Partials | Knock Docs

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Partials

Learn how to create reusable pieces of content using partials.

Partials are reusable pieces of content you can use across any of your channel templates. HTML partials can be enabled as "blocks" for use in Knock’s drag-and-drop email editor.

In this page, we'll walk through how to create partials and use them in your templates using Knock's code editor or visual editor.

Managing partials

Creating and editing partials

To get started, navigate to the "Partials" page under the "Developers" section of the main sidebar where you can create a new partial.

When creating or editing partials, you can use the following properties:

Property	Description
`Name`	A name for your partial.
`Key`	A unique key for your partial.
`Type`	The type of content you want to create. This can be HTML, markdown, plaintext, or JSON.
`Description`	An optional description of your partial.
`Is block`	Whether or not to enable this partial as a block within the visual editor (HTML partials only).
`Icon name`	An icon to display for this partial within the visual editor.

Partials are environment-specific and follow the same version control model as the rest of Knock.

Editing partial content

After creating a partial, you can edit its content in the code editor.

You can include Liquid variables in your content which will be scoped to your partial. When using the partial in a template, you can pass in values for these variables. To include a variable in your partial, use the following syntax: {{ variable_name }}.

Editing HTML partials

HTML partials display a preview alongside the editor. Open the preview by clicking the "Preview" button or using the Cmd + ] keyboard shortcut on Mac, or Ctrl + ] on Windows.

Select an email layout to preview the partial within.
Use the <style> tag to add CSS to your partial, which will be inlined when rendering your email messages.
Edit the placeholder variable values in the preview sidebar. These values are just for the preview and will not be used in your final messages. The preview text will also appear alongside the variable name in the code editor typeahead information.

Archiving partials

Partials can be archived from the "Partials" page or the partial's details page.

Using partials in templates

Partials can be used in templates with the code editor or visual editor.

You can also include partials in other partials. Knock will render partials recursively up to a maximum depth of 5.

In the code editor

Use partials by using the render tag with the following syntax: {% render 'partial_key' %}. You can also use the partial button in the toolbar to insert a partial.

Pass variables into your partial using the following syntax: {% render 'partial_key', variable_name: 'value' %}. You can pass in plaintext values or Liquid expressions like {% render 'partial_key', variable_name: data.variable_name %}.

The Knock render tag does not support the for and with modifiers.

To replicate the for modifier, use the Liquid for block.

To replicate the with modifier, use the {% assign %} tag to re-assign a variable.

In the visual editor

HTML partials can be used in the visual editor if they are enabled as blocks. Add a partial to your template by dragging it from the "Custom blocks" section of the sidebar into the template.

Click a custom block to open the inspect panel to edit variable values. You can enter a plaintext value or a Liquid expression like {{ data.variable_name }}.

Frequently asked questions

To use a partial in the visual editor, it must be an HTML partial and enabled as a block.

Partials must be committed before they can be used by templates in a given environment. Templates will always use the published version of a partial.

If you're using a partial in a template that is not yet committed or has unpublished changes, you will not see your latest changes.

Because partial variable inputs currently only support plaintext values, you can't pass a JSON array of items to a partial variable and then iterate over them within the partial's content.

Instead, you can use a placeholder variable in your partial that will contain the final, rendered list of items. You'll then provide the Liquid iteration logic in the template that renders the partial when you configure the input value for the partial variable.

For example, if you have a partial that renders a list of items, you can use a placeholder variable in your partial:

Then, in the message template that renders the partial, you can provide the Liquid logic to iterate over the items as the input value for {{ items_list }}:

Yes, but not directly as true or false values. Because variable inputs for partials currently only support plaintext values, boolean inputs will be treated as strings when passed into a partial. This means that a boolean value of false will be treated as the string "false" in your partial's content, which evaluates as truthy in Liquid.

Rather than referencing a boolean value in your partial's content like this:

You can use a Liquid expression to check the string value of the boolean input:

Because empty strings are also truthy in Liquid, if you'd like to check whether or not a value was provided to a partial at runtime you can use the blank object:

Not directly. Liquid variables in your partials are scoped to the partial itself, and serve as placeholders for values that you'll configure within your message templates that use the partial.

To reference variables like recipient, current_message, or workflow within a partial, you can use a placeholder variable in your partial and configure the input value in the template editor to reference these values.