Mailgun template for batch sending with recipient variables in Handlebars expression - handlebars.js

Question

I am trying to create a Mailgun template for batch sending, and the template needs to use a recipient variable within a Handlebars conditional to determine the language to use, like so:
<div>
{{#if %recipient.eng%}}
Hello
{{else}}
Bonjour
{{/if}}
</div>
However, when making a POST call to create the above template, I get the error response:
"message": "template parse error: Parse error on line 2:\nLexer error\nToken: Error{\"Unexpected character in expression: '%'\"}"
There isn't any documentation on the Mailgun site that uses batch sending with Handlebars, so it may not be possible.
Has anyone managed to successfully do this?

Answer 1

Having asked the question to Mailgun support, they recently got back to me.The conclusion is it is not possible to use recipient variables within handlebars expressions unfortunately.

Answer 2

You need to copy the participant variable to be a standard variable for the email. Note the line starting -F v:eng.
curl -s --user 'api:YOUR_API_KEY' \
https://api.mailgun.net/v3/YOUR_DOMAIN_NAME/messages \
-F from='Excited User <YOU#YOUR_DOMAIN_NAME>' \
-F to=alice#example.com \
-F to=bob#example.com \
-F recipient-variables='{"bob#example.com": {"first":"Bob", "id":1, "eng": true}, "alice#example.com": {"first":"Alice", "id": 2, "eng": false}}' \
-F v:eng='%recipient.eng%'
-F subject='Hey, %recipient.first%' \
-F text='If you wish to unsubscribe, click http://mailgun/unsubscribe/%recipient.id%'
You will then be able to access it using the standard variable in your handlebars template
<div>
{{#if %eng%}}
Hello
{{else}}
Bonjour
{{/if}}
</div>