailTemplate subject="Account Cases as Related To : {!relatedTo.Name}" recipientType="Contact" relatedToType="Account">
<messaging:htmlEmailBody >
    <html>
    <head>
    </head>
    <body>
        Dear {!relatedTo.Name},<br/>
        Please find your all open cases:<br/>
        <table>
        <tr>
            <th>Case Number</th>
            <th>Case Origin</th>
            <th>Case Status</th>
        </tr>
        <apex:repeat value="{!relatedTo.cases}" var="case">
        <tr>
            <td>{!case.CaseNumber}</td>
            <td>{!case.Origin}</td>
            <td>{!case.Status}</td>
        </tr> 
        </apex:repeat>
        </table>
    </body>
</html>
</messaging:htmlEmailBody>
<messaging:plainTextEmailBody >
Congratulations!
This is your new Visualforce Email Template.
</messaging:plainTextEmailBody>
</messaging:emailTemplate>

Example 3 : Student Fees Details Using Component

<messaging:emailTemplate subject="Submission Of Student Fees" recipientType="Contact" relatedToType="Student__c">
<messaging:htmlEmailBody >
    <c:StudentFeesDetails stuId="{!relatedTo.Id}"></c:StudentFeesDetails>
</messaging:htmlEmailBody>
<messaging:plainTextEmailBody >
Congratulations!
This is your new Visualforce Email Template.
</messaging:plainTextEmailBody>
</messaging:emailTemplate>

/*************** End Email Templates ************/

/******************* Component ******************/

<apex:component controller="StudentFeesController" access="global">
    <Style>
    table{border:1px solid #000;}
        td,th {border: 1px solid #000}
    </style>
    <apex:attribute name="stuId" assignTo="{!studentId}"  type="Id" description="Student Id" />
    <h1>Your Fees Deails</h1>
    <table >
    <tr>
        <th>Date</th>
        <th>Amount</th>
    </tr>
    <apex:repeat value="{!feesDetails}" var="fee"     >
        <tr>
            <td><apex:outputField value="{!fee.date__c}" /></td>
            <td>{!fee.amount__c}</td>
        </tr>
    </apex:repeat>
    </table>
</apex:component>

/************** Class ******************/

public class StudentFeesController{
    public Id studentId {get;set;}
    public List<Fees__c> getFeesDetails(){
        return [select id, amount__c, date__c from fees__c where student_Id__c =: studentId];
    }
}

/******************* Page **********************/

<apex:page controller="SendVFEmailTemplateController">
    <apex:form>
        <apex:pageBlock>
            <apex:pageBlockButtons>
                <apex:commandButton value="Send Contact Cases" action="{!sendCases}"/>
                <apex:commandButton value="Send Account Cases" action="{!sendAccountCases}"/>
                <apex:commandButton value="Send Fees Details" action="{!sendFeeDetails}"/>
                
            </apex:pageBlockButtons>
        </apex:pageBlock>
    </apex:form>
</apex:page>

/******************* Class ********************/

public class SendVFEmailTemplateController{
    EmailTemplate et;
    public SendVFEmailTemplateController(){
    
    }
    
    public void sendCases(){
        et = [select Id, Name from EmailTemplate where DeveloperName = 'Account_Cases'];
        Messaging.SingleEmailMessage semail = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage ();
        semail.setTargetObjectId('00328000005cwjF');
        semail.setTemplateId(et.Id);
        Messaging.sendEmail(new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage[] {semail});
    }
    
    public void sendAccountCases(){
        et = [select Id, Name from EmailTemplate where DeveloperName = 'Account_s_Cases'];
        Messaging.SingleEmailMessage semail = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage ();
        semail.setTargetObjectId('00335672305cwjF');
        semail.setTemplateId(et.Id);
        semail.setWhatId('00123400006azlA');
        Messaging.sendEmail(new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage[] {semail});
    }
    
    public void sendFeeDetails(){
        et = [select Id, Name from EmailTemplate where DeveloperName = 'Student_Fees_Info'];
        Messaging.SingleEmailMessage semail = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage ();
        semail.setTargetObjectId('00335672305cwjF');
        semail.setTemplateId(et.Id);
        semail.setWhatId('a002320080DGNjx');
        Messaging.sendEmail(new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage[] {semail});        
    }
}

Benefits Of Salesforce Visualforce Email Templates

Salesforce Visualforce email templates benefit users, developers, and administrators in numerous ways. Let’s check a few:

1. Improved User Experience & Accessibility

As with Visualforce templates, you can append interactive elements, such as buttons, links, and images; this way, you emerge with engaging emails that improve user experience. Plus, the responsive design of email templates makes your emails readable on various devices, which increases accessibility. 

2. Personalized-Touch

You can include dynamic content in email templates, like recipient names, personalized messaging, and more. Also, by considering merging fields and lists, you can target emails to specific audiences, elevating engagement. 

3. Tracking and Reporting

Salesforce allows users to track emails for open rate monitoring, click-through metrics, and other metrics and create reports, including insightful analytics. And so forth, users can analyze the reports in detail and make email marketing strategies accordingly. 

4. Brand Consistency

By including custom logos, styles, and more styling in your templates, you can maintain your brand consistency, which is what Visualforce templates will present to you. This will help you give your company a professional face. 

5. Scalability and Efficiency

The growing email marketing needs will no longer be interrupted by Visual email templates, a part of the Salesforce platform, as it offers scalable solutions to businesses of all sizes. Besides, you can employ reusable layouts and components that keep aside the need for email creation and maintenance. 

6. Integration Abilities

With Salesforce CRM, users can seamlessly integrate Visualforce templates that enable maximum use of customer data, automate email communications, and streamline email delivery, saving effort and time. 

Key Takeaway

Visualforce email templates are the biggest savior when it comes to personalizing emails, making them more engaging, improving accessibility and user experience, saving time and effort, automating email communication, fulfilling extended needs of email marketing, maintaining brand consistency, and more. 

So, what are you waiting for? Try Salesforce Visualforce email templates for your next email marketing and reap all their benefits. Also, don’t forget to share your experience with Visualforce email templates; it would greatly help other business personnel. 

We hope this blog helped you learn how to use Visualforce email templates in Salesforce. If you require salesforce development services, contact our salesforce consulting team.