NetResults Tracker Help |
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Notification Rules | | | |
Topics Covered In This Section
Basic Information About Email Notifications
The body of a Tracker email notification is divided
into seven sections which you can configure. Listed from the top
(first line of email body) to the bottom, they are as follows.
- Greeting - the first line of the
email, e.g. "Hello Sue Smith,". The Greeting is part of the
Email Common Content
configured for each form in Tracker.
- Introduction - a few lines to
introduce the email, e.g. a
sentence or two to let the user know this is an automated response
from Tracker. The Introduction is part of the
Email Common Content
configured for each form in Tracker.
- Operation Description -
a few lines to describe why this
email notification is being sent, e.g. this issue has been assigned
to you (the recipient of the email). The Operation Description can be configured in
each Email Rule.
- Link - link (URL) to the record in Tracker
(when browsing to the link, record is
displayed after you enter your login information).
The hyperlink
is created based on the configuration set for the workgroup in the
Workgroup Management System
- History Comment - the History Comment that was entered by
the user who triggered the email, e.g. comment they entered when using
the Edit operation to update a record.
- Fields - the fields within the record referenced by the email notification.
The fields included in the notification message can be limited by
user group within a field's visibility options.
- Signature - the last section
of the email, typically used
for the signature at the bottom of the email (contact information).
The Signature is part of the
Email Common Content
configured for each form in Tracker.
The Email Common Content can
be configured differently for each form
in Tracker or can be configured
based on each option menu item in a
particular pulldown (for example, the Email Common Content can be
different for each product or each priority level). The Subject line of the
email as well as the Operation Description part of the email body
can be configured per email notification rule. Notification Rules can also
be configured per form
or
based on each option menu
item in a particular pulldown.
Each form or option menu item in a pulldown
can have its own unique set of conditions (defined by the email
rules) which trigger email notifications.
User Group membership (privileges)
of the recipient can be used to determine
which parts of the email are sent. And, each recipient's personal
preferences
are used to customize the content of the email they receive.
For example, Date/Time fields will be formatted according to the recipient's
time zone and date and time format preferences.
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Notification Rules
Outgoing email notifications can be configured for a workflow using Notification Rules.
You can configure a set of notification rules that are applied to a workflow or
you can configure a set of notification rules for each option menu item in a pulldown.
Review the Basic Information About Email Notifications
section for details about the structure of email notification messages.
To manage notification rules for a workflow:
- Login to the
workgroup
as Admin
- Click on the Admin icon
- Click on the Workflows link
- Select the workflow in the Workflows pulldown at the top of the page.
The page will be refreshed to display the properties of the selected workflow.
- Click on the Manage link to the right of Notification Rules
- The Notification Rules for the form will be displayed.
If the <Pulldown Name> <Default> Notification Rules
field is displayed (where <Pulldown Name> is the selected pulldown), this
indicates that the Notification Rules can be set differently based on the option menu item
that was selected in the pulldown.
If <Pulldown Name> <Default> Notification Rules field is not
displayed, this indicates that the
Notification Rules are not different for each option menu item in a pulldown
(the Notification Rules will be the same for all records added with this combination
of Project and Form).
The pulldown selected in the <Pulldown Name> <Default> Notification Rules
field can be set using the Edit Based On link in the
Workflows section.
Select an option in the <Pulldown Name> <Default> Notification Rules field to set the
Notification Rules that will be applied when records
are added to Tracker with this option menu item selected.
When selecting an option in this field, the page will be refreshed to display
the Notification Rules that correspond to that selection.
The <Pulldown Name> Values field contains the following options:
- <Default> - Selecting this option will allow you to choose the Notification Rules
that will be applied when new
option menu items are added
to this pulldown (the pulldown selected in the Based On field).
When this option is selected, the option
Apply these settings to other <Pulldown Name> values
will be available. Checking the box for the option
Apply these settings to other <Pulldown Name> values
will show a list of the option menu items for the Based On pulldown.
Select the option menu item(s) that should inherit the same Notification Rules
that you have set for <Default>. To select
multiple option menu items, hold down the Ctrl button on your
keyboard while clicking on the desired option menu items.
- Option Menu Items for the Based On pulldown - Each option menu item
configured for the pulldown field selected in the Based On field
will be listed. Selecting an option menu item will allow you to set the
Notification Rules that will be applied when records are
added to Tracker with this option menu item selected.
Click on the Load Defaults button if you wish to have the
Notification Rules configured for <Default>
to be filled into the Notification Rules for the option menu item selected.
Decide whether you would like to add,
edit
or delete an email rule.
- Click OK to save the changes
To add an email rule:
- Select a Condition (details of each option that can be selected
are described in the Options section).
Check the Notification Rule List to see if the
condition you selected is already on the list. If so, you may wish to
edit an existing preference rather than create a
new one.
- In the Notification List, select the user(s) and / or user
group(s) that should receive
an email message when the condition occurs. Descriptions of the
special user roles such as Assignee, Reporter, etc. can be found
in the Notification List section.
- Enter information into the Subject field. This text will
appear as the Subject line of the email message generated when the
condition occurs. Up to 80 characters can be entered as the Subject.
- Enter information into the Operation Description field. This
text will appear in the body of the email message after
the Greeting and Introduction. Up to 255 characters can be
entered as the Operation Description (end of line characters
do count towards that limit).
- For the Subject and Operation Description,
you can specify variables so that information from the issue that triggered the
email notification is included. For an explanation and example of the variables that
can be used, review the Variables section.
- Click on the Add Notification button. The email rule will now
be displayed in the Notification Rule List. Except when the Notification
Rule is selected, it will be displayed with a green background until you click
the OK button.
This is to let you know that this rule has been added, but has
not yet been saved. You can continue to create or modify rules, or you can click
the OK button to save your changes.
To edit an email rule:
- In the Notification Rule List, click on the Notification Rule
you wish to modify, then click on the Edit Notification
button (you can also simply double click on the Notification Rule).
- The fields in the Notification Rule section will be updated
with the information associated with the Notification Rule you selected.
- Make changes to the fields in the Notification Rule section.
- Click on the Update Notification button. The Notification Rule
will be displayed with an orange background color until you click
the OK button.
This is to let you know that this rule has been edited,
but the changes have not yet been saved. You can continue to edit more rules,
or you can click the OK button to save your changes.
To delete an email rule:
- In the Notification Rule List, click on the preference
you wish to delete, then click on the
Delete Notification button
- Click on the OK button to save this change.
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Options Available When Configuring Notification Rules
The following options are available when configuring notification rules.
Conditions - The Conditions below are the actions that can trigger an email rule to be sent.
For all conditions you can select whether the condition applies to
records added using a particular form configured for the workflow to
which the notification rules pertain (by selecting a specific form in the 2nd
pulldown in the Condition selection) or to
all records added using the workflow to which the notification rules pertain
(by selecting <Record> in the 2nd pulldown in the Condition
selection). The forms available for selection in the 2nd pulldown in the Condition
selection are based on the forms that have been
associated with this workflow.
Please Note: If you create a email condition for a specific form in the workflow
and you create the exact same condition for all records (<Record>) in the
workflow, the form specific condition will be used as a the rule for sending
notifications and general condition is ignored. This applies even if the
matching conditions specify different recipients or common content. This
behavior also allows you to have similar rules with varying common content or
recipients for a particular form, while having a general rule that will handle
records of the other form types.
- Add - Setting a rule with this condition will send an email
notification message when a record is added to the workgroup: using the
Add page, using the
Submit page,
using the Clone operation
on the View page, by submitting via email,
or by executing the Tracker SDK AddRecord operation.
- Edit - Setting a rule with this condition will send an
email notification message when a record is edited
using the
Edit operation.
- Delete - Selecting this condition will send an email notification
message when a record is deleted using the
Delete operation.
- Task - Selecting this condition will send an email notification
message when the
Task operation
is performed on a record.
- Change of - There are 2 parts to the Change of condition:
- Change of Status to <State or State Group> - Creating a rule with this condition will send an email notification
message when a record's status is changed to the State selected.
If a
State Group
is selected, an email notification message will
be sent when a record's status is changed to one of the states in the
State Group selected.
To select this condition, select Change of in the first pulldown,
select Status in the second pulldown, then select the State
or State Group that should used for this rule.
- Change of Assignment - Creating a rule with this condition will send an email
notification message when a record's Assignment (Assigned To field)
is changed. To select this condition, select Change of in the
first pulldown, then select Assigned To in the second pulldown.
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Variables that can be used in the Email Content
There are a list of variables that are supported so that you can
reference the specific record number, status, assignees when
entering the content for email notifications. For example,
if you want the Subject line for a rule to say
"PRN 31 previously assigned to Development Manager has been
re-assigned to Developer One", but since each record has an
individual record number and may have various possible
users that can be assigned at any point in the process, it is necessary
to enter the content using variables. To set the Subject line
such that it will enter the relevant PRN and User IDs for
each record, enter the following into the Subject field exactly as
it appears below:
PRN <number> previously assigned to <old assignee>
has been re-assigned to <new assignee>
The variables supported by Tracker are listed below
To specify this information in the email content |
Enter this variable into the field |
workgroup name |
<workgroup> |
project name |
<project> |
form name |
<form> |
form + record number |
<formnumber> |
record number - PRN |
<number> |
current user selected in the Assignee field |
<assignee> |
previous user selected in the Assignee field |
<old assignee> |
new user selected in the Assignee field |
<new assignee> |
current state selected in the Status field |
<status> |
previous state selected in the Status field |
<old status> |
new value selected in the Status field |
<new status> |
the current value of the History pulldown |
<product> |
the user selected in the Reporter field |
<reporter> |
the user receiving the email notification message |
<recipient> |
the user whose action triggered the email |
<action user> |
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In addition to the variables listed above, you can also include the
value of any field in the record (except for TextArea and
Date fields) by specifying the Field Name (in all lower case characters) and
surrounding the name with < and >.
For example, <text1>, <pulldown23>, or <reporter>. To find the
Field Name for a particular field, click on the Admin icon, click on the
Forms
link, click on the Fields
button, click on the field you wish to use as a variable, then click
on the Edit button. Take note of the name listed for "API Field Name".
Note: The field name variable must be specified
in all lower case characters (e.g. <text1> not <Text1>) to be
properly recognized by the Tracker email processor.
Special fields like PRN and the History Pulldown have
variable names that differ from the API Field Name. These
exceptions are listed in the table above.
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Notification List
The options below are available for selecting which
users receive email notification messages for a particular rule.
<Assignee> - The user currently assigned to the record
<Assignee (new)> - The user assigned to the record after a change in the record's Assigned To field
has been made. This user is only available for selection in rules for the condition
"Change of <Record> Assigned To".
<Assignee (previous)> - The user who was assigned to the record prior to a change made in the
record's Assigned To field. This user is only available for selection in rules for the condition
"Change of <Record> Assigned To".
<Reporter> - The user who created the record using the Add, Submit Page or Submit via Email feature.
When the Reported By field of a record is the "Inet" (Unregistered User), email
notification messages are not sent to the Reporter.
<State Manager> - The user who is listed as the manager of the record's current
state according to the State Manager settings for the combination of Form and
Project set in the record (refer to
Form State Managers for
more information).
<State Manager (new)> - The user who is listed as the manager of the record's current
state according to the State Manager settings for the combination of Form and
Project set in the record (refer to
Form State Managers for
more information)
after a change in the record's Status field has been made.
This user is only available for selection in rules for the
condition "Change of <Record> Status".
<State Manager (previous)> - The user who is listed as the manager of the record's previous
state according to the State Manager settings for the combination of Form and
Project set in the record (refer to
Form State Manager for
more information)
prior to a change in the record's Status field.
This user is only available for selection in rules for the
condition "Change of <Record> Status".
<Unregistered User> - This will send email notification messages to the email
address saved in the
Unregistered User Email
field of a record. The rules that will be used to send email notifications
to unregistered users depend on the setting for the
Send Email Notifications On
option in the Unregistered User Options
section of the General Preferences page.
<User Pulldown Field> - This will send email notification messages to the user set in a record's
user pulldown field.
For example, if you have configured a field called Fixed By, the option
"<Fixed By>" will be available in the Notification List to send
email notifications to the user selected in this field.
User Groups - All user groups in this workgroup will be displayed to be selected for the
Notification List
To edit the pulldown that the Notification Rules are based on:
- Login to the
workgroup
as Admin
- Click on the Admin icon
- Click on the Workflows link
- Select the workflow in the Workflows pulldown at the top of the page.
The page will be refreshed to display the properties of the selected workflow.
- Click on the Edit Based On link to the right of Notification Rules
- Select a pulldown in the Based on Pulldown so that you can configure different
Email Rule settings for each option menu item in this pulldown
- Click OK to save your selection
- Click OK to return to the Workflows section or click
Set Notification Rules to configure the settings for each option menu
item in the selected pulldown
To edit the notification rules for a specific pulldown option menu item:
- Login to the
workgroup
as Admin
- Click on the Admin icon
- Click on the Workflows link
- Select the workflow in the Workflows pulldown at the top of the page.
The page will be refreshed to display the properties of the selected workflow.
- Click on the Edit icon to the right of the option menu item
- The Notification Rules for the form will be displayed.
If you are editing the settings for the option menu item <Default>,
the Notification Rules displayed will be applied when new
option menu items are added
to this pulldown (the pulldown selected in the Based On field).
The option
Apply these settings to other <Pulldown Name> values
will be available. Checking the box for the option
Apply these settings to other <Pulldown Name> values
will show a list of the option menu items for the Based On pulldown.
Select the option menu item(s) that should inherit the same Notification Rules
that you have set for <Default>. To select
multiple option menu items, hold down the Ctrl button on your
keyboard while clicking on the desired option menu items.
If you are editing the settings for an option menu item in the pulldown,
the Notification Rules displayed will be applied when records are
added to Tracker with this option menu item selected.
Click on the Load Defaults button if you wish to have the
Notification Rules configured for <Default>
to be filled into the Notification Rules for the option menu item selected.
Decide whether you would like to add,
edit
or delete an email rule.
- Click OK to save the changes
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