How to edit the automatic e-mails sent by ConfTool

What kind of automatically generated e-mails are sent by ConfTool Pro?
How can these e-mails be edited?
Are there any templates?

ConfTool sends many different automatically generated e-mails to confirm certain user actions.
There are no templates for these mails, they consist mainly of a short default text and information about the user action, e.g. the user name, the paper title, etc.

Actions that will generate an e-mail are:

• creation of a new user account,
• submission, update or withdrawal of a paper and the upload of a file,
• submission or update of a review,
• submission of a review refusal by reviewers,
• creation of a new message for the PC online forum,
• submission of a rebuttal by authors,
• confirmation of the copyright transfer form for authors,
• and the registration for participation.

Furthermore users receive confirmations when organizers or chairs of the conference perform the following actions:

• creation of new user accounts by organizers or update of their user role/status,
• update of a proposal submission,
• editing or cancellation of a registration for participation,
• receipt, cancellation or deletion of payments.

Main Configuration of Automatic E-Mails

You find the main settings for automatic e-mails sent by ConfTool Pro here:
Overview =>Settings =>E-mail Settings

On this page, you can enable and disable the automatic transmission of the different e-mails listed above. You can alter the signature of the mails, set the senders’ addresses and names, and define reply-to addresses. Please note that we recommend keeping the sender address if it is an address provided by ConfTool GmbH to avoid problems with spam filters (e.g. addresses ending on @conftool.net should be kept in most cases).

BCC (blind carbon copy) addresses can be defined for most types of e-mails this allows you to receive copies of all mails sent by the system. This can be used to see what is going on and to keep an archive of all mails sent by ConfTool. Furthermore, you can enable the transmission of copies of different confirmation e-mails to the responsible administrative users. You can for instance send copies of all new submissions to track chairs, or of new forum message to PC members reviewing the same submissions.

Likewise, you can define e-mail addresses for notifications if users enter a new remark when they create a new account, submit a new contribution or register for participation. Organizers can therefore stay informed about extra information contained in remarks.

Finally, an additional text / message can easily be added to the most important messages. This text will appear below the body of the standard message. Please note that the text will be plain text without HTML or graphic elements.


Updating the Text of Confirmation E-mails

The text of the confirmation e-mails mainly consists of the data created or entered by the users when they perform the corresponding action (for instance the paper title, submission type and file names for a new paper submission). Therefore, the options to edit the e-mails are limited.

However, as described above, you can add text to many e-mails and set the level of detail for participant registration e-mails here:
Overview =>Settings =>E-mail Settings

Most other wording can be found in the standard text definitions of ConfTool. You can edit them here:
Overview=>Settings=>Wordings and Phrases


Detailed Description of All Automatic E-Mails

More details on the different types of e-mails and their specific codes in Wording and Phrases are described below. This section will inform you about the automatically generated content of the e-mails, when the specific type of e-mail will be sent by the system, and how you can edit the default text.


1.   Creation of a new user account

This e-mail will be generated as soon as a user has created a new user account. The message includes the name of the event, URL of the login page, the user name, the user’s e-mail address, and a link to validate the e-mail address entered for the user account. If you want to edit the standard phrasing of the e-mail, please enter "S_USER_REG_EMAIL_CONTENT" as search term on the page "Wording and Phrases".
If you want to edit or remove the the text for e-mail validation, please use: S_SEND_VALIDATIONLINK_OWNER and S_USER_EMAIL_VALIDATION_COAUTHOR

Additionally, the system submits an e-mail automatically if a user registers as “prospective participant”. The e-mail contains the login link, user name and password. You can find the wording using the string "S_USER_REG_EMAIL_PROSPECT". Similarly, an automatic e-mail can be sent after any update of the user status / role by administrative users ("S_USER_REG_EMAIL_STATUSUPDATE").


2.   Submission, update or withdrawal of a paper

These e-mails are generated when a contribution is submitted, a file is uploaded, any details related to a submission are updated, or a submission is withdrawn. The message includes submission details (contribution ID, type of submission, title, authors), and file names and upload date/time.

If you want to edit the standard text of the e-mail generated when a new contribution has been submitted, please search for "S_PAPER_EMAIL_NEW"; if you want to edit the standard text for e-mails related to updates, please enter "S_PAPER_EMAIL_UPDATED".

To edit the standard phrasing of the message sent after a proposal submission has been withdrawn, please search for "S_PAPER_EMAIL_WITHDRAWN".

Please note: On the page Overview =>Settings =>E-mail Settings you can find an option to send automatic copies of these mails to the track chairs and/or the e-mail addresses defined as contacts for the corresponding conference tracks / contribution types, and also to reviewers that were already assigned to these submissions.


3.   Submission or update of a review

A message will be sent automatically as soon as a reviewer has submitted a review. The message contains ID and title of the contribution that was evaluated, an overview of the evaluation results, and the reviewer’s comments.

To edit the default wording of the message, please search for "S_REVIEW_EMAIL".


4.   A reviewer refuses to evaluate a submission assigned for evaluation

You can also allow reviewers to refuse to evaluate a paper assigned to them. This feature can be enabled in Overview => Settings => Main Setting for Paper Reviewing.
More information can be found at: Assignment of reviews – automated e-mail for acceptance / refusal?.

If a reviewer refuses to do an evaluation, an automatic e-mail is sent to the track chairs and conference chairs, so they can find and assign another reviewer to the corresponding submission. The e-mail contains a reason for the refusal, an explanation, if entered by the reviewer, submission details, and a direct link to the review results page. The receivers of the mail can be defined in the "E-Mail Settings". To edit the wording of the mail, please search for "S_REVIEW_REFUSAL_EMAIL” in “Wording and Phrases".


5.   Submission of a message to the PC online forum

For Program Committee members, an online forum is available where they can access all proposals and reviews and leave comments. Depending on your main "E-mail Settings", each message submitted to this forum will also be sent as an automatic e-mail to PC members reviewing the same contribution, to Chairs, Discussants and/or Reviewers.

The message contains the subject and the text of the message, the vote of the PC member (if enabled), creation date, and direct links to the page of the online forum, where all messages of the corresponding thread will be displayed.

To edit the wording, please search for "S_PC_MESSAGE_MAIL".


6.   Submission of a rebuttal

The function to allow authors to write "rebuttals" has to be enabled first. To do so, please go to: Overview => Settings => Main Setting for Paper Reviewing. Furthermore, the corresponding phase has to be enabled in “Phases and Deadlines”. You can find more information here:
Respond to peer review - let authors enter rebuttals

The wording for these mails can be edited if you search for "S_PAPER_EMAIL_REBUTTAL".


7.   Submission of the copyright transfer form for authors

This type of e-mail will be sent as soon as an author accepts the copyright and licensing policy applied to a paper by signing the copyright form during initial submission, on the first upload form, after the submission has been accepted or during the final upload of accepted papers. You find detailed information about the required settings in the ConfTool support forum (How to let authors sign an electronic copyright form).

The message contains, among other things, the "Copyright Transfer Terms and Licensing Policy", full name and title of the signing author or authorized person, the date of signing, submission details and information on the uploaded file.

To edit the text of the copyright transfer form, please go to Overview => Settings => Main Settings for Paper and Abstract Submission. To update the wording of the mail, please search for "S_PAPER_EMAIL_COPYRIGHT".


8.   Registration for participation

The e-mail is generated when a user registers for participation. It contains details on the participant, his / her registration status (registration date, participant group etc.) as well as details of the booked events or items. Furthermore, it provides information about the selected payment method. It also includes a direct link to the invoice/ pro forma invoice / registration confirmation (depending on the settings of the registration module).

The level of detail of these mails can be set in the "E-mail Settings". To edit the phrasing of the e-mail, please search for "S_USER_PART_EMAIL_CONTENT” and “S_USER_PART_EMAIL_SUBJECT".


9.   Cancelation of a registration

When an organizer or administrator cancels the registration of a participant, and the option "Cancel registration and Send a Confirmation E-mail" is chosen, an e-mail will be sent accordingly. The message contains information on the cancellation and - if required- a direct link to the invoice for the canceled registration.

To edit the wording of this e-mail, please search for "S_USER_PART_EMAIL_FAILED".


10. Receipt of a payment

An e-mail is automatically sent to the participant if a payment is recorded in ConfTool Pro (either automatically after an online payment or after manual confirmation for offline payments). The message contains the payment details and a direct link to the print version of the invoices.

To change the standard text, please search for "S_PAYMENT_RECEIVED_DETAILS" and "S_PAYMENT_RECEIVED_MAIL".


11. Cancellation of a payment

Participants also receive an e-mail if a payment was recorded as cancelled or deleted from ConfTool Pro. Again, the message contains information about the reason, the amount and date. Please also have a look at: Changing payment status / cancelation of payments 

You can edit the standard text by searching for "S_PAYMENT_CANCELLED".