Managing notification profiles

Notifications in BMC Helix Portal keep you informed about important activities happening in the system. They help you stay aware of changes and respond to potential issues or user requests. By default, the system sends standard in‑app or email notifications. For example, you might receive an in‑app alert when a new user is created or when an access key is about to expire. 

A notification profile defines the groups and users to be notified when an activity takes place in BMC Helix Portal. The following out-of-the-box profiles are available in BMC Helix Portal and the intended recipients receive in-app notifications about the changes made in these scenarios:

• New user is added to a user group
• User is removed from a user group
• New role is assigned to a user
• Role is revoked from a user
• User status is updated
• BMC Helix ITSM user sync is pending
• Access key expiry: You receive a notification two days before the key expires.
  • Key expiry: All members of the Administrator group and the user who created and modified the access key receive the notification.
  • User-level key expiry: The user who created the access key receives the notification.

Notifications for BMC Helix Intelligent Automation and BMC Helix Operations Management

You also receive in-app notifications for the activities performed in BMC Helix Intelligent Automation and BMC Helix Operations Management. For more information, see the following topics:

• (BMC Helix Intelligent Automation) For details about the scenarios for which notifications are triggered, see the In-app notifications section in the User interface overview.
• (BMC Helix Operations Management) For details about the event-based notifications, see Event-based notifications for alerting users.

A notification expires 30 days after it is read. An unread notification expires 30 days after it is received. 

To activate or deactivate notification profiles

The Notification Profiles page displays the notification profiles of the integrated products and BMC Helix Portal. You can temporarily stop notifications for activities that you don't want to verify.

1. Select Configure > Notification profiles. 
2. From the Actions menu of a notification profile, click Deactivate.

All notifications for that profile type are turned off and the impacted users no longer receive notifications.

You can also activate or deactivate a notification profile while editing the profile.

To specify the recipients to be notified

From the Actions menu of a notification profile, click Profile details, and perform one of the following steps:

• To send notifications to all users, groups, and roles, click Everyone.
• To send notifications to specified recipients, in Context variables, click Select and perform one of the following steps: 
  • To send notifications to the selected users and groups, select Requested for.
  • To send notifications to the administrator, select Requested by.
    For example, when a new user is added, the specific user or group receives the notification. If the administrator also needs to be notified, select Requested by.

Use the Reset profile option to revert any changes to the profile's recipient list and reset it to the default state.

To remove recipients from the notification profile

1. Click <number of users, groups, or roles> assigned, which indicates the existing number of users or groups that are recipients of notifications. 
   
2. From the Users, Groups, or Roles list, select the users, groups, or roles to remove them as recipients, and click Remove.

To configure notification preferences

As a user, specify whether you want to receive in-app notifications, email notifications, or both. These preferences apply to all the notification profiles.

1. Log in to BMC Helix Portal, and click My profile.
2. Under Preferences, click Edit.
   
   
3. Enable or disable the in-app or email notifications.
4. ​​​​Save the changes.
5. (Optional) Click Clear to clear your selection of preferences.
   With this option, notifications are sent according to the preferences defined in notification profiles.

To customize email notifications

An email notification is sent only for the access key expiry. Use the template editor to customize the notification email by modifying the default text and rebranding the default email content. For example, you can change the contact details or hide the footer in the email.

1. For a profile that has email notification enabled, select Actions > Profile details.
2. In the Profile details pane, click Template editor. The Draft tab shows the content of the default email notification.
3. Add the Subject, Heading, Body, Footer, and Disclaimer text.
4. To automatically include information in the fields, add a variable by typing the following information:
   Type open braces ({), select one of the variables from the list, and type close braces (})
   For example, in the Heading field, you can add the text: Access key expiry for {$params.name}. When the user receives the email notification, the header will be: Access key expiry for <name of the access key>. 
5. (Optional) Create an HTML table by using the following HTML tags to improve the message readability:
   • <table></table>
   • <tr></tr>
   • <th></th>
   • <td></td>
   • <thead></thead>
   • <tbody></tbody>
6. Select one of the following options:
   • To view the email content and format before sending the notification, click Preview draft. Confirm the look and feel in the preview, edit it, and then send the notification.
   • To send the email notification, click Save and publish changes.
     The Published tab shows the content of the mail that is published. Use the Preview published option to view the published email notification or to copy the contents.
   • To save the changes of the draft and to publish the notification later, click Save draft. 
7. (Optional) To view the contents and format of the draft or published notification in an email, use the options in the Send a test email section. By default, the email is sent to the email ID of the logged-in user. You can view the profile details of the logged in user in the My profile page.