Totara Tip: Using parameters in the featured links block

Personalization plays an increasingly important role in motivating and engaging employees within a learning environment. A simple yet powerful way to support this is by adding a personalized welcome message to the dashboard. For example:
"Welcome back, [first name]!"

By using placeholders, you can automatically tailor this message to the logged-in user.

What are placeholders?

Starting from Totara version 18, it’s possible to add parameters (placeholders) to a Featured Links block. These parameters are automatically replaced with personal details of the user viewing the dashboard.

How to set a personalized welcome message

1. Add a Featured Links block with a static tile.
2. Configure the settings as desired. For more details, see: Static Tile Settings
3. In the ‘Description’ field, add the text that includes a placeholder.
   You can find an overview of all available placeholders in the Totara Help article: Featured Links Block Parameters.

A placeholder will only display content if the corresponding field in the user’s profile is filled in. If the field is empty, the placeholder will remain blank.

Working with multilingual content

Using a multilingual setup? You can combine placeholders with multilingual HTML strings. Below is an example of how to format the text:

<h1>
<span lang="en" class="multilang">Welcome to the learning environment, [user:first_name] </span>
<span lang="nl" class="multilang">Welkom in de leeromgeving, [user:first_name] </span>
</h1>

<p>
<span lang="en" class="multilang">In our learning environment, you'll find the open course catalog, your ongoing courses, and your earned badges. Enjoy your learning journey!</span>
<span lang="nl" class="multilang">In onze leeromgeving vind je het open cursusaanbod, je lopende cursussen en je behaalde badges. Veel leerplezier!</span>
</p>