Defining approval notifications

Notifications are a great way to inform users about events that occur while working on records such as cases, tasks, and knowledge articles so that users have the latest information. As a case business analyst, after configuring an approval, you can create notifications for case and knowledge article approvals for your company.

For example, when an approver approves a case, a notification is sent to the case assignee. You can create email-based notifications for case and knowledge approvals so that the approvers receive an email notification for every new approval request. The approvers can approve, reject, or hold a request through an email.

For information about the concepts related to notifications, see Notifications.

Approval events

BMC Helix Business Workflows provides default notifications for events related to approvals. The following table describes the approval events for which the default notifications are available:

For more information about the default approval notifications, see Notification events and templates.

Approvals for knowledge events

BMC Helix Business Workflows provides default notifications for events that are related to knowledge approvals. The following table describes the approval statuses for which the default notifications are available:

Creating an approval notification

The following table describes the tasks that you must perform to create an approval notification:

Before you begin

Ensure that you have created an approval flow so that you can map a notification process with the approval flow. When the approval flow is run, the mapped process is run to send the notification.

To create a notification event

1. Log in to BMC Helix Business Workflows.
2. Click My Application Settings .
   The Settings page opens in a new browser tab.

3. Navigate to Notification Configuration > Manage Events.

4. On the Manage Events page, click Notification Event.

5. In the Create Notification Event pane, complete the instructions as described in the following table:

   Field	Action
   Event Name	Enter a name for the notification event. Notes: Enter an event name that matches one of the default notification events. This ensures that the event is automatically passed to the Approval - Notify Case Approvers process and that the notification is sent. You can create only one event with an event name for a company. If you create a notification event for email-based approval, you must enter the event name as Email Based Approval.
   Status	Select one of the following statuses for the event: Enabled—The event is ready to use. Offline—The event is not available for use. You can enable it for use at any point. Delete—An event with the Delete status remains in the system, but it cannot be used in the application. For information about deprecated event statuses, see Deprecated statuses for events and templates.
   Company	Select the company for which you want to create the approval notification, such as Calbro Services. Best practice: We recommend that you do not create approval notifications for the Global company.

6. Click Save.
   The event name is defined. After creating the approval event, you create a template and associate the approval event with the template. The approval event is automatically passed to the out-of-the-box process and is associated with the template. When the notification is triggered, the template is used to send the notification.
   
   

To create a template for a notification

1. Log in to BMC Helix Business Workflows.
2. Click My Application Settings .
   The Settings page opens in a new browser tab.

3. Navigate to Notification Configuration > Manage Templates.

   Important

   BMC Helix Business Workflows provides a sample template Email Based Approval for email-based approval notifications. You can refer to this template while creating templates for email-based approval notifications.

4. On the Manage Templates page, click Notification Template.

5. In the Create Notification Template pane, enter value for the Template Name, and complete the following fields:

   Important

   You can create only one notification template with the same event name, template name, module, and company combination.

   For example, you create a notification template Notify on case status change. While creating the template, you select the Case-Approval as a value for the Module Name field, Approve as a value for the Event field, and Calbro Services as a value for the Company field. You cannot create another template with the same values for the Template Name, Module Name, Event, and Company fields.

   Field	Action
   Module Name	Select Case - Approval for case approval notifications or Knowledge - Approval for knowledge article approval notifications.
   Default Notification Method	Select the method in which the approval notification should be sent.
   Event options
   Event	Select an approval event for which you want to send the notification, such as Approve. Note: If you are creating a template for email notifications, select the Email Based Approval option.
   Status	By default, the status that you selected for the event is displayed. In the template, you can change the status to any of the following values: Enabled—The template is ready to use. Offline—The template is not available for use. You can enable it for use at any point. Delete—A template with the Delete status remains in the system, but it cannot be used in the application. For information about deprecated event statuses, see Deprecated statuses for events and templates.
   Company	By default, the company that you selected when you defined the approval event is displayed. You cannot change the company in the template. For example, while creating the approval event, you selected the Calbro Services company. In the template, in the Company field, Calbro Services is displayed.
   Recipients
   Recipients	Select the recipients. The recipients are displayed based on the Case - Approval or Knowledge - Approval modules and any additional recipients that you have specified. For example, if you specified Allen Petersen as a recipient, the recipient list displays the following predefined and additional recipients: Approvers Assigned Group's Manager Assignee Assignee's Manager Assigned Group Allen Petersen
   Add Recipients	Click this option to add recipients other than the out-of-the-box recipients. In the Add Recipient pane, perform the following steps: From the Recipient Type list, select the type of recipient that you want to add. From the Company list, select the required company, and perform any of the following steps: To quickly add an individual as a recipient, use the search text box to add the recipient. To narrow down the search results, from the Business Unit, Department, and Support Group lists, select the required values, and add the recipient. Click Save. These recipients are displayed in the Recipients section. Note: In a notification template, you cannot add recipients for the Social, Service Level Management - Case or the Service Level Management - Task modules.

6. To draft the notification message, perform the following steps:

   • To create the template for an alert notification, click the Alert tab, and enter the message in the text box. 

   • To create the template for an email notification, click the Email tab, and complete the fields.

   In the email or alert content, to insert placeholders for current values, click Insert Expression, expand the General menu, and add a value. 
   For example, you are creating a template Case approved and in the email content, you want to display the priority of the case. In Insert Expression, from General menu, you add .

   Important

   Do not use reserved keywords in an email template. Errors might occur if the reserved keywords are used in the email subject and body. For a list of all reserved words, see Creating approval notifications to notify approvers .

7. (Optional) After you create the template, to draft the notification messages for different locales, click Localized Message, complete the fields, and save your message. 

   Important

   Creating localized messages ensures that when a case agent changes the browser locale to one that BMC Helix Business Workflows supports, the notifications are sent in that locale. If a notification is not available for that locale, the notification is sent in English.

   On the Alert and Email tabs, by using the Locale field, you can filter the messages based on the selected locale.

8. Click Save.

   The template is ready for use. After creating the template, you specify the approval notification details, for example, notification process, notification event, and so on for an approval flow. When the approval flow is run, the associated process is also run to send the notification.

To specify the approval notification details

1. Log in to BMC Helix Business Workflows.
2. Click My Application Settings .
   The Settings page opens in a new browser tab.
3. Select Approvals > Notification Configuration.

4. On the Approval Notifications page, click New.

   Create a new notification configuration that is exactly same as any of the following table notification configurations for cases and knowledge articles:

   Case	Knowledge articles
   BWFA New Signature BWFA Reject BWFA Approve BWFA Reassign BWFA Cancel BWFA More Info Return BWFA Hold BWFA More Info	Knowledge New Signature Knowledge Reject Knowledge Approve Knowledge Reassign Knowledge Cancel Knowledge More Info Return Knowledge Hold Knowledge More Info

   Important

   Before you create a new notification configuration, delete the out-of-the-box configuration.

5. In the New Approval Notification window, complete the following fields:

   Field	Action
   Record Definition Name	Select com.bmc.dsm.case-lib:Case to create the approval notification for cases. Select com.bmc.dsm.knowledge:Knowledge Article Template to create the approval notification for knowledge articles.
   Notification Name	Enter a name for the approval notification.
   Notify On	Select the event for which you want to send notifications. Note: The event that you select from Notify On and the approval event that you created in BMC Helix Business Workflows should be same. For example, if you created the Approve event, from the Notify On list, select Approve.
   Use Email based Approval template	Select this field to send notifications through emails. For more information about how to configure email notifications to approve the request, see Configuring an email notification. This field is displayed only if you select New Signature as a value for the Notify On field.
   Email Outgoing Profile	Select the profile that uses the corresponding outgoing mailbox to send email notifications. This field is displayed only if you select the Use Email based Approval template check box and New Signature as a value for the Notify On field.
   Template	Select the template to send notifications in an email. This field is displayed only if you select the Use Email based Approval template check box and New Signature as a value for the Notify On field.
   Notification Expression	In addition to the Notify On event, specify the conditions that control when the notification should be sent, such as .
   Global Notification	Select this check box to apply a notification configuration for all approval notifications. If you select this check box, you do not need to specify an approval flow in the Approval Flows field.
   Approval Flows	Select the approval flows for which the approval notification should be run, such as select Manager Approval Flow.
   Send To	Select one of the following options to notify users: All Approvers—Select this option to notify all the approvers of a case that is pending for approval. Other—Select this option to notify users other than the approvers. The list below Other displays fields from the case record definition. Select a field that contains the user to whom you want to notify. For example, Contact. Note: All the recipients that you specify in Send To and while creating the notification template receive the approval notification. For example, in Send To, you select All Approvers. In the notification template, you select Approvers and add Allen Petersen as recipient. When the event occurs, the approval notification is sent to Allen Petersen and all the approvers of the case.
   Notification Method	Select Process to create approval notifications.
   Process Name	Select Approval - Notify Case Approvers to create approval notifications.
   Enabled	Select Enabled to activate the approval notification.

6. Click Save.
   The process of creating an approval notification is now complete.

Configuring an email notification

To enable email notifications for the approvers, you must perform the following configurations:

Related topics

Case approvals

Approving or rejecting cases