The types of notification available in the system are configured in the Channels section of the Admin screen. You can access this by navigating to Launchpad > Admin > Channels > Notification Types. Add new types by clicking the Add button at the top right.

Each Notification Type includes the notification message and settings for a specified event.

Notification Type Details

Notification Channels

The settings in the Notification Channels section define the delivery methods for each notification type to the end users.

Users can change these in their user profile notification settings unless the User Configurable setting for the Notification Type is toggled to Off (see above). The settings here are reflected in each user’s Notification Settings.

For example, looking at the Approval Approved notification type, on the top row in the image above, the default method of notification is via the (ShareDo) App. Email Now and SMS are enabled, but are set as the default method.

The configuration for this type is:

Note that the Default checkboxes for App and Email (now) act as radio buttons, and only one method can be set as the default.

It is important to note that this does not stop the user from choosing to receive the notification through more than one method in their Notification Settings. For example, for Approval Submitted:

If the Notification Type has channels that are not enabled users cannot select them in their Notification Settings.

Where a notification is to be sent via email, either a common default template can be used, or a custom template can be created specifically for this notification type.
For example, for an Approval Submitted notification, the default template is applied:

Default Template

An option in Global Features > Notifications lets you set the default template to use:

In this case, the default template is Notification – Instant Case Email. The template can be found in ShareDo at: Documents Admin > Document Templates > Notification Templates.

Notification templates are similar to standard email or document templates in ShareDo. Double-clicking the template opens the Edit blade, and just like standard email templates, clicking the Pack Contents nav bar allows you to configure the pack.

Configure Pack Details

• Output Title
  Each notification generated is stored as an item within ShareDo and can be displayed in List Views. The Output Title specified here will define the notification's title.
• Output File Name
  Each email notification will also produce a Microsoft Word document, which will be stored in the work item's DMS. This determines the file name of the Word document.
• Email Subject
  Determines the subject line of the email.
  Note that a mixture of text and tags can be used in the Title, File Name and Subject fields. The tags presented here are legacy tags, but clicking on the icon will open the Context Browser and allow new Data Composer tags to be selected.
• Source
  In this example, the notification template is a legacy type of Email - Notification - Markdown HTML. This means that it uses a text file with the suffix .md to set the body of the email. The text file contains text and references to ShareDo tags, but note that these are now being deprecated and replaced by the new Email - Notification – HTML type. 

Create a new Notification Email

To create a new, dynamic, rich content email notification template, navigate to Documents Admin > Document Templates > Notification Templates and click New in the top right-hand corner. In this example, we will create a new Notification – Instant Case Email that will become the default email for all notifications.

1. Select the Email - Notification – HTML type:
   
2. Enter a System Name, Name, and Description.
   
3. On the Pack Contents blade, set the Output Title, File Name and Email Subject. Once more, remember that a combination of text and data tags can be used.
   Each HTML email will create an output file in DMS in the ShareDo .eml format.
   
4. Click Confirm, then Save the template.

Editing the Email Body

Once the Pack details and email template are saved, you can reopen the Pack Contents nav bar and edit the email body by following these steps.

In this example, the type of notification, the work item title, and a link to the work item itself form the main body. A link to the user's notification settings is also provided.

1. In Pack Contents, click the edit icon.
   The HTML Notification Templates editor is identical to the HTML Content Blocks and HTML Emails editors. See the guidance starting from the “Email Tagging" section on how to use the Editor: Preparing a New Email Template - ShareDo.
2. Use a mixture of text and tags to set the message text that you require.
   To use tags, click the three dots and select the icon for the context browser.
   
3. Once done, click Confirm on the editor, then Confirm again on the Configure Pack blade. Finally, click Publish on the Edit blade, which will save changes and make the latest version available for use.

Use the Refresh cache buttonat the bottom left of the page to reload all the new configuration.

To use this email as the default template, return to Modeller > Global Features > Notifications and select the template from the list of available notification templates. Then save the changes and refresh the cache.

Any notification type that uses the default template will now use the new HTML notification email.

As an example, the email is hydrated as follows when triggered via a Document Generation Failed event when attempting to generate a bundle.

Applying Templates to Specific Notification Types

You can apply a notification template other than the default for a specific notification type. To do this:

1. Open the notification type you want to edit: go to Admin > Channels > Notification Types and select it.
2. Clear the Use Default Template checkbox in the Notification Channels section.
3. Select the template you want to use for this notification type with the > button.
4. Click Confirm, then Save to finish.

The application can trigger notifications when certain events happen, such as a phase change. Users can access notifications and their settings around notifications by clicking on the bell icon at the top right-hand corner of their screen.

Access this global feature at Launchpad > Open Modeller > Global features. Search for notifications. This feature controls the global settings for notifications, including the standard templates used where the user chooses to receive notifications via email or SMS.

Display Settings Click to see example. Click again to close.
Number of notifications visible to user	The number of notifications visible to the user in their notifications list. You can optionally enable list views of notifications in the application if required.
Notification poll interval in seconds for each user	The number of seconds between the system checking for new notifications for users whilst logged in.
Notification Ancestor ShareDo Type	The ancestor of the notification target work type to display.
Email Settings Click to see. Click again to close.
Send notifications from email address	The email address from which the notification should be sent.
Default Templates Email Now	The default templates that should be used for each frequency of notification. New email templates can be set up if required. Set these templates up in admin first before linking to the feature.
SMS Settings Click to see example. Click again to close.
Default sender name	If this field is left empty, SMS messages will be sent from the default set in the SMS global feature.
Default Templates SMS Now	The default templates that should be used for each frequency of notification. New SMS templates can be set up if required. Set these templates up in admin first before linking to the feature.

The Create notification toolbox item will add a system notification for one or more users/teams. Users can choose how to receive the notification by changing their notification preferences. You can find the available notification types in Admin > Channels > Notification. You can find out more about creating new notification types here -  Configuring Notifications‍.

Common Uses

This toolbox item is commonly used for notifying team members when a particular task is completed, or a phase is changed. This could be used for a wide variety of events, but it is recommended not to overuse this function to ensure that notifications remain focused.

Pre-requisites

Users/Teams variable - you will need to have captured the ID for the user/team to which the notification should be sent.

OR

Recipient roles on work item - if you are relating this notification to a work item, you can select recipient roles. This option can be used in addition to or instead of the users/teams option.

Step - you will need to have a step on your canvas into which to drag it.

Configuring Create notification

1. Click on the toolbox tab of your workflow canvas
2. Select the Create notification option and drag it onto the step in which you wish to place it
3. Click on the Create notification item you have dragged onto the canvas to add the configuration
4. Enter the configuration for the toolbox item

Action Name	Give the action a name e.g. 'Phase Change Notification'
Notification Type	Choose your desired notification type from the drop-down menu.   Notification types are configured in the admin area of the application - you can read about how to do this in Configuring Notifications.‍
Notification Title	Give the notification a title - this will show at the very top of the notification itself and can also contain variables (for example work item ID)
Notification Message	Provide a message for the notification - this will show in the body of the notification and can also contain variables (for example work item ID)
Relate notification to work item	If you wish to relate the notification to a work item, select the relevant variable and this will add a clickable link to the bottom of the notification.
Send to holders of these roles on the work item	This option is only visible if you have related the notification to a work item. This allows you to send this notification to one or more roles on the work item. This option can be used in addition to or instead of the users/teams option.
Send to users/teams contained in this variable	Specify the variable holding the ID(s) of the recipients for this notification. This option can be used in addition to or instead of the work item roles option.

The Create reminder toolbox item allows you to add a reminder to an existing task/key date at a given time in the workflow.

Common Uses

In its basic form, this toolbox item is commonly used for setting reminders against a task or key date. It can also be paired with the Date calculations toolbox item in order to achieve the desired outcome.

Pre-requisites

Source Task ID - to use the Create reminder toolbox item you will need to have configured the source task ID as a variable.

Step - you will need to have a step on your canvas into which to drag this toolbox item.

Configuring Create reminder

1. Click on the toolbox tab of your workflow canvas
2. Select the Create reminder option and drag it onto the step in which you wish to place it
3. Click on the Create reminder item you have dragged onto the canvas to add the configuration
4. Enter the configuration for the toolbox item