amp script fallback content

Question

I am trying to pull blog info in one of our emails. the issue that I have is that I do not have a field that I can match on between the Sendable Data Extension & the non sendable data extension where I have the blog related data.

In the sendable data extension I have a destination field: example:

Rome, Lucca, Florence, Venice and Assisi

And in the blog piece I have a Location_City field data example: Rome|Florence

We agreed that if the first location from both of these data extension matches we will pull blog content otherwise will have a fallback content.

I had to add in the non sendable DE a default field of 1 as detailed here:

Exacttarget data extension - How to retrieve all rows in AMPScript

Below is my code:

%%[

SET @Location=AttributeValue('Product: Description')
SET @virgula=','


if IndexOf(@Location,@virgula) > 0 then 
  SET @PrimaryLocation=Substring(@Location,1, Subtract(IndexOf(@Location,@virgula),1))
  else SET @PrimaryLocation=@Location
endif 


SET @rows = LookupRows("Blog Post Reference Table","Default","1")
set @rowCount = rowcount(@rows)
if @rowCount > 0 then

  for @i = 1 to @rowCount do


    set @row = row(@rows, @i) /* get row based on counter */
    set @Article = field(@row,"Article Title")
    set @Description = field(@row,"Description")
    set @Image = field(@row,"Image")
    SET @LinkTrip=field(@row,"Permalink")
    set @UrlFinal=RedirectTo(@LinkTrip)
    set @defaultURl='https://www.trafalgar.com'
    set @LocationCity=field(@row,"Location_City")
    set @bara='|'


  if IndexOf(@LocationCity,@bara) > 0 then 
  SET @LocationCity2=Substring(@LocationCity,1, Subtract(IndexOf(@LocationCity,@bara),1))
  else SET @LocationCity2=@LocationCity
endif 



if @PrimaryLocation==@LocationCity2 then
]%%

From the blog piece: <br>
Article name:%%=v(@Article)=%%

<br>

Description: %%=v(@Description)=%%
<br>
<a href="%%=RedirectTo(IIF(@nolink,v(@defaultURl),v(@UrlFinal)))=%%"><img src="%%=v(@Image)=%%"></a>

%%[else]%%
DEFAULT CONTENT

%%[endif]%%

%%[next @i ]%%



%%[ endif ]%%

Issue that I have is that for the rows where I don't have a match I get the default content; if I take out the else branch I don't have a default content.

I tried to rewrite using LookupOrderedRows but I couldn't get it working?

How should I re-write this in order to pull the default content piece when I do not have a match on the location?

Giulietta

Answer 1

I believe doing the following to fake 'break' your loop if you get a match should do the trick.

%%[

SET @Location=AttributeValue('Product: Description')
SET @virgula=','

if IndexOf(@Location,@virgula) > 0 then 
  SET @PrimaryLocation=Substring(@Location,1, Subtract(IndexOf(@Location,@virgula),1))
  else SET @PrimaryLocation=@Location
endif 


SET @rows = LookupRows("Blog Post Reference Table","Default","1")
set @rowCount = rowcount(@rows)
if @rowCount > 0 then

  set @match = 0

  for @i = 1 to @rowCount do

    if @match == 0 then
      set @row = row(@rows, @i) /* get row based on counter */
      set @Article = field(@row,"Article Title")
      set @Description = field(@row,"Description")
      set @Image = field(@row,"Image")
      SET @LinkTrip=field(@row,"Permalink")
      set @UrlFinal=RedirectTo(@LinkTrip)
      set @defaultURl='https://www.trafalgar.com'
      set @LocationCity=field(@row,"Location_City")
      set @bara='|'


      if IndexOf(@LocationCity,@bara) > 0 then 
        SET @LocationCity2=Substring(@LocationCity,1, Subtract(IndexOf(@LocationCity,@bara),1))
      else 
        SET @LocationCity2=@LocationCity
      endif

      if @PrimaryLocation == @LocationCity2 then
        SET @match = 1
      endif

    endif 



    if @match then
]%%

From the blog piece: <br>
Article name:%%=v(@Article)=%%

<br>

Description: %%=v(@Description)=%%
<br>
<a href="%%=RedirectTo(IIF(@nolink,v(@defaultURl),v(@UrlFinal)))=%%"><img src="%%=v(@Image)=%%"></a>

%%[ else if @i == @rowcount then]%%
DEFAULT CONTENT

%%[
    endif
  next @i
endif 
]%%

The major change is that I added a variable called @match and had the setting of the variables for each iteration based on that value being 0 or false. Once a match is found, this value is changed to true, meaning that the loop continues, but takes no action.

In order to allow the default content to still display if there is no match, I enclosed your content output in a different AMPscript conditional. This will display based on the match variable. If the match variable is not met, then it goes to an else if statement. In this statement, we look to see if the iteration @i is equal to the final run of the loop @rowcount and if this is true, then displays the default content (as there were no matches) but otherwise nothing is output.