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Notifications

Notifications are pre-formatted email messages that Service Management sends when certain workflow events occur.

Notification templates contain the structure for each type of message. You can add, update, or delete any template for an email notification if you have customer administration permissions. Each template contains the information that the recipient needs to know when the workflow triggers the email to be sent.

For example, a template for a new incident notification includes all the details of a new incident. Service Management sends this email when the recipient is the owner of the new incident, or belongs to the assignment group that owns the new incident. A template for an impending SLT breach contains information about the service target and the amount of time that remains until the breach occurs.

Important  

  • If you customize default templates or create new templates, and your Service Management community uses different languages, you must localize any new notification content. You must choose the languages and provide the translated message text that appears in the revised or new template.

  • Use of a public distribution list for a group notification overrides notification preferences.

Note Before an email notification is sent, Service Management validates that the submitter has permission to view the record for which the message is being sent.

How to view a notification template

  1. From the main menu, select Administration > Configuration > Studio.

  2. Select a record type. For example, select Incident.

  3. Select the Notifications tab. The left pane of the tab displays a list of all existing templates for the record type. The list shows the title that appears as a heading for the email notification.

  1. You can select any template in the list of Email templates to view the entire template in the right pane.

    Note To see how the notification will appear when it is sent, click  Preview on the toolbar.

  2. To change the order of the languages, click on the left side of the template menu bar. Select a language and click or to move it.
  3. Click or to scroll through the list of languages.

How to create a notification template

If you have customer administration permission, you can add a new template. Service Management provides a rich text editor to create formatted text and insert images or links.

Note If you have development and production tenants, all configuration changes must be made on the development tenant. For more information about synchronizing the tenants, see Dev2Prod - How to synchronize your development and production tenants.

  1. From the main menu, select Administration > Configuration > Studio.

  2. Select a record type. For example, select Incident.

  3. Select the Notifications tab. The left pane of the tab displays a list of all existing templates for the record type. The list shows the title that appears as a heading for the email notification.

  1. Click Add iconAdd to create a new template.

  2. If you want to create the template in a language other than English, click Add icon on the right side of the template menu bar and select the desired language.

    Note  

    • An asterisk is displayed next to the language name until you save the template. In addition, an indicator () is displayed next to the language name to indicate that you have not yet added content to the template. Once you add content and save the template, the indicator disappears.
    • To hide a specific language version of the template, click on the language name tab. If you add that language again, the last saved template will be displayed.
  3. Type a template Name. This is the internal template record name.
  4. Type a Display name. This is the external template name that appears in the list of email templates.
  5. Type a template Description.
  6. Deselect the Enabled check box to prevent the notification from being sent. By default, sending is enabled for all notifications.

  7. Select the Use group email check box to send the notification to the group email, rather than to each group member individually. It is relevant when a group is selected for the recipients parameter in the Send notification business rule. If no group email is defined for the selected group, the notification is sent to each group member individually.

    Note

    When the Use group email check box is selected:

    • You cannot use the Expression language phrase current_recipient in the template.

    • Service Management sets the language for the email to the same language as that of the group owner.

    • If there is no group owner, Service Management sets the language for the email to English.

    • If there is no group email address, Service Management instead sets the language for the email individually, to the same language as each recipient’s specified language.

    • Notification preferences that are set for individual users are ignored when a notification is sent to a group.

  8. Select the Enable agent notification preferences check box to enable the preferences that an administrator has specified about when, to whom, and for what records notifications will be sent.

    When you select this check box, the Event type drop-down list appears, enabling you to select a predefined event type. For more information, see Notification settings.

    Note This functionality is available for Request, Change, Incident, and Task records only.

  9. In the From email field, enter the sender's email address to appear in the template. The default email address is sma_noreply@microfocus.com.
  10. In the From name field, enter the sender's name to appear in the template. The default is a blank value.

  11. In the Message section, type the template Subject text, for example, This request is complete.

  12. Type the message body using the rich text editor to add special formatting to your message.

    If you want to add an image to your message, you must copy the image from a publicly available URL that can then be accessed by the recipient’s email client. Do the following:

    1. Access the image URL.
    2. Use your browser’s Copy Image function.
    3. Return to the Service Management page where you are creating the notification template.
    4. Paste the image into the template.

  13. To embed a URL in the message body, do the following:

    1. Click the link button in the editor toolbar.
    2. In the Link dialog box, enter the required URL.
    3. If you are embedding an external URL, select the relevant protocol for that URL.
    4. If you are embedding a URL link to a record, select the blank protocol option. Service Management automatically completes the URL with the correct protocol to access the specified record. Enter the link to the record using the Create_url processing rule. For more information, see Processing rules in notifications.

  14. To copy a link from a non-customized notification to a customized notification, follow these steps:

    1. In the non-customized notification, select and copy the link you wish to duplicate (the "original link").

    2. Paste the exact text that is presented, in Expression Language format, into the new custom notification. For example, to copy a link to a record's display label, you would copy the following text:

      ${:entity.Type} ${:entity.Id}: ${:entity.DisplayLabel}.

    3. Select the original link again in the non customized notification.
    4. Click Link. The Link dialog box is displayed.
    5. Copy the content of the URL field.
    6. Click Cancel.
    7. In the new custom notification, select the text you pasted in step b above, and click Link. The Link dialog box is displayed.
    8. Select blank for Protocol.
    9. In the URL field, paste the content you copied in step e above.
    10. Click OK.
  15. If you want to the notification to be sent as a mobile notification as well, select Mobile app above the language bar. For more information on mobile app notifications, see Enable mobile notifications.
  16. Click Save. Service Management adds the template to the list of templates in the left pane. The right pane displays the new template information.

  17. Make any changes or enhancements to the basic template.

  18. Click Save icon Save on the toolbar.

Note Click Discard to erase unsaved changes. Click Remove to delete a template with saved changes.

How to delete a notification template

If you plan to delete a notification template, make sure that you understand where Service Management uses the template to send workflow email notifications. If you remove the template, users will not receive the notifications specified by the workflow business rules.

  1. From the main menu, select Administration > Configuration > Studio.

  2. Select a record type. For example, select Incident.

  3. Select the Notifications tab. The left pane of the tab displays a list of all existing templates for the record type. The list shows the title that appears as a heading for the email notification.

  1. Select the template to be deleted.
  2. Click Remove icon Remove on the toolbar.

How to update a notification template

You can update existing templates with new messages or other text.

  1. From the main menu, select Administration > Configuration > Studio.

  2. Select a record type. For example, select Incident.

  3. Select the Notifications tab. The left pane of the tab displays a list of all existing templates for the record type. The list shows the title that appears as a heading for the email notification.

  1. Select the template to be updated.

  2. Change any field:

    • Name
    • Display name
    • Description
    • From email
    • From name
    • Subject
    • Message body
    • Language. Select a language from the drop-down list at the top of the page. The new language is added to the previously selected language(s).
  3. If you want to sent notifications only for specific events, click the Enable agent notification preferences check box and select the desired events.
  4. If you want to add a mobile notification to this template, select Mobile app above the language bar. For more information on mobile app notifications, see Enable mobile notifications.

  5. Click Save icon Save on the toolbar.

Note Click Discard to erase unsaved changes. Click Remove to delete a template with saved changes.

Optional: Click Header and footer to create a custom header or footer. The rich text editor enables to you make modifications to existing text, add new text, choose fonts, embed images, or create links to external destinations. If you change the header or footer, the changes apply to all notification templates.

How to edit a system notification template

You can edit the structure and content of the system templates. These templates are used for system activities. Although the templates are applicable to all record entities, they cannot be selected for any specific entity.

  1. From the main menu, select Administration > Configuration > Studio.
  2. From the drop-down list, select Cross-record settings.

  3. Select one of the following system notification templates to edit:

    Template Description
    Authorization code Used when an authorization code is sent to a user for strong identity validation
    Comment modified Used when a comment is updated
    Conversation invitation Used when a user is invited to join a conversation
    Conversation post modified Used when a post in a conversation is updated
    Default template for records Used when the ID for the selected template cannot be found in the system
    Header and Footer Contains the header and footer that appears in all notifications
    New answer added Used when a new Q&A answer is added
    New comment added Used when a comment is added
    New comment added, with anonymous agent details Used when a comment is added, and excludes the IT agent's name and avatar
    New conversation post added Used when a post is added to a conversation
    New question posted Used when a new Q&A question is asked
    Request verification code for encryption domain Used when a verification code is requested for an encryption domain
    Request verification code for strong identity validation Used when a verification code is requested for strong identity validation
  4. After you have made your changes, click Save icon Save on the toolbar.