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Subscriber Questions

Feed questions are how each subscriber customizes your feed without you having to publish a separate version per customer. Define the variables your templates need (zip code, business name, social handles, brand color), and each subscriber answers them once — their values flow into every feed message they display.

How they differ from template questions​

Template questions are scoped to a single template. Each message that uses the template provides its own answers.

Feed questions are scoped to a single feed. Each subscription provides its own answers. The same answer is used across every message the subscriber displays from your feed.

Template question  →  defined per template  →  answered per message
Feed question      →  defined per feed      →  answered per subscription

A feed message can use both:

  • The template's questions, with answers provided by you (the feed publisher) — these are constants across subscribers.
  • The feed's questions, with answers provided by each subscriber — these vary per subscriber.

Defining feed questions​

In the feed editor, the right column has a Questions panel. For each variable you want subscribers to fill in:

  1. Click + New in the Questions panel.
  2. Set the Key Name to match the {keyName} in your feed's templates.
  3. Set a Title (the label subscribers see when they configure the feed).
  4. Choose a Field Type — same options as template questions: text, image, color, select, etc.
  5. Provide a Placeholder (default) — if a subscriber doesn't answer, this value is used.

Save the feed. New subscribers see the questions during the subscribe flow; existing subscribers can update answers any time from their feed details page.

Answer resolution​

When a feed message renders for a subscriber, SignPresenter walks this priority chain to fill each {keyName}:

  1. Subscriber's answer to the feed question, if they provided one.
  2. Feed question's placeholder, if no subscriber answer exists.
  3. Template's answer, if the template defines the same key.
  4. Template question's placeholder, as a final fallback.

This means feed-level customization always wins over template-level defaults. So if your weather template's question has placeholder 90210, but your feed's question has placeholder 30309, and the subscriber answered 02101 — the subscriber's 02101 is used.

Common feed-question patterns​

PatternField typeWhy
{zipCode}textLocalize weather forecasts per subscriber
{businessName}textStamp the subscriber's name onto generic templates
{logo}imageSubscriber-uploaded logo for branded slides
{accentColor}colorCoordinate brand colors
{facebook}, {twitter}, {instagram}textSocial media handles for "follow us" templates
{phone}, {email}, {address}textContact info on lobby signage

A typical commercial feed has 5–10 subscriber questions. Too many and the subscribe flow feels like a form; too few and your feed feels generic.

Field types worth highlighting​

select for plan-based content​

Use a select-with-choices field to gate certain content per subscription tier. The template's HTML can branch on the answer:

<script>
  function startAd() {
    if ('{plan}' === 'premium') showPremiumOverlay();
  }
</script>

Combined with feed pricing (see Pricing, trials, and billing), this is how to ship "good / better / best" tiers without separate feeds.

image for logos and brand assets​

Subscriber uploads a PNG or JPG; you reference it as {logo} in your templates. SignPresenter handles the upload and CDN URL automatically.

text with structured input​

Plain text fields can hold backtick-delimited arrays — see Variables and questions. Use this when one subscriber answer needs to populate a list (e.g., a feed of trivia questions where each subscriber adds their own).

Editing answers (subscribers)​

Subscribers update their answers from the feed detail page — the same page where they originally subscribed. Their answers take effect on the next cache refresh (1–2 minutes typically).

You don't get notified when a subscriber changes an answer; if you need to know (e.g., to validate against business rules), you'll have to bake validation into your templates' rendering logic, or check programmatically via the API.

Tips​

tip

Place the most important questions first — the subscribe flow shows them in the order you defined them. If you don't have an explicit order field, reorder by deleting and recreating questions in the right sequence.

warning

Renaming a question's Key Name breaks every subscriber currently using the old name. Their answers don't auto-migrate. If you must rename, do it during a quiet period and notify subscribers.