How to define Smart Fields Delimiters

Delimiters in QorusDocs work hand in hand with Smart Fields, an essential part of automation in QorusDocs.

Before you can configure and modify delimiters, you’ll need to belong to the QorusDocs Admin user role.

In this article, we’ll cover:

1. What is a delimiter?
2. Defining hub-level delimiters
3. How to add hub-level delimiters
4. How to delete hub-level delimiters
5. Defining content source level delimiters
6. How to add content-source level delimiters
7. How to delete content-source level delimiters
8. Rules and recommendations for creating delimiters

1. What is a delimiter?

Delimiters in QorusDocs are a sequence of one or more characters that are used to delineate Smart Fields and separate them from the rest of the text in a document, presentation, or template.

Delimiters are frequently used to create template-like content that can easily be re-used for Sales Presentations, RFPs and any other content you wish to personalize and automate.

Here’s an example of a boilerplate cover letter, where delimiters have been used to identify Smart Fields:

Dear <Customer First Name>,

On behalf of CapacitiTech, I would like to thank you for sending us your Request for Proposal.

We enclose our proposal and recommendations for the provision of <Service Interest> Services for <Company Name>’s consideration.

With over 25 years' experience, and as a recognized leader in our field, CapacitiTech is ideally positioned to fulfill <Company Name>’s requirements for a robust, reliable, and yet reliable, cloud platform.

Thank you again for the opportunity and we look forward to working with you.

Best Regards,

<Business Development Manager>

In this example, the delimiter characters are: < and >, and the text placeholders are:

• Customer First Name
• Service Interest
• Company Name (occurs twice)
• Business Development Manager

Whenever you insert a Smart Field from the QorusDocs Add-in into a template, it will be inserted between a pair of starting and ending delimiters. Template Designers can even simply type text in a document, add delimiters before and after that text, and QorusDocs will recognize that text as a Smart Field.

QorusDocs comes with a pair of default delimiters. These are the “less than” and “more” than characters ( < and > ) we saw in the example cover letter earlier. This is however configurable and that is what we’ll be explaining next.

To see the rules and view our recommendations for creating delimiters, click here.

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2. Defining hub-level delimiters

Global delimiters are delimiters that are universally recognized across all content sources within your QorusDocs hub, unless you’ve chosen to override these delimiters for specific content sources.

Before you can work with hub-level delimiters, you’ll need to log in to Hub Central, click on 'Hub Management' on the left nav and then click on the ‘Delimiters’ tab to get access to the ‘Delimiters’ settings.

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3. How to add hub-level delimiters

Then, click on 'Add Item’ and a new delimiter entry will be generated:

Insert the starting and ending delimiter symbols in the boxes provided, and then save the new delimiter pair:

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4. How to delete hub-level delimiters

To delete a delimiter, click on the ‘X’ icon and then click save.

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5. Defining content source-level delimiters

You can also define delimiters at content source-level.

When you do that, QorusDocs will completely ignore the delimiters specified under Hub Management and will only recognize the delimiter pairs specified for all content and templates in that content source.

This is especially useful when you have content sources that connect content in different languages to QorusDocs. In some languages, like French, it might be commonplace to encounter the characters << and >> within the body text, making these a poor choice for delimiters for French content, although these would probably work just fine in English language content.

Another example is where cross-functional teams, or teams in different locations, are all using QorusDocs and have different ways of working.

One team might have existing content that uses the characters [ and ] to indicate placeholder text. These would be a good choice for delimiters, especially since template designers could save these as Smart Fields.

However, a different team might have written guidance for users inside their templates, that provide instructions on how to personalize them for real customers. If that guidance text is enclosed between the special characters [ and ], these would not be good delimiters, because QorusDocs would try to treat every snippet of guidance text as Smart Fields.  

Content-source level delimiters allow admins to specify delimiters at a granular level, to suit the content it connects to QorusDocs.

To get started, make sure you’re signed in to QorusDocs in the browser. Then in the left nav, click on Manage and Content Sources:

Then, to the right of the content source you wish to specify overriding delimiters for, click on the ‘gear’ icon, and then on the edit button.

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6. How to add content source-level delimiters

Next, click on ‘Edit’ again to enter the Content Sources’ settings:

Click on the ‘Show Advanced Options’ link, then scroll down:

Enter the starting and ending delimiters you have used within your content in the ‘Open Delimiter’ and ‘Close Delimiter’ boxes respectively and then click on 'Next'. 

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7. How to delete Content Source-level delimiters

To remove the delimiters associated with the content source, go to the advanced options of the content source settings as described above.

Then simply click inside the ‘open delimiter’ and ‘close delimiter text boxes and then clear them as per below and click on ‘Next’.

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8. Recommendations and rules for creating delimiters

As you setup your delimiters, you should know that delimiters can be made up of one or more characters, and it is generally good practice to create delimiters based on characters that do not usually occur as part of the normal body of the text. 

Here are a few examples of delimiters that work well for English language content:

• << >>
• { }
• [! !] 

If you’d like to use characters that frequently occur as part of the normal text of your content, like parentheses (), or square brackets [], then a simple but effective strategy would be to double up on those characters, like this: (( )) or [[ ]]. 

To help prevent teams from inadvertently replacing the wrong text with Smart Fields, the following rules apply:

• Delimiters must consist of 1 to 2 characters.
• You cannot use alphabetic letters A-z.
• You cannot use special characters e.g., ê, ã, Ö.
• You cannot use number 0-9.
• You cannot use common punctuation, such as:
  • ,
  • .
  • ?
  • ‘
  • “
• You cannot use common currencies e.g., $ € £.
• You cannot use the same character for starting and ending delimiter values.

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