Configuring email-based approvals

As an administrator, you can configure email-based approvals for users to approve requests received via email. You can enable or disable email-based approval for companies and customize the fields displayed in approval emails.

You can approve requests via email. You do not require any specific permission to approve these requests. When email-based approvals are enabled, an email notification is sent the individuals who have approval authority for the request. Those people either can approve or reject the request directly from the email notification.

Important

If the approval process requires a password or requires that the rejection of a request includes a business justification, you cannot approve or reject the request directly from the email notification. In this case, you must approve or reject the request from Approval Central. A link to Approval Central is provided in the email notification.

The following diagram describes the email approval workflow:

When you upgrade from an existing version of BMC Helix ITSM, all approval-related notification messages are overwritten with new messages. Existing messages are backed up and renamed as message\_custom and the status is set to Offline.

If you had customized any notification messages, rename the new message, and set its status to Disabled. Then, remove the \_custom tag of the customized notification message to continue using it. Ensure that the status of your message is set to Enabled.

If your default notification method before upgrade was set to Alert, you must change the notification mechanism to Email to enable approval emails. For more information, see Setting up group notifications Open link .

Before you begin

Before you configure email-based approvals, ensure that the required mailboxes are configured. For more information about configuring mailboxes, see Configuring incoming mailboxes Open link in the AR System documentation.

To configure email-based approvals

In addition to mailbox configuration, the following settings are required for email-based approvals to work:

From the Applications menu, select AR System Administration > System > Email > Mailbox Configuration.
Select the Incoming mailbox record.
On the Advanced Configuration tab, ensure that the following options are selected:
- Email Action is set to Parse. The Associated Mailbox Name should be associated with the configured outgoing mailbox for this setting.
- Enable Modify Action is set to Yes.
For more information about advanced mailbox configuration, see Configuring incoming mailboxes in the AR System documentation.
From the Applications menu, select AR System Administration > System > Email > Mailbox Configuration.
Select the Outgoing mailbox record.
On the Advanced Configuration tab, ensure that the Delete Outgoing Notification Messages option is set to No.
Important

Restart the Email Engine Service if you change any setting.
From the Applications menu, select Quick Links > Approval Administration Console.
- On the Notification tab, ensure that the Status of the approval process is Active.
- On the Process tab, select the process, and then click View.
  Ensure that the Require Password field is set to No.
- On the Configuration tab of the Process Definition form, ensure that the Require Justification on Rejection field is set to No.
From the Applications menu, select Administration Console > Application Administration Console.
On the Custom Configuration tab, select Foundation > Notification engine > Approval Email Configuration, and then click Open.
On the Configure Email Based Approval window, ensure that Status is set to Enabled.
Important

You must set these preferences to ensure that the Approve/Reject button is available in the approval email.
Specify the properties and their permissible values in the EmailDaemon.properties file to adjust the performance of the email engine. For more information, see Updating the Email Engine settings by using the Centralized Configuration in the AR System documentation.

To enable or disable email-based approvals for a company

Use configuration options to enable or disable email-based approvals for companies. Out of the box, email-based approvals for the Global company record are enabled.

Important

When you upgrade, email-based approvals are disabled. You must manually enable email-based approvals after the upgrade.

On the Custom Configuration tab of the Application Administration Console, select Foundation > Notification Engine > Approval Email Configuration.
In the Configure Email Based Approval dialog box, select the name from the Company field or select Global to enable or disable email-based approvals for all companies.
In the Status field, select the appropriate status.

To customize the content of approval emails

Out of the box, approval emails contain basic information about the request that requires an approval. You can customize the fields that are displayed in approval emails. For information about modifying the format of the emails, see Customizing the template Open link in the AR System documentation.

Log on to ITSM as an administrator and open the SYS:Notification Messages form.

Locate the notification message that is defined for email approvals for the application:

Application	Notification message
Asset Management	AST-APR-ApprovalNTForIndividual
Change Management	CHG-APR-ApprovalNTForIndividual
Service Request Management	SRM-REQ-Approver_Notification
Release Management	RMS-APR-ApprovalNTForIndividual
Knowledge Management	RKM-APR-ApprovalNT

Update the text in the Email Message Body box with the customized email content by using HTML tags to create and format the email message content.

Example

In the following code, basic HTML tags have been used to format the data. #Date Required# and #Description# indicate the display of the Date Required and Description fields in the email.

<td><table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10">
<tr><td width="40%" valign="top" align="left">
<font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">
<strong>Requisition ID:</strong></font></td>
<td width="60%" valign="top" align="left">
<font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">
<a href="http://<serverName>:port/arsys/forms/<arSystemServerName>/
AST:PurchaseRequisition/?eid=#Requisition ID#">#Requisition ID#</a>
</font></td></tr>
<tr><td width="40%" valign="top" align="left">
<font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">
<strong>Date Required:</strong></font></td>
<td width="60%" valign="top" align="left">
<font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">
#Date Required#</font></td></tr>
<tr><td width="40%" valign="top" align="left">
<font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">
<strong>Description:</strong></font></td>
<td width="60%" valign="top" align="left">
<font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">
#Description#</font></td></tr>
</table></td>

To include additional fields in the email message, click the down arrow next to the Email Message Body field and select a field from the list.
(Optional) To add fields that are not listed, see the details for the SYS-Notification Messages form in System Events and Message Catalog for the Notification Engine.
Field names are enclosed in # tags.
Important

For fields that you select from the list, the notification workflow translates the field variables into the actual field contents before sending the notification message. If you add fields that are not in the list, the notification workflow must be customized. For more information about email fields and workflows, see Defining a workflow to send email notifications .
Save the form.

Your approval email message will display the fields that you included in the Email Message Body field.

Configuring email-based approvals

Before you begin

To configure email-based approvals

To enable or disable email-based approvals for a company

To customize the content of approval emails

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