AX1653

Customizing notification content for plan file processes

The default Step Activated and Step Reopened notifications for plan file process definitions have default content that you can use as is, or you can customize it as desired. When defining all other notifications, the content is entirely up to you—there is no default content.

All notification content is defined in the Notification Message tab of the Edit Process Notification dialog. To access this dialog, go to the Notifications tab for the process or the Step Notifications tab for a step, and then add or edit a notification.

NOTE: If a step has inherited a notification from the process level, the content of that notification cannot be edited at the step level. You must go to the process level to edit the content of the inherited notification.

Plan file processes support a set of process variables that can be used to include process information and plan file information in notification content. For example, you can return the name of the process, the plan code and description of the plan file, the name of the step, and the due date of the step.

Notification message sections

Each notification message in a plan file process has three sections—the Notification Subject, the General Text, and the Plan File Specific Text. All sections for the notification must have some content in order to be valid.

Example plan file process notification

The subject is rendered as the email subject line and/or as the notification title in the Notifications task pane. The body text consists of the general text followed by one or more blocks of plan file-specific text. This is because plan file process notifications can contain the information for multiple plan files at a time. For example, if a plan file process is activated and a user is assigned to 5 plan files for the first step, then that user will receive one notification for all 5 plan files (instead of receiving 5 separate notifications).

Therefore, when defining notifications for plan file processes, the task-related information should be placed in the Plan File Specific Text section instead of in the general text section. This allows the task-related information to be populated with the unique information for each plan file covered by the notification.

Process variables

Process variables can be used in all sections of the notification message, although certain variables can only be used in certain sections. The variables use standard variable syntax in Axiom—for example: {StepDueDate}.

Use the Insert variable menu for the current section to insert a variable into the text. The menu displays only the variables that are currently valid for use, based on the current section and the step type. Although you can manually type the variables, it is recommended to use the menu to ensure that you only use variables that are valid for the current section. When you choose a variable from the menu, it is displayed in plain text—for example, Due Date for {StepDueDate}.

General variables

The following variables return general information about the process and its steps.

NOTE: Certain variables may resolve to different values for each plan file included in the notification. In this case, the variable should only be placed in the plan file-specific section and not in the generic text section.

Variable Description Notification Types
{CompletingUserComment}

The comment made by the user who completed the step.

  • This variable resolves to blank if no comment was entered.

  • If the step that was completed was a multiple approvals step, then this variable resolves as a list of sub-steps, completing users, and comments, such as:

    Sub-step 1 name - user name - comment

    Sub-step 2 name - user name - comment

 Step Completed

{CompletingUserName}

The name of the user who completed the step.

  • If the step that was completed was a multiple approvals step, then this variable resolves as a list of sub-steps and completing users, such as:

    Sub-step 1 name - user name

    Sub-step 2 name - user name

 Step Completed

{CurrentStepName}

Name of the current step.

All notification types

{CurrentStepDescription}

Description of the current step.

All notification types

{CurrentStepNumber}

Number of the current step.

All notification types

{DaysPastDue}

Number of days past the due date for the current step.

 Due Date Reminder, Overdue Reminder

{DaysTilDueDate}

Number of days until the due date for the current step.

 Due Date Reminder, Overdue Reminder

{OwnerFullName}

The full name of the current task owner.

 Step Activated, Step Reopened, Due Date Reminder, Overdue Reminder

{NextStepDueDate}

The due date of the next step in the process.

  • If the next step is a multiple approvals step, then this variable resolves as a list of sub-steps and due dates, such as:

    Sub-step 1 name - due date

    Sub-step 2 name - due date

  • If the completed step was a sub-step of a multiple approvals step, and the parent step is still active, then this variable resolves to text such as "N/A - parent step is not complete".

  • If the completed step was the last step in the process, then this variable resolves to text such as "N/A - the process is complete".

Step Completed, Step Rejected

{NextStepName}

The name of the next step in the process.

  • If the next step is a multiple approvals step, then this variable resolves as follows:

    Multiple Approvals Step Name (Comma-separated list of sub-step names)

  • If the completed step was a sub-step of a multiple approvals step, and the parent step is still active, then this variable resolves to text such as "N/A - parent step is not complete".

  • If the completed step was the last step in the process, then this variable resolves to text such as "N/A - the process is complete".

Step Completed, Step Rejected

{NextStepOwner}

The owner of the next step in the process.

  • If the next step is a multiple approvals step, then this variable resolves as a list of sub-steps and owners, such as:

    Sub-step 1 name - user name

    Sub-step 2 name - user name

  • If the completed step was a sub-step of a multiple approvals step, and the parent step is still active, then this variable resolves to text such as "N/A - parent step is not complete".

  • If the completed step was the last step in the process, then this variable resolves to text such as "N/A - the process is complete".

  • If the owner is a role, then this variable resolves as a comma-separated list of all owners in the role.

Step Completed, Step Rejected

{PreviousStepName}

The name of the previously active step in the process.

  • This resolves to N/A for the first step in the process when used in Step Activated notifications.

  • If the previous step was the last-completed step of a multiple approvals step, then this variable resolves as follows:

    Multiple Approvals Step Name (Comma-separated list of sub-step names)

Step Activated, Step Reopened

{PreviousSubmitterComment}

The comment made by the user who completed the previously active step.

  • This resolves to N/A for the first step in the process. For other steps, it resolves to blank if no comment was entered.

  • If the previous step was a multiple approvals step, then this variable resolves as a list of sub-steps, submitters, and comments, such as:

    Sub-step 1 name - user name - comment

    Sub-step 2 name - user name - comment

Step Activated

{PreviousSubmitterName}

The name of the user who completed the previously active step.

  • This resolves to N/A for the first step in the process.

  • If the previous step was a multiple approvals step, then this variable resolves as a list of sub-steps and submitters, such as:

    Sub-step 1 name - user name

    Sub-step 2 name - user name

Step Activated

{ProcessName}

The name of the process (display name if defined, process name if not).

All notification types

{RecipientFirstName}

The first name of the notification recipient.

All notification types

{RecipientFullName}

The full name of the notification recipient.

All notification types

{RejectingUserComment}

The comment made by the user who rejected the step (or in the case of On Demand Process Aborted, the user who aborted the plan file in the process).

This variable resolves to blank if no comment was entered.

 Step Reopened, Step Rejected, On Demand Process Aborted

{RejectingUserName}

The name of the user who rejected the step (or in the case of On Demand Process Aborted, the user who aborted the plan file in the process).

Step Reopened, Step Rejected, On Demand Process Aborted

{StepDueDate}

The due date for the step.

Step Activated, Step Reopened, Due Date Reminder, Overdue Reminder

{TaskCount}

The count of tasks covered by this notification.

Step Activated, Step Reopened, Due Date Reminder, Overdue Reminder

Plan file process variables

With the exception of {FileGroupName}, these variables will resolve to different values for each plan file task included in the notification, therefore, these variables should only be placed in the plan file-specific section and not in the generic text section.

Variable Description Notification Types
{ColumnValue:ColumnName}

Return a value from a specified column, for the current plan file. The column can be any column from the plan code table, or from a table that the plan code table links to.

For example, imagine that you want to display the assigned region for the current plan code, and Region is a column in the plan code table. You can specify {ColumnValue:Region} as a process variable.

When you select Column Value from the Insert Variable list, you will be prompted to select a column. The variable will then be inserted using the correct syntax for the selected column.

All notification types

{FileGroupName}

 The name of the file group for the plan file process.

All notification types

{LinkToPlanFile}

A hyperlink that opens the plan file for the current task. See additional notes following this table.

All notification types

{PlanCode}

The plan code for the current task. For example: 100.

All notification types

{PlanCodeDescription}

The description of the current plan code. The description is taken from the designated description column(s) for the plan code table.

All notification types

{PlanCodeDisplayName}

The full name of the current plan code, using the dimension name, the code, and the description. For example: Dept 100 (Development).

All notification types

Note the following when using the {LinkToPlanFile} variable:

  • If the plan file is form-enabled, then the hyperlink will open the file as a form or as a spreadsheet depending on the step-level setting Open forms-enabled plan files as. For email notifications, if the step is configured to open the file as a form, then the form will be opened in the Web Client (browser) in all cases. For notifications delivered to the Notifications task pane, the option to open the form in the browser or the Desktop Client will be honored (except in the Excel Client, where the form will always be opened in the browser).

  • If the plan file is not form-enabled, the hyperlink opens the plan file as a spreadsheet in the user's default Desktop Client.

  • When the plan file is opened as a spreadsheet and the notification is sent via email, the hyperlink uses the same format as hyperlinks generated using GetDocumentHyperlink, including the differing URL format for systems using SAML or OpenID Authentication.