Configuring processes to send notifications to users

As an application business analyst, you can send alerts or email notifications to users at any stage of a process or rule to notify them about certain events, for example, approval of a leave request. To send a notification from a process, in the Process designer, you can use the User Message elements. These elements enable you to send different types of notifications based on your requirements.

For example, when an employee's leave request is approved, an email notification is sent to the employee. Whereas, when a new task is assigned to an employee, an alert notification is sent to the employee that is displayed on the bell icon in the UI.

The following table describes the different User Message elements available in the Process designer:

Before you begin

Before you create a process to send a notification, ensure that you perform the following tasks:

• To use the Send Message element, ensure that BMC SaaS Operations has configured the outgoing mailbox. For more information, see Configuring email profiles and templates.
• To use the Send Message by Template element, ensure that the administrator has configured the text template. For more information, see To configure templates.

To send a user message

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Workspace tab.
2. Select the required application.
3. In the application, click the Processes tab, and perform any of the following steps:
   • If you want to send a user message from an existing process, open the required process.
   • If you want to send a user message from a new process, click New.
4. Specify the general details of the process, for example, process name, process variables, permissions, and so on.
   For more information about how to specify the general details of a process, see Defining processes to accomplish business goals. 
5. From the palette, drag the appropriate User Message element (Show Alert, Send message, or Send Message by Template) to the canvas and place it at that point of the process flow where you want to send a notification.

6. In the Properties pane, in the INPUT MAP section, fill out the properties as described in the following table:

   User Message Service Task	Properties
   Show Alert	Alert Text—Click the Click to build an expression link and enter the alert message or provide the expression for the alert message that should be displayed. Important: Show Alert does not display alert messages if it is triggered by a rule with an After event.
   Send Message	Subject—Click the Click to build an expression link and enter the subject for the user message or provide the expression for the subject of the user message. Body—Click the Click to build an expression link and enter the contents of the message or provide the expression for the contents. You can provide a link to the source of a notification. The link navigates to any view definition that is created in BMC Helix Innovation Studio. To provide the link, enter an expression by using the following syntax: OPENVIEW ("Link text", "Application ID", "View definition name", "View parameters") Consider the following example that opens a ticket created in the Task manager application: "Ticket Updated: " + OPENVIEW("${DISPLAY ID}", "com.example.taskmanager", "com.example.taskmanager-lib:Edit Ticket", "${TICKET ID}") Notes: You can also provide multiple view parameters separated by comma according to the sequence of the view definition parameters. During run time, the parameters DISPLAY ID and TICKET ID display the actual values of the current context. Recipients—Click the Click to build an expression link and enter the login name or valid email address of the users. For multiple recipients, add comma-separated login names or valid email address.  (Optional) Outgoing Profile Source—Select the option on how you want to add the Outgoing Email Profile. Profile Selection—Enables you to select the existing outgoing email profiles from the Outgoing Email Profile list. Build Expression—Enables you to provide the expression to select the correct outgoing email profile. (Optional) Outgoing Email Profile—Select the outgoing profile that is configured by the administrator. If the list fails to display the outgoing profile, see Troubleshooting incoming and outgoing email issues. Note: If you do not specify an outgoing email profile, the default outgoing mailbox is selected to send the message. (Optional) Attachment List—Click the Click to build an expression link and add the required list type of variable.
   Send Message by Template	Subject—Click the Click to build an expression link and enter the subject for the user message or provide the expression for the subject of the user message. Recipients—Click the Click to build an expression link and enter the login name or valid email address of the users. For multiple recipients, add comma-separated login names or valid email address. Template Name—The template name must be exactly the same name that is used by the administrator when configuring templates.  (Optional) Body—If this parameter is configured, the text is prepended to the template contents.  You can provide a link to the source of a notification. The link navigates to any view definition that is created in BMC Helix Innovation Studio. To provide the link, enter an expression by using the following syntax: OPENVIEW("Link text", "Application ID", "View definition name", "View parameters") Consider the following example that opens a ticket created in the Task manager application: "Ticket Updated: " + GENERATEOPENVIEWWEBURL("${DISPLAY ID}", "com.example.taskmanager", "com.example.taskmanager-lib:Edit Ticket", "${TICKET ID}") Important: You can also provide multiple view parameters separated by comma according to the sequence of the view definition parameters. During run time, the parameters DISPLAY ID and TICKET ID display the actual values of the current context. (Optional) Record Definition Name—Click the Click to build an expression link and enter the fully qualified record definition name from which you want to populate the template contents. (Optional) Record Instance Id—Click the Click to build an expression link and enter the record instance ID from which you want to populate the variable values in the template. (Optional) Outgoing Profile Source—Select the option on how you want to add the Outgoing Email Profile. Profile Selection—Enables you to select the existing outgoing email profiles from the Outgoing Email Profile list. Build Expression—Enables you to provide the expression to select the correct outgoing email profile. (Optional) Outgoing Email Profile—Select the outgoing profile that is configured by the administrator. If the list fails to display the outgoing profile, see Troubleshooting incoming and outgoing email issues. Important: If you do not specify an outgoing email profile, the default outgoing mailbox is selected to send the message. The following image displays the properties configured to send email notification by using Task Template and Task Management profile: (Optional) Attachment List—Click the Click to build an expression link and add the required list type of variable.
   Send Email Message	Subject—Click the Click to build an expression link and enter the subject for the user message or provide the expression for the subject of the user message. Body—Click the Click to build an expression link and enter the contents of the message or provide the expression for the contents. You can provide a link to the source of a notification. The link navigates to any view definition that is created in BMC Helix Innovation Studio. To provide the link, enter an expression by using the following syntax: OPENVIEW ("Link text", "Application ID", "View definition name", "View parameters") Consider the following example that opens a ticket created in the Task manager application: "Ticket Updated: " + OPENVIEW("${DISPLAY ID}", "com.example.taskmanager", "com.example.taskmanager-lib:Edit Ticket", "${TICKET ID}") Notes: You can also provide multiple view parameters separated by comma according to the sequence of the view definition parameters. During run time, the parameters DISPLAY ID and TICKET ID display the actual values of the current context. Recipients—Click the Click to build an expression link and enter the login name or valid email address of the users. For multiple recipients, add comma-separated login names or valid email address.  Cc Recipients—Click the Click to build an expression link and enter the login name or valid email address of the users. For multiple recipients, add comma-separated login names or valid email address.  Bcc Recipients—Click the Click to build an expression link and enter the login name or valid email address of the recipients in the Bcc field do not appear to other recipients of the message.  (Optional) Attachment List—Click the Click to build an expression link and add the required list type of variable. (Optional) Outgoing Profile Source—Select the option on how you want to add the Outgoing Email Profile. Profile Selection—Enables you to select the existing outgoing email profiles from the Outgoing Email Profile list. Build Expression—Enables you to provide the expression to select the correct outgoing email profile. (Optional) Outgoing Email Profile—Select the outgoing profile that is configured by the administrator. If the list fails to display the outgoing profile, see Troubleshooting incoming and outgoing email issues. Important: If you do not specify an outgoing email profile, the default outgoing mailbox is selected to send the message.

7. If you want a process activity to run in loop, fill out the Multi Instance loop section. 
   For more information about the common Service Task properties like Run as and Multi instance loop, see Service Task properties.

8. Click Save.

Troubleshooting

The following table provides the troubleshooting steps for the issues that might occur when you send notifications to users:

Related topic

Defining the application business logic through processes