How to export app data to repeating list in email template?

[charlieb]

I am building an online marketplace using Bubble, which allows users to post listings.

I would like to set up a weekly ‘digest’ email that sends out a list of the recent listings to our user base.

Ideally this would be automatic using Zapier and MailChimp or something similar, but I’m struggling to even work out where to start my research for how to take the data from Bubble and put it into an HTML template using a ‘repeating list structure’ (for want of a better description).

In terms of the email design, I’m thinking something simple like this:

I know how I could do this using a standard email template using variables. The bit I’m struggling with is how to get each record in my database to add a new block to the list.

Are there any plug and play tools out there that could help with this? Or will I need to look into a custom solution (a friend has suggested looking into Jekyll ).

Any pointers greatly appreciated!

[alexandru]

Hi @charlieb,

Thanks for reaching out. Let me provide some insights to help you here.

First of all, you just need to populate your Bubble database with entries that include all of information you need from your design.

Then you have multiple options whether your simply send emails with Bubble’s embedded Send Email action, where you can send customized HTMLs and insert dynamic data from your database or from your RepeatingGroup for example. Or use any other alternative like https://forum.bubble.io/t/send-beautiful-html-emails-from-bubble-through-api-connector/4061 or any other service you like. You can find Bubble’s plugins here https://bubble.io/plugins.

More on dynamic expressions: https://manual.bubble.io/working-with-data/dynamic-expressions.

And if you need any Bubble help further, you can find lots of open discussions from community here https://forum.bubble.io/.

Hope it helps.

Best,
Alex

[charlieb]

Thanks for getting back to me Alex! And for the suggestions - really helpful.

First of all, you just need to populate your Bubble database with entries that include all of information you need from your design.

Yes, I have the data (title, description, image, price etc) in my db, so that’s a good start!

I think the thing I’m struggling with is the html and the repeating group. What kind of terms/topic should I be searching for online? All of the guides I’ve found around dynamic emails are some things like customising each recipient’s first name etc which is fairly simple. How would I get the list / repeating group section, i.e. this part:

To show the correct number of listings based on how many listings I had selected for the email? i.e. If I select 3 listings for one email, then there would be 3 in the email (left image below) but if I only selected 2 listings for the email the next week, the email would only contain 2 (right image below):

Will I need to write some custom (and maybe fairly advanced html) myself? What would you call the html that supports the repeating group?

Many thanks

[alexandru]

Hi @charlieb,

Thanks for feedback. Unfortunately, we cannot provide exact solutions on this matter because Bubble development is beyond our support services, but the idea is that you should study how to use RepeatingGroups and work with its data to pass in any other elements later on.

It is a concept of Current cell or index that you can use when being clicked from your RepeatingGroup, so it will actually send an email with data containing that specific cell’s information (pulled from your database).

You’ll just need to create a RepeatingGroup with data pulling from your database, and when you click any item, you’ll send an email with dynamic information from current cell that was clicked, or any other implementation you like.

I can recommend you this channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTL_mXO3qsgFc_3s2T5wlWg where you can find lots of tutorials to sharpen your Bubble skills, and of course this forum https://forum.bubble.io/ to find more help from community including Gaby.

Thanks for understanding.