XML-to-Email Overview

The concept of XML-to-Email webforms is very simple. Your web form captures data from potential leads and sends that data in a specific XML format to your unique Front Desk email address.

If the contents of the email are in a machine-readable format then FrontDesk is able to find the data in the email and process that data into Propertybase.

It's very important the data being sent to Front Desk follows the specified XML format. The code below shows common supported XML tags for both Contact and Inquiry objects.

Please note that XML tags are case sensitive.

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Standard Contact XML Tags

<Salutation>Form Data</Salutation>
<FirstName>Form Data</FirstName> 
<LastName>Form Data</LastName> 
<Email>Form Data</Email>
<Phone>Form Data</Phone>
<MobilePhone>Form Data</MobilePhone> 
<LeadSource>Form Data</LeadSource>
<MailingStreet>Form Data</MailingStreet>
<MailingCity>Form Data</MailingCity>
<MailingState>Form Data</MailingState> 
<MailingPostalCode>Form Data</MailingPostalCode>

Note: Not all XML tags are required, only Last Name. 

 

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Other Common Supported XML Tags

We can support many other XML tags, below is a list of common tags. 

Data from the XML tags can be mapped to any field on the Contact or Inquiry object. You will need to contact our support team and inform them of the API Names of the fields that you want the data mapped to. 

<BathsMin>Form Data</BathsMin> 
<BedsMin>Form Data</BedsMin> 
<BedsMax>Form Data</BedsMax> 
<Budget>Form Data</Budget> 
<BuyingTimeframe>Form Data</BuyingTimeframe>
<ContactPreference>Form Data</ContactPreference> 
<ContactType>Form Data</ContactType> 
<EmploymentStatus>Form Data</EmploymentStatus>
<InquirySource>Form Data</InquirySource> 
<InquiryURL>Form Data</InquiryURL> 
<InterestedIn>Form Data</InterestedIn> 
<Language>Form Data</Language> 
<ListingId>Form Data</ListingId> 
<LotSizeMin>Form Data</LotSizeMin> 
<LotSizeMax>Form Data</LotSizeMax> 
<Message>Form Data</Message>
<OwnerId>Form Data</OwnerId> 
<PriceMin>Form Data</PriceMin> 
<PriceMax>Form Data</PriceMax> 
<ProjectName>Form Data</ProjectName> 
<ProjectId>Form Data</ProjectId> 
<PropertyEnquiredAbout>Form Data</PropertyEnquiredAbout> 
<PropertyType>Form Data</PropertyType> 
<ReasonForPurchase>Form Data</ReasonForPurchase>
<RotationName>Form Data</RotationName> 
<SellingTimeFrame>Form Data</SellingTimeFrame>
<SizeMin>Form Data</SizeMin> 
<SizeMax>Form Data</SizeMax> 
<UtmCampaign>Form Data</UtmCampaign>
<UtmContent>Form Data</UtmContent>
<UtmMedium>Form Data</UtmMedium>
<UtmSource>Form Data</UtmSource>
<UtmTerm>Form Data</UtmTerm>

The more data that you include in your email the more data that can be submitted to Propertybase. It is not required to have all these questions on your form for your customer, some of this data can be added to the email body when you build your email template. 

Once the data is captured by FrontDesk it can be pushed to any field that you would like. You will have to contact our support team and inform them of the field API Names that you would like the data above populated to. 

 

Custom Fields

The data captured can be sent to any field in Propertybase on the Contact or Inquiry objects.

If you have additional data that you would like to capture which is not listed in the common fields above then please contact the support team and they can assist you with adding support to additional XML tags. 

Our support team will need to verify that we are receiving the additional data in the correct format and will have to setup the correct mapping to your custom fields in FrontDesk.

After you send in a test record if something does not process correctly, let us know and we will adjust your mapping.

Always make sure you Grant Access, so we can verify.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

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Does the fields have to be in a specific order?

No it does not matter, Inquiry and Contact fields can be mixed up. As the system will know where to start and stop grabbing the information for each field.  For instance, it starts grabbing the last name data at <LastName> and ends at </LastName>, it does not care about the order of the tags. 

 

My XML is missing from the data when it is sent to FrontDesk

Check that your email format is TEXT and not HTML as a HTML formatted email with XML in the body can cause problems. 

The easiest way to achieve this is to make sure that the email header includes Content-Type: text/plain

For more information about email headers please refer to this blog article.  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1414325/is-headercontent-typetext-plain-necessary-at-all 

If you are using Gravity Forms and you are unable to get the email to use plain text format, here's how you can force the email to use plain text format by using a filter – see “4. Change the message format” using the  https://docs.gravityforms.com/gform_notification/

 

The processed data is not appearing in Propertybase?

Check the format of the XML tags and note the tags are Case Sensitive and do not contain spaces. 

Contact the support team so that they can ensure that the data is mapped to the correct field in Propertybase. Please include a sample inquiry and the API Names of the fields that you would like the data mapped to.  Also recommend that you Grant Support Access, so we can verify everything is processed correctly.

 

Are the XML tags case sensitive?

Yes the XML tags are case sensitive and there should not be any spaces in the tags. 

For instance the First Name and Last Name would be sent as per the below.

Incorrect

<first name>John</first name>
<last name>Smith</last name>

Correct

<FirstName>John</FirstName>
<LastName>Smith</LastName>

 

Can I have spaces in the XML tags?

No the XML tags are sensitive to spaces and the code reader will not find the tags if they have spaces in them.  

Incorrect

<First Name>John</First Name>
<Last Name>Smith</Last Name>

Incorrect

< FirstName >John</ FirstName >
< LastName >Smith</ LastName >

Correct

<FirstName>John</FirstName>
<LastName>Smith</LastName>

  

Can I have spaces between the XML tags and the data?

Yes the code reader will support spaces between the XML tags and the data.

Correct

<FirstName> John </FirstName>
<LastName> Smith </LastName>

 

Do I need the / in the closing XML tag?

Yes the closing XML tag requires a / at the start of the tag to identify it as a closing tag. 

Incorrect

<FirstName>John<FirstName>
<LastName>Smith<LastName>

Correct

<FirstName>John</FirstName>
<LastName>Smith</LastName>

  

Can I add additional data to the email that is not on the form?

Yes. It is common to add additional data to your email that is not on your form. For instance, you may want to write the Address of the Listing or Name of the Project so you know what the inquiry is about. You may also want to write the URL from the web form so that you can track where your leads are coming from.

 

Can I add marketing UTM data to the email?

Yes. We recommend if you are doing digital marketing that you capture the UTM data from your marketing so that you can see what digital marketing is effective. This can be achieved by having the UTM data in the InquiryUrl or having the data mapped to separate UTM Tags. If possible we recommend mapping the data to separate UTM Tags 

<UtmCampaign>summer_sale</UtmCampaign>
<UtmContent>video_ad</UtmContent>
<UtmMedium>email</UtmMedium>
<UtmSource>newsletter</UtmSource>
<UtmTerm>newyork_cupcakes</UtmTerm>

For more information on how to use UTM parameters in your digital marketing please have look at this website. 

https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-use-utm-parameters/

 

What if I can't send my emails using XML?

Email to FrontDesk only works if the email is formatted as an XML as this is a machine-readable format. If you are unable to send emails with XML then please investigate other services such as FrontDesk Forms or WebToProspect API. Help Articles below. 

FrontDesk Web Forms 

WebToProspect REST API

JSON-To-Email