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The salutation.dat configuration defines the salutations the buyer can choose from when entering their billing address and an alternative delivery address. The same file also determines how the complete salutation line in letters and emails is later built from them. Konfig Anrede Guide: Defining how salutations and titles are formed, Selection lists for address data · Reference: title.dat configuration · Basics: Configuration basics

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Where the file is located

The shop looks for the file in two locations, in this order:
The subshop’s file takes precedence. If there is none or it is empty, the shop falls back to the shared file one level up. This lets you maintain one salutation list for all subshops and deviate only where necessary.
At least one of the two files must exist and must not be empty. If the shop finds neither, or the header row is missing, it aborts with an error message.

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Structure

The file is tab-separated. The first row contains the column names, and from the second row on, each salutation has its own row.
Columns are identified by their names in the header row, not by their position. This means the column order is up to you, but the spelling of the names is not. The shop does not evaluate more than ten columns.The module for forms and inquiries even aborts with a warning if one of the six columns is missing from the header row.

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The first entry stays empty

The second row of the file, that is, the first data entry, should be left empty in the Salutation column. This makes the selection list in the shop start with an empty entry, so the buyer makes a deliberate choice instead of unintentionally accepting the first salutation.
For this empty entry, the shop prefixes the salutation code in the form value with empty_, for example empty_00. It removes the prefix again during evaluation. So if you come across empty_ in form values or in the source code, it is not an error.

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Salutation code and gender code

If “Herr” uses code 01 in the German shop, then “Mr.” must use the same code 01 in the English shop. The same applies to the gender code. The reason lies in further processing: the code is stored, not the text. Only if the code has the same meaning across all languages can first name and title be validated correctly later and a matching salutation be generated.
You may need to coordinate these codes with your ERP system. That is where they end up as well.

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The salutation line

In the CompleteSalutation column, you assemble the complete salutation line from three placeholders. You define how the title is formed in the title.dat configuration. Reference: title.dat configuration This results in the typical patterns:

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Example

A salutation.dat for the language combination German and English. The first data row is the empty entry. This example illustrates the code rule well: 01 means the same thing in both language blocks, namely the male individual salutation, and therefore also has the same gender code 1 in both.
You set the language your shop uses in the Basic section of the shop.config.
Reference: shop.config, basics and technology

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Changes to the salutation list

The shop reads the file once per request. Changes therefore take effect with the next page request. A row you remove disappears from the selection list. For orders that have already stored the corresponding salutation code, the shop then no longer finds a matching entry and outputs neither the salutation text nor the salutation line. It is therefore best to delete only rows whose code was never in use, and otherwise change only the text.