Customizing email, push, and in-app notifications

By default, end users receive standard email, push, and in-app notifications. As the BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrator, you can customize email, push, and in-app notifications to suit your or your end users' business needs. You can modify the text in the notification fields and disable optional elements of the notification template. For example, you can change the default description text of the push notification or hide the product name in the email notification. You can customize notifications for a request submitted and a new approval. 

The following table shows the notification types supported for the Request submitted and New approval events in BMC Helix Digital Workplace:

Notification event	Type of notification
	Email	Push	In-app
Request submitted
New approval

To receive email and push notifications for requests, in Preferences > Requests, the requester must enable the Email and Push notifications option. In-app notifications are not available because the end users see a confirmation of their action immediately.

To receive email and push notifications for approvals, in Preferences > Approvals, the approver must enable the Email and Push notifications option. In-app notifications cannot be disabled.

The following video (3:41) demonstrates the end-to-end scenario of how the BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrator provides the email and phone of the support team in the footer of the email notification for the request submitted. When the requester receives an email notification about their request, they can see the support contacts in case any questions arise:

 https://youtu.be/JnYAUflkXs4

To customize email notifications

1. In the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console, navigate to the Configuration tab.
2. Click Email & Notifications > Templates.
3. Hover over the notification event you need (Request submitted or Approval - Waiting for your approval), click Actions, and select Edit.
4. In the modal window, select the Email notification tab, and customize the fields you need.
   For an overview of the customization elements of the email notification, click here.
5. Click Publish.

Overview of customization elements in an email notification

The following table describes the elements that can be customized in an email notification, by taking the example of a new approval:

Restrictions of HTML tags used in the custom notification template

BMC Helix Digital Workplace does not support the following HTML tags in custom notification templates:

• <h1> - <h5>—When you click Save or Publish, the tags are removed and the text is saved.
• Tags related to tables—When you click Save or Publish, the tags are removed and the text is saved.
• <img>—When you click Save or Publish, both the tags and the text are removed.
• <!-- -->— When you click Save or Publish, both the tags and the text are removed.
• <s> is not supported, but the tag <strike> is allowed.

To add a variable to a field in the custom notification template

You can add a variable to a field or fields in the custom notification template. Variables are used to automatically add the information such as item name or order description about a single service or multiple services. For example, in the Single request approval heading field, you add a text: Approval needed for {item name}. When the approver receives an email notification, they see the text: Approval needed for New office furniture because this service was requested. You can add variables by using two options:

• In the field or fields of the custom notification template, specify the full name of the variable from the Variable library list by using the {} symbols.
• Click the variable name in the Variable library list. The variable is copied to the clipboad. Paste the variable to the field or fields in the custom notification template.

Variable library

The Variable library table contains the following variable names that the administrator can add to custom templates. The table also explains which variables are supported in custom templates for native catalog services and service request definitions (SRDs) from BMC Service Request Management.

To reset the custom notifications to default

The default settings imply that all the check boxes in the template for email, push, and in-app notifications are selected and the variables are used in the text fields. For emails, only the Additional content check box is clear. You can reset the custom notifications to default by using two options:

• In the Templates tab, next to the notification event, click Actions > Reset to default.
• In the Templates tab, next to the notification event, click Actions > Edit > Reset to default.
  The following table describes the difference between the results you get:

To customize push notifications

1. In the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console, navigate to the Configuration tab.
2. Click Email & Notifications > Templates.
3. Hover over the notification event that you want to customize (Request submitted or Approval - Waiting for your approval), click Actions, and select Edit.
4. In the modal window, select the Push notification tab, and customize the required fields. 
   For an overview of the customization elements of the push notification, click here.
5. Click Publish.

Overview of the customization elements in the push notification

The following table describes the elements that can be customized in a push notification, by taking the example of a new approval:

To customize in-app notifications

1. In the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console, navigate to the Configuration tab.
2. Click Email & Notifications > Templates.
3. Hover over the Approval - Waiting for your approval notification event, click Actions, and select Edit.
4. In the modal window, select the In-app notification tab.
   For the overview of the customization modal window for the in-app notification, click here.
5. Click Publish.

Overview of the customization elements in the in-app notification

The following table describes the elements that can be customized in an in-app notification, by taking the example of a new approval:

Sample custom email, push, and in-app notifications

The following table shows sample custom email, push, and in-app notifications and how customization elements are organized on the notification templates:

Default and custom email, push, and in-app notifications

The following table shows the difference between default and custom email, push, and in-app notifications:

Edge cases of customizing email, push, and in-app notifications

If two BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrators simultaneously edit a notification template, they can encounter the following edge cases:

Edge case 1: If the second BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrator wants to save, publish or send a test notification, they see the warning message:

The  icon or Cancel—Click this button to continue modifying the notification template. If you want to see the changes of the other BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrator, refresh the page. If you refresh the page with the custom notification template open, you are redirected to the Templates tab.

Save and override—Click this button to discard the changes of the other BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrator and save your edits.

Edge case 2: If the second BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrator wants to close a template, they see the message:

If the BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrator clicks Save and close, they see the warning message:

The  icon or Cancel—Click this icon to continue modifying the notification template. If you want to see the changes of the other BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrator, refresh the page.

Close—Click this button to close the notification template modal window and return to the Templates tab. Your unsaved changes are discarded.

Save and close—Click this button to discard the changes of the other BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrator and save your edits.