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Author's profile photo Stephanie Bourgault-Mongeau

SuccessFactors Fun quick tip: Adding HTML code to your Message Definition and Alerts and reduce end-user frequently ask questions

SuccessFactors offered a multitude of fun small functionalities that are less known about. These are not always covered during your implementation project, and it is quite normal: they are not covered by project scope, not all consultants known about them because they are not part of their module’s main features or the cost of the project resource implementing these do not justify return on investment. So, unless you specifically ask this question to your implementer/consultants: is this feasible? You will not know about it! Hence, I always wanted to start writing a serie of SuccessFactors Fun quick tip blogs and shared these little enhancements you can make for quite some time now but never found the time to do so until now. These entries are meant to SuccessFactors administrators, so you can have some post-project improvement ideas and to share with SuccessFactors consultants that have not had the chance to test these yet!

So here is the fun tip for this entry: it is possible to add HTML code to Message Definition and Alerts in SuccessFactors. Business rule can be used to throw info, warning, error, and alert message to the end user. Below you can see an example of a Message Definition using HTML and the result of the message:

Adding%20HTML%20code%20in%20message%20definition

Adding HTML code in message definition

Why is this important to know?

  • Improving communication to end user messages is a great way to improve system usability and reduce end-user questions to your HR service centre. Making messages clearer using html text enhancement is a great way to do so.
  • Business rules used to be solely meant for the Employee Central module. However now, you can now use them in Recruitment, Onboarding 2.0, Calibration, Reward and Recognition or any custom MDF object you have created.
  • Knowing the 2 points above, you might want to improve your current configuration by adding/improving info, warning, error and alert messages to your end user and use HTML code in them.
    • Start with collecting and reviewing frequently asked questions by your end-user population and target where you can get some quick wins out of info, warning, error, and alert messages. While you are at it, make them fun and user-friendly by using HTLM code in your message 😊

 

 

Appendix:

If you aren’t a developer like me, here is the sample code used in my message example so you do not have to start anything from scratch:

<p>This is a <b>bold text</b></p><br>

<p>This is a <i>italic text</i></p><br>

<p>This is a <u>underlined text</u></p><br>

<p>This is a number list:
<ol>
<li>This is a numbered list 1</li>
<li>This is a numbered list 2</li>
</ol>
</p><br>

<p>This is a bullet list:
<li>This is a bullet 1</li>
<li>This is a bullet 2</li>
</p><br>

<p>This is a <a href=”http://www.google.com”>hyperlink</a></p><br>

<p>This is a <a href=”http://www.google.com” target=”_blank”>hyperlink</a> that opens in a new window</p><br>

<p style=”color:red”>This is a <span style=”color:blue”>color text</span></p><br>

<p style=”font-size:30px”> This is a larger text</p><br>

<p style=”font-family:’Courier New'”> This is a Courier New text</p>
<br>

<p>This is an image:</p><p><img alt=”” src=”https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5e/7a/d4/5e7ad4a466c544ca46dae0517984febb.jpg” style=”width: 200px; height: 300px;” /></p>
<br>

<p>This is a table:</p>
<table border: 1px solid black>
<tr>
<th><b>Column 1</b></th>
<th><b>Column 2</b></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Value 1</td>
<td>Value 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Value 3</td>
<td>Value 4</td>
</tr>
</table>

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      Author's profile photo Filippos Stamatiadis
      Filippos Stamatiadis

      Hi Stephanie and many thanks for your article !

       

      one question about the img tag : where do we have to store the images ? In the Sf sftp server ? Or un another place ?

       

      many thanks

      Filippos

      Author's profile photo Guru Mohan Reddy
      Guru Mohan Reddy

      Hi Stephanie ,

      Thanks a lot for such a good article. Could you please clarify feasibility of the below points.

      1. Can we have customized background with html? our client wanted to have a gif or jpg image (which client will provide)as background and text on top of it? is this possible?
      2. or can we automatically fetch profile photo as background image?
      3. currently the code limit is 4000 characters. what if the code exceeds 400 chars? is there any workaround?

      thank you in advance?

      Author's profile photo Joel McCoy
      Joel McCoy

      Hi Stephanie ,,

      Can this also be used in ECHelp MDFs?

      Author's profile photo Sateesh Reddy
      Sateesh Reddy

      Hi Stephanie ,,

      We tried to set this up for job info on save/on change validation errors/warning messages but we are seeing the message with HTML tags. Any other setting that we need to do in provisioning?

      Author's profile photo Samantha Yeap
      Samantha Yeap

      Hi Sateesh,

      I am also having the HTML tags part of the warning message.

      Did you manage to find out what is required to be done?

      Thank you.

      Regards,

      Samantha

      Author's profile photo Michaela Vrsecka
      Michaela Vrsecka

      Hello Stephanie ,

      thank you very much for such an article. I just used it setting message definition in new COVID Vaccination register

       

      Author's profile photo Amber Hudgins
      Amber Hudgins

      Hi Michaela! I am having trouble getting this to work in my instance. Can you share how you added to tags? Here is my example: <b> <strong>This position change requires a promotional drug screen and background check. Please make sure you have completed these tasks and notified your District Manager.</b> </strong>

      Author's profile photo Michaela Vrsecka
      Michaela Vrsecka

      Hello Amber,

      I used this script in Message Definition:

      <p>As the Not-Tested reason you have chosen: <b>Vaccination.</b></p>
      <p>According to the Czech Government Measure against the coronavirus (effective date 22nd May 2021) you can prove that:</p>
      <li> at least 22 days have passed since the first dose of the two-dose vaccine, but not more than 90 days if the second dose has not been applied;</li>
      <li>at least 22 days have passed since the first dose of the two-dose vaccine, but no more than 9 months if the second dose has already been applied;</li>
      <li>at least 14 days but no more than 9 months have passed since the dose was applied for a single-dose vaccine.</li>
      <p>and the vaccinated person has no Covid19 symptoms.</p>
      <p>If you cannot prove the measures above, please have yourself tested and the test results insert in HOPS. You may insert the vaccination as the reason for not to be tested only in case you fit the measures.</p>
      <p>Thank you for helping us to reach the government measures.</p>

      with such result:

      Author's profile photo Simona Polláková
      Simona Polláková

      Hello Stephanie , and Michaela Vršecká

      Thank you for the tips!

      I was having trouble switching on a hyperlink in a Message Definition for onChange rules. It seems to work only in onSave scenarios.

       

      Author's profile photo Ben Choo
      Ben Choo

      I tried this within a Take Rule business rule attached to one of my Time Types and it didn't eventuate (see screenshot attached).

      How did you get this working or does it only work for non-Time scenarios?

       

      timeTypeError

      timeTypeError