Lock content in email templates lock-content-email-templates

Journey Optimizer allows you to lock content in email templates, either by locking the entire template or specific structures and component. This allows you to prevent unintentional edits or deletions, giving you greater control over template customization, and improving the efficiency and reliability of your email campaigns.

IMPORTANT
Content locking is an editor-level feature for authors and doesn’t guarantee the content won’t be edited when it is imported or created through API.

Content locking can be applied either at the structure level, or at the component level. Here are the main principales that apply at the structure and component level when locking content in your template.

  • When a structure is locked:

    • All content within that structure is also locked by default.
    • No content can be added to the structure.
    • By default, you cannot delete the structure. You can override this restriction by enabling the “Allow delete” option.
    • Individual content components within the locked structure can be set as editable.
  • When a structure is editable (structure not locked):

    • Individual content components can be locked inside that structure.
    • By default, you cannot delete a component if it is locked, or if the “Editable content lock only” is selected. You can override this restriction by enabling the “Allow delete” option.
AVAILABILITY
Users with permissions to create content templates can enable content locking.

Lock an email template define

Enable content locking enable

You can enable content locking for an email template directly in the Email Designer, whether you are creating a new template or editing an existing one. Follow these steps:

  1. Open or create an email template and access the content editing screen in the Email Designer.

  2. In the Body pane on the right, toggle on the Governance option.

  3. From the Mode drop-down list, select the desired locking mode for the template:

    • Content locking: Lock specific sections of content within the template. By default, all structures and components become editable. You can then selectively lock individual elements.
    • Read only: Lock the entire content of the template, preventing any modifications.

  4. If you selected the Content locking mode, you can further define how users can interact with the template. Toggle on the Enable content edition option and choose one of the following:

    • Allow structure & content addition: Users can add structures between existing ones and add content components or fragments within editable structures.

    • Allow content addition only: Users can add content components or fragments within editable structures but cannot add or duplicate structures.

  5. After selecting the locking mode, you can define which structures and/or components to lock if you have selected the Content locking mode:

    If you chose the Read only mode, you can proceed with finalizing and saving your template as usual.

You can adjust the Governance settings at any time when designing your template by selecting the template body. To do this, click the Body link in the navigation rail located at the top of the right hand-side pane.

Lock structures lock-structures

To lock a structure within your template:

  1. Select the structure you want to lock.

  2. In the Lock type drop-down list, choose Locked.

    note note
    NOTE
    By default, users cannot delete locked structures. You can override this restriction by enabling the Allow delete option.

After locking a structure, no further content components or fragments can be duplicated or added inside it. All components within a locked structure are also locked by default. To make a component editable within a locked structure:

  1. Select the component you want to unlock.

  2. Toggle on the Use specific locking option.

  3. In the Lock type drop-down list, choose Editable. To allow content editing while locking styles, select Editable content only. Learn how to lock components

Lock components lock-components

To lock a specific component within a structure:

  1. Select the component and enable the Use specific locking option in the right pane.

  2. From the Lock type drop-down list, select your preferred locking option:

    • Editable content lock only: Lock the component’s styles but allows content editing.
    • Locked: Fully lock both the content and styles of the component.
    note note
    NOTE
    The Editable lock type allows users to edit a component, even within a locked structure. Learn how to lock structures
  3. By default, users cannot delete locked components. You can enable deletion by activating the Allow delete option.

Identify locked content identify

To easily identify locked structures and components within your template, use the Navigation tree located in the left hand side menu. This menu provides a visual overview of all template elements, highlighting locked items with a lock icon and editable items with a pencil icon.

In the example below, governance is enabled for the template body. Structure 2 is locked with Component 1 editable, while Structure 3 is entirely locked.

Use templates with locked content use

When using a template with locked content, the Governance enabled message displays in the right pane.

Depending on the type of locking applied to the template, you can perform different actions on the template’s structures and components. To quickly identify all editable areas within the template, toggle on the Highlight editable areas option.

For example, in the template below, all areas are editable, except for the top image that has been locked, meaning that you cannot edit nor remove it.

Detailed information on the different types of locking that can applied, refer to these sections:

Here are some examples of emails edition and the associated content locking configuration that has been setup:

Content locking type
Template configuration
Email edition
Read-only content template
{modal="regular"}
{modal="regular"}
Full content is editable but users cannot add any structure or component
{modal="regular"}
{modal="regular"}
Locked structure that cannot be deleted
{modal="regular"}
{modal="regular"}
Component with locked styles and that cannot be deleted. Users can only modify the content.
{modal="regular"}
{modal="regular"}
Editable component within a locked structure.
{modal="regular"}
{modal="regular"}
recommendation-more-help
b22c9c5d-9208-48f4-b874-1cefb8df4d76