Parameters are placeholders that are used to modify the content and behavior of actions when they are executed. You can enter any parameter placeholders into any text field in a WunderAutomation action. When the action is executed the placeholder values are replaced with values from the WordPress environment and the provided objects.
Find the full list of built in parameters here.
Let’s say you want to send an email to a WordPress user after the first login. You create a "Send email" action and set recipient to {{ user.email }} and perhaps set the email subject to "Hello {{ user.firstname }}. When the workflow is executed, the parameter names inside the double curly brackets will be replaced with the actual values for that user.
The easiest way to use parameters is via the parameter section in the top right corner of each action. It always shows the available parameters based on the objects that are available in the workflow.
When clicking on a parameter name, the parameter editor pops to make it easier to define the exact behavior of the selected parameter:
Depending on the selected parameter you will get different options. The resulting parameter is always displayed at the bottom of the parameter editor pop-up.
Parameter syntax
Most of the time, you will be able to get the parameter placeholder using the pop-up parameter editor so you don’t have to learn the syntax by heart. The resulting placeholder syntax is always visible at the bottom of the editor screen.
The parameter placeholders are always enclosed in double curly brackets, {{ }}. The content of the placeholder is then divided into parts:
| Part | Description |
|---|---|
| Parameter name | The name of the parameter. Always written in small caps. Most parameter names consist of two parts, the name of an object and the name of the parameter name, i.e post.id or user.email. |
| Divisor | | If the parameter placeholder also has modifiers, the name and the modifiers need to be separated with a single pipe (|) character. |
| Modifiers | Modifiers are used to modify how the parameter is resolved at execution time. They can provide formatting patterns, default values, etc. A modifier has the syntax name: ‘value’. Multiple modifiers are separated with commas (,). |
Modifiers
To control the exact output of a resolved parameter, modifiers can be used.
| Modifier | Code | Values | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return field as | return | value or label | By default, parameters will return their internal value as represented in the database. Some parameters can also have a label or "human-readable" representation. I.e the post status "publish" is almost always written using the label "Published". |
| Treat field as | type | text, date, phone | With some parameters, the returned value might need to be converted to a specific format. |
| Format (date) | format | Relevant for fields that return date values. Formats the date using PHP date() function (I.e Y-m-d H:i:s). If left blank it defaults to using WunderAutomation standard date-time format. Read more about working with date parameters. | |
| Add or subtract | add | Relevant for fields that return date values. Modifies the returned value using PHP strtotime() function. Read more about working with date parameters. | |
| Format (phone) | format | e.164 | Optionally formats the phone number in E.164 format for sending SMS etc. If no country code is typed in by customer, E.164 formatting will use country code from customer billing country or WooCommerce shop address. |
| URL encode | urlenc | yes/no | If the returned value is going to be used in an API call, it is sometimes needed to URL-encode it first. |