With SP37, TinyMCE v6.8.2 is now being used in CRM and BBIS. TinyMCE introduced a merge tag feature in v6.2 (released 9/26/2022). This new feature does not involve using images as placeholders. The email processor and email editor should be updated to make use of this feature.

Currently, the email editor uses an image element as a place holder for a merge field. As part of the save process, the editor ensures the html it is trying to save is valid html. When the email processor customizes the email for the recipient, it looks for these specially formatted image tags to replace. The underlying library used to do the merge works on the assumption that the html it is processing is valid. The current process works, but it does limit where a merge tag can be used. For example, it is invalid html to have an image tag inside of another html element's attributes. So the image tag will either be removed by the email editor (as it is invalid) or, if you were able to save the invalid html, just be ignored by the merge process.

An example of something that we can not currently do:

In the body of the email, place three call to actions that link to a giving page.

Your gift of $100, $200, or $300 will support...

These have a label based on the amount determined by the ask ladder included in the export. They would link to a donation form that pre-fills that amount. Each recipient would receive an email that shows the call to actions tailored to them based off of the ask ladder logic.

Migrating to the new tinyMCE feature for merge fields, and changing the related merge processes, would make this technically possible, even if it required a customization on our part to implement. But the current way merge fields are handled imposes a technical limitation that we can not program around.