You use the Define Notification Categories, Templates, and Messages tasks to set up notifications for requirements and their recurring events.
Setting up notification templates involves the following:
Optionally, the first step in developing a notification system is to develop custom categorizations for notification templates. Defining categories facilitates selection of the appropriate template, and finding notifications. For example, Compliance Program Managers can search by Notification Category in the Filter Console of the Manage Notification Templates and Manage Compliance Event Notifications tasks.
The categories you define depend on the notifications you are sending and how you want to organize them. For example, you might want to organize templates by importance, such as “URGENT”, “IMPORTANT”, and so on. Or, you might want to organize by trigger type: “REMINDER”, “OVERDUE”, “IN-PROGRESS”, “COMPLETION”, and so on. Or, you could organize by recipient type: “MANAGER”, “MAINTENANCE”, “COORDINATOR”, “VENDOR”, and so on.
To define notification categories:
Notification Category Code. Enter the unique identifier for this category.
Description. Enter a description that further identifies this type of notification.
The next step in developing notifications is to use the Define Notification Messages task to define subject line and body message content for your notification templates. You can select this text to be included in notification templates. Compliance Program Managers can also select this generic text when they define templates for specific programs or requirements.
To define notification subject lines:
The Edit Messages pane appears.
| Message Purpose | Ensure that Subject Line is selected. Using this selection indicates that you are defining a subject line. |
| Message Code | Enter a unique identifier for this subject line. Do NOT includes spaces in your entry. For example, enter REMINDER_SUBJECT to define a subject line for a reminder notification. |
| Description | Enter a description of how the subject line is used. For example, enter "Subject Line for reminder template." |
| Message | Enter the subject line for the email notification. Use the syntax ${table.field} as a placeholder for specific field values. For example, enter “Event ${activity_log.action_title} is scheduled to begin on ${activity_log.date_scheduled}”. This entry includes the syntax for entering a placeholder for the Event Title and its Date Schedule. See Configuring Email Messages for information on creating messages. |
| Customized? | Use this field to keep track of any standard messages that you have changed from the default message value. |
| Is Rich Message Format? | If you are referencing database fields in the message, you must set the Is Rich Text field to Yes. Messages can be created using the new Rich Message format. The format utilizes Freemarker (http://freemarker.sourceforge.net/) software, and the messages entered are templates that use parameters that the system will fill in at runtime. See the topic Configuring Email Messages. |
If you are localizing the application, there are Message boxes for the different languages.
To define notification body messages:
| Message Purpose | Ensure the Message Body is selected. Using this selection indicates that you are defining the message content. |
| Message Code | Enter a unique identifier for this body message. Do NOT include spaces in your entry. For example, enter "REMIND_UPCOMING_EVENT" |
| Description | Enter a description of how this message is used that helps you identify it. For example, enter “Default email body text for reminders of upcoming events.” |
| Message | Enter the body text for the email notification. Use the syntax ${table.field} as a placeholder for specific field values. For example, enter "Reminder for Compliance Event ${activity_log.action_title}: Scheduled Start: ${activity_log.date_scheduled} Scheduled End: ${activity_log.date_scheduled_end} Completion Required: ${activity_log.date_required} Responsible Person: ${activity_log.manager} Vendor: ${activity_log.vn_id} Description: ${activity_log.description} Notes: ${activity_log.satisfaction_notes}” This entry includes the syntax for entering a placeholder for event details. See Configuring Email Messages for information on creating messages. |
| Customized? | Use this field to keep track of any standard messages that you have changed from the default message value. |
| Is Rich Message Format? | If you are referencing database fields in the message, you must set the Is Rich Text field to Yes. Messages can be created using the new Rich Message format. The format utilizes Freemarker (http://freemarker.sourceforge.net/) software, and the messages entered are templates that use parameters that the system will fill in at runtime. See the topic Configuring Email Messages. |
The third step in developing a notification system is to set up notification templates. Notification templates specify the message content, recipients, the triggering conditions that cause the email to be sent, and the number of recurrences for the notification.
To define notification templates:
The Default Notification Templates for All Compliance Programs pane shows only templates that have not been assigned to a specific program or a requirement. The selected notification templates are the default templates sent for all programs and requirements.
The Define Notification Template form appears.
Notification Template Code: Enter a unique identifier for the template.
| Notification Category | Select a category for the template. Compliance Program Managers can locate templates by their category. For example, enter "Missed Events" to describe a notification template for missed events. |
| Template Description | Describe what this template is used for - for example, "Notification Template for reminders for missed events." |
Do one of the following to select the subject line:
To select the body message, select the Notification Body ID from the list to select the pre-defined message body content. You defined this content in Step 2.
Add Employees: Click the Add Employees button, select employees from the pop-up window, and click Save Selected. The email addresses for the selected employees appear in the Recipient's Email Addresses box.
Type in an email address: If needed you can type an email address in the box, separating the addresses in the list using a semicolon.
Note: If there are groups of employees that you typically choose as recipients, you can have your email administrator set up an email group that you can use for notifications. You can then type the email address for the group (as configured by your email administrator) in the email addresses box, or add that email group to your employees table for easy selection from the pop-up window.
| Event Trigger Date | Set the date that the trigger condition is based on. You can select the event's Date Scheduled Start, Date Scheduled End, or Date Completion Required. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Send Before/After Trigger Date | Select whether this notification occurs before or after the selected Event Trigger Date. You can also select None if this is not applicable to your condition. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Days Before/After Trigger Date To Send | Enter the number of days before or after the trigger date to send the notification. For example, to send a notification 10 days before the Date Scheduled Start, enter 10. the number of days is applied before or after the trigger date depending on whether you select Before or After from the Send Before/After Trigger Date list. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Send if Event Status is | From the list, select the status that triggers the notification being sent. For example, select 'Not Started' to send a notification before an event has begun. The following shows the Event Statuses that map to the Triggering Statuses you can select:
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| Resend Notification Every (Days) | Enter the number of days between notifications being sent. Leave this field blank if you want the notification sent only once, the first time the trigger conditions are met. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum Notifications to Send | Enter the maximum number of notification to be sent. Notifications are sent until the Event Status changes, or until the maximum number of notifications has been sent, whichever occurs first. If you do not enter a maximum number, notifications are sent until the Event Status changes. |
As the Business Process Owner for Compliance, you have the option of selecting certain notification templates to be universal. These universal templates are used for all compliance program requirements.
Compliance Program Managers can view the universal templates, but they are not able to modify or assign them. If needed, the Business Process Owner can edit these universal templates using the Business Process Owner - Compliance tasks for notification templates.
To set a template as a universal template:
The top pane shows the list of templates that are available to be used as defaults. This list includes all templates that are not currently associated with specific programs and requirements. The selected templates are the current universal templates.
Any templates not set as a universal templates remain in the list unless they become assigned to an individual program or requirement. At that point, they are removed from the list and are no longer available to be used as universal templates.