Emails & Notifications

In order to get the most out of your Knack app, you need to keep your users engaged and informed. One of the best ways to do this is to ensure that they are notified with the right information at the right time with emails and in-app notifications.

There are two ways that you can notify your users: using emails and in-app notifications

  •  Emails are sent to your users after triggering events. Emails can be used to confirm, inform or remind your users. For example, emailing a receipt once a user’s payment has been submitted.
  •  In-App notifications can be triggered if certain criteria are met. These notifications are displayed directly on the page. For example, displaying a warning on the page if a payment hasn’t been made by a certain date or displaying a notification if data has been incorrectly entered.

Emails

There are multiple ways that Knack’s built-in email feature can help keep you and your users informed.

Send Emails When Forms Are Submitted

Once a user submits a form in your app, you can have a follow-up email trigger. This email can be used to notify you of a new form submission or automatically follow-up with the user after they submit the form:

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In the example above, the user's name, order ID, and other field inputs from the form are included in the confirmation email.

Rules can be added to your form emails so that you can specify who receives an email, and under what conditions. For example, you can create a rule that will send you a notification whenever your form is submitted and the status of an order changes.

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Send Emails When Links Are Clicked

In addition to triggering emails after a form has been submitted, you can also add email triggers to your grids, lists, and other views where your data is being displayed.

These triggers display as links in your views and will send an email for that record once the link is clicked:

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Send Automated Emails on a Scheduled Basis

​Emails can also be scheduled so that they are sent on a recurring basis. These emails will be sent based on the criteria that you choose and the values in your records so that you are only sent information about the records that are relevant to you. 

​Leveraging this will allow you to create automated notifications that move workflows forward and keep your business going:

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There are a few ways you can leverage scheduled notifications:

  • Send a daily email that will inform you of any orders that must be fulfilled.

  • Send a weekly email that will notify your users of any upcoming tasks that are due for the week.

  • Send a monthly summary of projects and tasks. This could include hours used against hours remaining or a list of tasks that have been completed for the month.

Use Zapier for Advanced Emailing

Knack is not designed to handle group or bulk emails. This is because emails sent via Knack do not include unsubscribe links, spam prevention, delivery maximization, and other features that ensure proper delivery.

Apps like ​​Zapier​​ can be used to ​​connect your Knack app with an email service like MailChimp​​ so that you can send bulk emails and newsletters to your Knack users. 

​You can also incorporate Zapier's ​​Email by Zapier​​ integration to send emails when events happen in Knack, like record creation or updates.

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In-App Notifications

In addition to sending emails to your users, you can also have notification messages appear directly on your Live App pages. These notification options will immediately engage your users when they are using your Knack app.

Display a Notification on Your Live App Pages

​You can display a notification on your Live App page using rules to define exactly when the notification displays and who it displays to. 

​Notifications can remind users of an upcoming due date or display a warning if that due date is past due.​

​For example, the following notification will display on the page once the user logs in, warning that a payment due date is past due:

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Display a Notifications When a User Inputs Invalid Data

You can also show notifications when a user attempts to submit a form with incorrect or missing data. This allows you to control what data users submit by enforcing the data standards that you specify.

When triggered, a notification will display on the page notifying the user that the data is not formatted correctly. The user will not be able to submit the form until that data is corrected:

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Display a Confirmation Message When a User Submits a Form

In addition to sending a confirmation email once a form has been submitted, you can also display a confirmation on the page- this can be used to notify the user that the form was successfully submitted. It can also be customized to include further instructions or contact information for a follow-up:

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Additional Resources

​These are just a few examples of how you can use Knack’s email and notification features to engage your users and add additional function​ality to the workflow of your app.​

​You can learn more about common workflow examples in our ​​Workflow​​ support article. For​more on creating​ your own unique workflows, check out our ​​Workflow Tools​​ support article.