Notification Engine interface and process control

The NTE:Notifier form processes the formatted notification text and, based on notification method, sends an alert or email. The NTE:Notifier form has workflow that performs a Run Process command to create an email record in the AR System Email Messages form or create an alert in the Alert Events form. This form has workflow that is triggered on Window Open to redirect the user to the appropriate record (for example, incident, problem, change, and so on).

The NTE:NTS:DefaultMethod_200_NT filter executes when no method is specified for the notification, and it uses the notification recipient's default notification method.

If email is the notification method, the email message includes ARTask and URL shortcuts to the record. The NTE:NTS:Email_200_SystemNT filter executes when Email is the default method specified for the notification. To remove the ARTask and URL, clear the check boxes in this filter.

External email notifications (sent by the NTE:NTS:Email_200_Customer-NT filter) and email messages sent manually through the AR System email server (sent by the NTE:NTS:Email_200_Manual-NT filter) do not include shortcuts.

• There is a separate filter to process each notification method. 
• The NTE:Notifier record is deleted after the alert or email is sent, and an audit record is created.

Notification system process control

The NTE:SYS-NT Process Control interface form receives notification event requests from BMC Helix ITSM. The NTE:SYS-NT Process Control interface form processes all notification events, as shown in the figure below:

The NTE:SYS-NT Process Control form is the center of the Notification Engine that initiates a notification.

During an initial submission or update of a record in one of the BMC Helix ITSM modules, workflow creates a record in the NTE:SYS-NT Process Control form. The escalations listed in the table below process the records:

SYS:NPC:ProcessHeldNotifications

SYS:NPC:TriggerGroupNotifications

SYS:NPC:TriggerNonGroupNotifications

When a new record is created in the NTE:SYS-NT Process Control form, filters perform these tasks:

• Verify that the notification message exists in the SYS:Notification Messages form and that the message record is enabled. 
• Retrieve data from the source form (if the notification was sent from an association form). 
• Check business hours, business holidays, and notification preferences for support staff notifications. 
• Process on-call group notifications when the On-Call Group Flag is enabled. 
• Process group notifications by searching the Group membership table for group notifications. 
• Process individual notifications that are coming from the group notifications processing above or that came in directly from an event. 
• Process messages by running translation workflow (that is, workflow that replaces tokens within the message text).

If the notification is successfully processed, the NTE:SYS-NT Process Control record is deleted.

How the notification subsystem is invoked

Filters are triggered on certain application events. Filters populate data on the source forms and then push data from the source forms to the NTE:SYS-NT Process Control form for processing. One or more notification filters can trigger a notification event. The contents of the Notification Message Tag field are passed to the NTE:SYS-NT Process Control form, so  Notification Message Tag must be unique and must correspond to a notification message in the SYS:Notification Messages form.

The notification filters perform the following actions:

• Populate data on the source forms.
• Push data from the source forms to the NTE:SYS-NT Process Control form for processing.
• Set the Notification Message Tag and temp fields, and then create a record in the NTE:SYS-NT Process Control form.

The Notification Message Tag is the unique identifier for each notification event and message. After the Notification Process Control record is created, the notification fields on the source form are cleared.

Notification audit

The NTE:Notifier Log form contains every notification (alert or email ) sent from the subsystem. Notification records are written to the log every time the system sends a notification. These entries appear in the application audit logs.