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Author's profile photo Former Member

Guide: How to configure workflow to send email notifications and create tasks

Here is a quick guide how to configure workflow to send email notifications and create tasks. This feature allows admin users (key users) to configure (no code involved) workflow.

1. The content of the email notification. This content can be simple text to branded HTML emails. There are also macros/placeholders that can “mail merge” the business object data into the email/task. For example, you can create a generic template email with HTML content and placeholders. When the email notification is triggered it can replace the #CUSTOMERNAME# placeholder in the template with the business object data.

2. The conditions/rules which will define when an email notification is sent. This rules engine is very flexible so it can evaluate any of the business object fields and create simple to complex multi-condition statements. For example, you can create a rule that when the service ticket status changes from Open to In Progress OR processor = Default Team send the email notification

3. The recipients of the email notification. You can define specific parties that receive the email notification which can either be named Cloud for Customer users or the email address of a Customer. In addition, if you add additional party roles via flexible involved parties feature they too can be recipients of the email notification

Here is how to do it. I will use Cloud for Customer Service Ticket as an example.

1. Go to Administrator -> Workflow -> Notification Rules work center

Screen Shot 2013-12-12 at 9.53.00 AM.png

2. Click on New or Edit an existing notification rule

Screen Shot 2013-12-12 at 9.53.40 AM.png

3. Choose which business object, what type of notification, content of notification, business object data you want in the notification, and HTML template to format the notification.

Screen Shot 2013-12-12 at 9.53.52 AM.png

I have attached some HTML template examples you can use. Use any HTML editor of your liking. I use opensource Mozilla SeaMonkey as my HTML editor. You will first need to create a template in Cloud for Customer, upload the HTML associated with it, activate it, and then reference the template below

4. Configure rules/conditions you want the notification to be sent

Screen Shot 2013-12-12 at 9.54.07 AM.png

5. Configure the recipients of the notification

Screen Shot 2013-12-12 at 9.54.11 AM.png

6. Test the notification

Screen Shot 2013-12-12 at 9.57.15 AM.png

Thanks and enjoy,

Rei Kasai

Global Head of Product

Cloud for Service and Social

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      29 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Rai Kasiai

      In 1408 version we don't have "Noticification Rules" work center under "Administrator->Workflow"

      Noticification.PNG

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      The menu has been streamlined. Click on Workflow Rules.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thank You

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Rei,

      I performed the steps you indicate, but I can not load the template you sent:

      ScreenHunter_378 Sep. 23 12.43.jpg

      I have also tried with other templates, and does not accept. The system does not display error messages, just delete the file.

      I tried to load the template on the side of:  marketing --> Content;  and I get this error:

      "Please add an unsubscribe link to your e-mail template, because for legal reasons all marketing e-mails send out must contain an unsubscribe link that the receiver of the message can use to unsubscribe from future marketing messages."

      ScreenHunter_378 Sep. 23 12.56.jpg

      You know how I can correct this error?

      thanks,

      Joe gonzales.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Joe,

      Forget about the Marketing > Content part, it's only for email templates for Marketing Campaigns in which an Unsubscribe link is mandatory.

      For your first point it's probably because HTML files are not an authorized MIME Type on your C4C System.

      Even if it's not showing, try to load the file again in the "Template file" field, I understand the name won't be displayed but if you try to finish the steps then you will have an error message to confirm this. At the end you should get an error telling you HTML files are not an authorized MIME Types.

      If it's the case, head to your Implementation Projects, select your current one and go in the "Activity List":

      Proj1.PNG

      Then in Fine-tuning Activities look for "Allowed MIME Types for Document Upload":

      Proj2.PNG

      You might need to select "All Activities" in the dropdown just above the table if it's not added in your project, and then highlight the activity and click on "Add to Project":

      Proj3.PNG

      From there you should be able to order by the column "Allowed":

      Proj34.PNG

      Then just make sure the text/html type is allowed:

      Proj5.PNG

      Save and close everything and try again.

      Thanks,

      JB.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Dear Jean,

      worked great.

      Thanks for your support,

      Best regards,

      Joe.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Rei,

      Thanks for this article. Very helpful.

      How do we add

      1) Standard fields which do not appear in the Field Dropdown

      2) Custom fields which are added as extensions

      Thanks and Regards,

      Sandeep

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      The standard fields that are exposed are those that were chosen by the product manager that deemed relevant to be exposed. If there are standard field missing, then submit a feature request through the idea exchange for review. As for custom fields, they will automatically appear with the standard fields.

      Author's profile photo Dedeepya Reddy
      Dedeepya Reddy

      Hi Rei,

      In an HTML email template we added some images from our desktop for the notifications that get sent out. However the images donot appear at the receivers end.

      I presume this is due to the fact that images exist on our local machine.

      Is it possible to upload images onto the c4c tenant and use the resp. url for embedding in HTML templates ?

      Regards

      Dedeepya

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      To embed images in the HTML formatted email, you will need to use a 3rd party image hosting provider. There are many that are available. The HTML template provided above uses www.cloudinary.com

      Author's profile photo Maddy P
      Maddy P

      Hi Rei Kasai,

      Thank you for sharing your knowledge.  I am trying to define the rule but the Business Object does not show any values as shown in below screenshot.  Could you please help me out in this regard.

      workflow rule.PNG

      Regards,

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Not sure. Try another browser or log out and log in again.

      Author's profile photo Thomas Kramer
      Thomas Kramer

      Thanks for your excellent guide!

      We currently face the problem, that the system just sends out these notifications for tickets which were created directly from ingoing mail channels.

      As soon as we create a ticket manually, the system does not send the acknowledgement notification - even if the contact person of the customer account has an E-Mail address.

      What recepient did you use for your rule?

      Best regards

      Thomas

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      The recipient of the email should be the same for both scenarios. You need to configure the right rules to execute the workflow. In your example to send an email when an end user creates the ticket, it would be best to do something like

      Trigger: On Create

      Conditions: Source = Manual Data Entry

      Action: Send Email/Notification

      You could make it more granular such as when a user changes the status from open to in process.

      Lifecycle Status = In Process and Previous Lifecycle Status = Open

      This would ensure that only tickets that a user has taken action and is working it an email notification is sent.

      You can send as many or as little emails to any recipient. In the end, depends on the business process and when and how frequently you want to send the notification(s) consistently during the business process.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      I don't understand your question. Can be more specific?

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Dear Rei,

      Thanks for the article. We created a custom BO through Studio. I have created/enabled the notification rule in the studio and have deployed the Business configuration as notified in the guide. However, I dont see the custom business object in the list of Business Objects under the new workflow rules.

      Please can you help?

      Author's profile photo Santosh Nagaraja
      Santosh Nagaraja

      Hi,

      Did you upload directly the ZIp file or just the HTML file.

      Only HTML files are supported for upload.

      Regards, Santosh

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi,

      I added workflow to send email notification to users on every save to an appointment. Now users want URL added to email to navigate directly back to C4C saved appointment.

      Where do I find the info below as one of the steps to predetermine the URL for UUID?

      Replace [y] with 36 character global unique identifier (GUID) of the item to be opened by user.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Great question.

      If you want to embed a URL in an email notification that when when you click it will directly navigate you to the C4C screen (a "deep URL link"), you will need the UUID of the business object. Not all business objects in the workflow engine has this field exposed, so if you find one that does not have this field exposed, then open an incident and it can be delivered as an enhancement.

      Assuming the UUID is available, then search the C4C help for "Predetermining URLs for Direct Navigation". This will give you instructions on how to create the "deep link URL" in your html template and set the UUID url parameter to the UUID field that is available in the c4c workflow engine.

      Author's profile photo Carlos Hidalgo
      Carlos Hidalgo

      Hi Rei.

      Thanks a lot for all you help!.

      Do you know if we can add a custom action to the workflow rules ?. I was trying to add my custom action inside the service request but i am not able to see it inside the workflow rule drop down list box.

      Thanks!

      Author's profile photo Viswajith Manapetty
      Viswajith Manapetty

      Hi Carlos

      With 1602 we are releasing the feature wherein you would be able to use the Custom Actions that you have defined on the Service Request BO within the Workflow Action rules.

      Best Regards

      Viswa

      Author's profile photo Carlos Hidalgo
      Carlos Hidalgo

      Hi Viswajith.

      Thanks a lot for your help!.

      Do you know if is it possible to read the service request change log using code in SDK ?. Or do i have to create my own change log in order to know the status timestamp changes.

      Thanks!.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi,

      does enybody know where I can find something like 'workflow logs' or report with information if specific workflow rule was execute? Because I have a problem with workflow rule type 'E-mail' which I created in c4c, I don't know why recipient didn't get e-mail.

      regards

      Ewa

      Author's profile photo Flore Demoron
      Flore Demoron

      Hi Ewa,

      If you are doing this in a test tenant, did you check if external emails are allowed?

      Business Configuration > Fine-Tuning > E-Mail and Fax Settings>E-Mail and Fax Settings

      Check in the bottom right corner if emails set to "all business partners" or "all emails to this address". If it is the second option, make sure an email address is populated, or emails will go nowhere at all.

      Flore

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks Flore Demoron for your answer. I handled with my problem - I had a wrong Sender in my Workflow rules for e-mails.

      regards
      Ewa

      Author's profile photo Saurabh Sharma
      Saurabh Sharma

      Thanks for this nice blog Rei Kasai, I was wondering if it is possible to send email notification to individual customers but still we don't have any option to do the same there is nothing to choose individual customer as recipient in workflow rule.

      Is there any workaround for this ?

      Author's profile photo Flore Demoron
      Flore Demoron

      Hi Saurabh,

      Which business object are you trying to send email notifications against?

      Author's profile photo Saurabh Sharma
      Saurabh Sharma

      Hi Flore,

      I'm trying for Individual customer.

      Author's profile photo Mounia Erradi
      Mounia Erradi

      Hello,

       

      Do we need to create email communication channel in order for the system to send emails?

       

      I have set up a email workflow rule but I do not receive the email..

      I sent an incident to SAP and they said that it is because I did not configure a email Channel...

       

      is it right?

       

      Thank you for the help,

       

      Mounia