# Message Templates

MokoJoomCross uses message templates to format the content sent to each platform. Templates support placeholders that are replaced with article data at post time.

## Managing Templates

Navigate to **Components → MokoJoomCross → Templates** to create and edit templates.

## Template Priority

When cross-posting, the system looks for templates in this order:
1. **Platform-specific template** — matches the service type exactly (e.g., "twitter")
2. **Default template** — fallback used when no platform-specific template exists

## Available Placeholders

| Placeholder | Description | Example |
|-------------|-------------|---------|
| `{title}` | Article title | "New Product Launch" |
| `{url}` | Full article URL | "https://example.com/article/123" |
| `{introtext}` | Intro text (280 chars, HTML stripped) | "We're excited to announce..." |
| `{fulltext}` | Full text (500 chars, HTML stripped) | Extended content |
| `{image}` | Intro image full URL | "https://example.com/images/photo.jpg" |
| `{category}` | Article category name | "News" |
| `{author}` | Author display name | "John Smith" |
| `{date}` | Publish date (YYYY-MM-DD) | "2026-05-28" |

## Example Templates

### Default (all platforms)
```
{title}

{introtext}

{url}
```

### Twitter / X (280 char limit)
```
{title}

{url}
```

### Mastodon (with hashtags)
```
{title}

{introtext}

{url}

#Joomla #{category}
```

### Mailchimp (HTML email)
```html
<h1>{title}</h1>
<p>{introtext}</p>
<p><a href="{url}">Read the full article</a></p>
```

### Telegram (HTML format)
```html
<b>{title}</b>

{introtext}

<a href="{url}">Read more</a>
```

## Per-Article Override

In the article editor, the **Cross-Posting** tab lets you:
- Skip cross-posting entirely for a specific article
- Select which services to post to (instead of all enabled services)