How to substitute Sendgrid template variables? (in node-js)

Question

It seems to be a simple parameter I'm missing but I'm having trouble figuring out exactly what it is.

This is the request I'm sending with '@sendgrid/mail':

email.js:

const sgMail = require('@sendgrid/mail');

function emailRequest() {
    msg = {
      to: '[email protected]
      from: '[email protected]',
      subject: 'Receipt for Business Expenses',
      template_id: 'db6d11ae-41e4-4e1a-a71b-f5368eb21c9c',
      personalizations: [
        {
          to: '[email protected],
          from: '[email protected],
          subject: 'Receipt for Business Expenses,
          template_id: 'db6d11ae-41e4-4e1a-a71b-f5368eb21c9c',
          substitutions: {
            ':firstname': 'Bobba',
            ':ordernumber': 'WHAAA',
            ':orderdate': 'today',
            ':ordertime': 'NOW!',
          },
          custom_args: {
            ':firstname': 'Bobba',
            ':ordernumber': 'WHAAA',
            ':orderdate': 'today',
            ':ordertime': 'NOW!',
          },
        },
      ],
      sub: {
        ':firstname': 'Bobba',
        ':ordernumber': 'WHAAA',
        ':orderdate': 'today',
        ':ordertime': 'NOW!',
      },
      substitutions: {
        ':firstname': 'Bobba',
        ':ordernumber': 'WHAAA',
        ':orderdate': 'today',
        ':ordertime': 'NOW!',
      },
    };

  sgMail.setApiKey(process.env.SENDGRID_API_KEY);

  return sgMail
    .send(msg)
    .then(response => {
      return response;
    })
    .catch(err => {
      throw err;
    });
}

The email sends, but I'm still getting unsubstituted templates:

The source code for sendgrid-nodejs mail.js seems to say that as long as there is 'substitutions', it will initialize the mailing class with those substitutions but it's not working:

https://github.com/sendgrid/sendgrid-nodejs/blob/master/packages/helpers/classes/mail.js

https://sendgrid.com/docs/API_Reference/Web_API_v3/Mail/index.html

How do you properly substitute variables into templates? Am I using the wrong package?

Thanks for posting. I have been trying to get an answer from their support for almost two weeks now. Their documentation is awful and the support is not much better. Thanks for posting, will try your answer below! — Sean
Glad I could help. Documentation was pretty spread out but I was able to find a little nugget in there after digging through the Github issues about these substitution wrappers here: github.com/sendgrid/sendgrid-nodejs/blob/master/packages/mail/… — Kyle Truong

Kyle Truong Kyle Truong · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-04T16:33:55

After a bit more digging, I found the answer in the issues section of their github. I was missing 'substitutionWrappers'. To get it working, all I had to do was add 'substitutionWrappers' to the message along with 'substitutions':

const msg = {
    to: '[email protected]'
    from: '[email protected]',
    subject: 'Receipt for Business Expenses',
    template_id: 'da6db3ae-41e4-4e1a-a71b-f5368ab41c9c',
    substitutionWrappers: [':', ''],
    substitutions: {
      firstname: 'Bobba',
      ordernumber: 'WHAAA',
      orderdate: 'today',
      ordertime: 'NOW!',
    },
  };

How to substitute Sendgrid template variables? (in node-js)

1 Answers