Customizing email, push, and in-app notifications
As an administrator, you can customize email, push, and in-app notifications to suit end users' business needs. For example, you can modify the text in the notification fields and disable optional elements of the notification template. Email customization is available only for submitted requests (except for in-app notifications) and new approvals. You can customize notifications for the English locale only.
Video of email customization
The following video (3:41) demonstrates the end-to-end scenario of how the administrator provides the email and phone of the support team in the footer of the email notification for the submitted request. When the requester receives an email notification about their request, they can see the support contacts in case any questions arise:
To customize email notifications
- In the Admin console, navigate to the Configuration tab.
- Select Email & Notifications > Templates.
- Hover over the notification event (Request submitted or Approval - Waiting for your approval), click Actions, and select Edit.
- In the modal window, select the Email notification tab, and customize the required fields.
- Click Publish.
Section | Description |
|---|---|
Branding | The administrator selects whether to show or hide the product logo, name, header background, and Powered by BMC inscription. |
Heading | The heading fields are as follows:
Important: The following heading fields are not supported for service request definitions (SRDs) from BMC Service Request Management:
|
Details | This section can be neither removed nor customized. |
Content | The content fields are as follows:
|
Footer | The footer fields are as follows:
|
The following screenshot displays a customized email notification:
To customize push notifications
- In the Admin console, navigate to the Configuration tab.
- Select Email & Notifications > Templates.
- Hover over the notification event (Request submitted or Approval - Waiting for your approval), click Actions, and select Edit.
- In the modal window, select the Push notification tab, and customize the body of push notifications.
- Click Publish.
The following screenshot displays a customized push notification:
To customize in-app notifications
- In the Admin console, navigate to the Configuration tab.
- Select Email & Notifications > Templates.
- Hover over the Approval - Waiting for your approval notification event, click Actions, and select Edit.
- In the modal window, select the In-app notification tab, and customize the title of bell notifications.
- Click Publish.
The following screenshot displays a customized in-app notification:
Actions for notification templates
The following actions are available for notification templates:
- Reset to default—Global setting (applies to all notification types). Reset the custom notifications to default in the Templates tab and in the modal window. For email notifications, the two reset options work differently.
- Close—Global setting. Exit the custom notification modal window and return to the Templates tab.
- Save—Global setting. Save the changes to the draft.
- Publish—Global setting. Publish the notification draft. After publishing, end users start receiving customized notifications.
- Draft—Edit the notification template.
- Published—See a preview of the published notification.
- View sample—See a sample image of the notification.
- Send test notification—Send yourself a test notification to view the customization result.
To reset a custom notification
The two options are similarly named, but the navigation sequence is different. You must be sure about which option to use:
- Select Templates > Actions > Reset to default:
- Reset and Publish—Reset only the published custom notifications template to default. End users start receiving default notifications. The draft custom notifications template is not modified.
- Cancel—Close the warning message.
- Select Templates > Actions > Edit > Reset to default:
- Reset and Publish—Reset the draft and published custom notifications templates to default. End users start receiving default notifications. The draft custom notifications template does not preserve the changes of the administrator.
- Reset—Reset only the draft custom notifications template to default without saving and publishing it.
- Cancel—Close the warning message.
To add variables in the custom template
As an administrator, you can add variables in custom notification templates. Variables are used to automatically add information such as the item name or order description about a single service or multiple services.
For example, in the Single request approval heading field, add the 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.
To add variables in the custom template, the administrator has two options:
- In the custom notification template, specify the full name of the variable from the Variable library list by using {}
- In the Variable library list, click the variable name. 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.
Variable | Description | Support for native catalog services | Support for SRDs from BMC Service Request Management |
|---|---|---|---|
{item name} | The name of a single request or single request approval. | Supported
| Supported In an email notification, this variable is populated with the SRD summary of a requested SRD. |
{order description} | The order description of a multiple request or multiple request approval. | Supported | Not supported |
{number of items} | The number of items of a multiple request or multiple request approval. | Supported This variable is displayed in an email notification if a user requests more than one item. It is not displayed if a user requests a single item. | Not supported |
{request id} | The Request ID of a single request or single request approval. | Supported This variable is displayed in an email notification if a user requests a single item only. It is not displayed if a user requests more than one item. | Supported |
{order id} | The Order ID of a multiple request or a multiple request approval. | Supported This variable is displayed in an email notification if a user requests more than one item. It is not displayed if a user requests a single item. | Not supported |
{approval due date} | The approval due date of a single request approval or multiple request approval. | Supported | Supported |
Important: The approval due date for native catalog services and SRDs is set in BMC Helix ITSM. To specify the approval due date, the administrator must define the Process Due interval for an approval process. For more information about configuring the Process Due interval, see To set process intervals procedure in Creating an approval process. | |||
{submitted date} | The submitted date of a single request or multiple request. | Supported | Supported |
Limitations to use variables
When adding variable names from the Variable library list, the administrator must be aware of the following exceptions:
- Tag <s> is not supported, but <strike> is allowed.
- The following symbols are not supported: {, }, $, <, >. For example, {{request id}}, ${item name}$ or <{item name}>.
- The following tags are removed and the text is saved when changes are saved:
- <h1> - <h5>
- <img>
- <!-- →
- Tags related to tables
Edge cases of customizing notifications
If two administrators simultaneously edit a notification template, they can encounter the following edge cases:
Edge case 1
If a second administrator wants to save, publish, or send a test notification, they see this warning message:
Cancel—Continue modifying the notification template. To see the changes of the other administrator, refresh the page.
Save and override—Discard the changes of the other administrator and save your edits.
Edge case 2
If a second administrator wants to close a template, they see this message:
If the administrator clicks Save and close, they see this warning message:
Cancel—Continue modifying the notification template. To see the changes of the other administrator, refresh the page.
Close—Close the notification template modal window and return to the Templates tab. Unsaved changes are discarded.
Save and close—Discard the changes of the other administrator and save your edits.