Create a notification template

A notification template is the message ManageEngine SecureAI sends when a governance request reaches a point that someone needs to know about. SecureAI supplies templates covering the usual request outcomes. Create your own where a team, an application, or a particular outcome needs different wording, different recipients, or a different delivery route. One template can be reused across as many rules as you need. Creating a template does not by itself send any notifications. It takes effect once a governance assigning rule selects it against one of the request stages that rule handles.

How a notification template becomes a notification

A template records a mode, a set of recipients, a subject, and a message. The message can carry macros. A macro is a placeholder that stands in for a value belonging to the request the notification concerns, and it is left as written until the notification is sent. Recipients are held the same way. A recipient given as a macro follows whoever holds that position when the notification goes out, rather than a name fixed when the template was written. A recipient typed in by hand, or chosen from the accounts SecureAI holds, stays as entered.

SecureAI sends the template when a request handled by the rule it is attached to reaches the stage it was selected against. It resolves the macros against that request, and passes the result to the email server or the SMS gateway. SecureAI records every notification it sends, whether the notification went by email or by SMS. What a technician can view and change follows the delegated role they hold.

Prerequisites

The following must be in place before a template can be created and used:

• Log in under a role that includes the Notification Template task. The default Super Admin and Governance Manager roles both carry it.
• Include the Email/Mobile Attributes property of that task in the role of any technician who needs to pick recipients from a list.
• Configure the email server, the SMS gateway, or both under Server Settings, to match how the template is to be sent.
• Set up the governance assigning rule that the template will be attached to.

Configuration instructions

1. Navigate to Settings > General Settings > Notification Template.
2. Click Create New Template.
3. Enter a name and a description for the notification template in the respective fields.
4. In the Send Notification About field, select Objects with failed workflows, Objects with successful workflows, or both. This classifies the template by the workflow outcome it covers.
5. In the Send Notification via field, select Email, SMS, or Both. The entries offered change with the selection.
   • Email: Enter the email addresses to be written to in To, separating addresses with semicolons. To select from the accounts SecureAI holds, each listed with its authentication type, click Choose. In the Cc field, add a second set of email addresses for recipients who are to be kept informed rather than required to act.
   • SMS: Enter the numbers to be messaged in the Phone Number field. To reach the number SecureAI holds for the user the request concerns, click Choose and select %UserMobileNumber%.
   • Both: Enter both the phone numbers and the email addresses.
6. In the Subject field, enter the subject line for the email.
7. In the Message field, write the text the recipient is to receive, and format it using the formatting toolbar. To include a value from the request, place the cursor where the value belongs and click the macro from Macros. SecureAI offers the following macros:

   Macro	What it resolves to
   Subject	The subject recorded against the request
   Description	The description recorded against the request
   Request ID	The identifier SecureAI holds for the request
   Created Time	The time the request was raised
   Request Status	Whether the request is open or closed
   Workflow Status	The stage the workflow has reached
   Comments	The comments entered against the request
   Technician Name	The technician's login name
   Technician Display Name	The technician's display name
   Reviewer	The reviewer's login name
   Reviewer Display Name	The reviewer's display name
   Approver	The approver's login name
   Approver Display Name	The approver's display name
   Executor	The executor's login name
   Executor Display Name	The executor's display name
   Request Link	A link to the request, the same one opened by selecting the request from the request listing
   Execute Link	A link to the execution of the request

8. To send the request detail with the notification, select Attachment Type.
   • Select Send report(s) as files to send the detail as a separate file, then choose the required file format: PDF, XLSX, or HTML.
   • Select Send report(s) in mail content to place the details in the body of the message instead.

   Note: The Attachment Type option is not offered for a template sent by SMS alone.

9. Click Save. The template is then listed under Notification Template with the others and can be selected on a governance assigning rule.
10. Under Notification Template, SecureAI offers the following actions against each listed template.
    • Click the Edit icon to revise the template. The fields are the same as those used to create it.
    • Click the Delete icon to remove the template.
    • Click the Preview Email icon to check the template as a recipient receives it. The preview shows the addressees, the subject, any attachment, and the message, with the macros left as written.
11. On the top-right corner of the page, click Notification History to review what SecureAI has sent by email and by SMS.

Tips

• Where the same message serves more than one stage, attach one template to each stage rather than writing a template for every combination. The templates are selected per stage on the governance assigning rule. Learn more here.
• Give recipients a way to act inside the message. A notification that reports a decision without a route to the request leaves the recipient to find it, which is where approvals stall.
• Preview a template after every change to its message, since formatting applied while writing does not always read the same way in a mail client.
• Put the report in the message where the recipient only needs to read it, and send it as a file where they need to keep it, forward it, or work with the figures. Of the three file formats, XLSX is the one that lets them sort and filter.
• Keep the SMS message short and free of links. A message that has to carry a subject, a status, and a link is better sent by email, with SMS notifications reserved for telling the recipient that something is waiting for them.