Configure Event Notifications
Event notification messages are initiated by the Meridian application server and sent by a specified email server. These notifications are those that your organization should consider as mandatory for users to receive. The users cannot configure which messages they receive and they may not decline to receive them. As such, these messages should be the minimum that are necessary for your business processes.
Additional messages can be sent by user-configured subscriptions or reminders as described elsewhere or by programming custom notifications. You configure event notifications by specifying which groups of users (Subscribers, To-Do assignees, or workflow Managers) that should receive notifications when specific events occur in the vault. The users will receive notifications when these events occur for vault items that are related to the current document or project folder.
Configuring the notification definitions does not configure how subscriptions are stored or how the messages are actually sent. That must be done by creating the notifications table and configuring the table connection and SMTP mail server options.
Configuring the table connection enables all three types of email messages: event notifications, document subscriptions, and reminders. You can configure the email address used to send the notifications when you configure your SMTP mail server options. If you don't update the sender address, a default address will be used.
Default Notification Definitions
By default, Meridian provides notification definitions for the common events that require notifications:
| Option | Description | Recipients related to... |
|---|---|---|
|
As-Built updated |
When a new revision of a master document is created as the result of a project copy being released. |
Sibling project copies |
|
Document imported from Portal |
When a document is returned from being sent to Meridian Portal. | Current document |
|
Document redlined |
When a document is annotated in the Meridian viewer. |
Current document |
|
Document workflow released |
When a document is released at the end of its workflow as a new revision. |
Current document |
|
Document workflow revoked |
When the workflow of a document is aborted and the document reverts to its last released revision. | Current document |
|
Document workflow started |
When a document is placed under change to create a new revision. |
Current document |
|
Document workflow transition executed |
When a document is routed to a different intermediate (not released) state in its workflow. | Current document |
|
Project copy created |
When a document is assigned (copied) to a project folder. |
Master document or parent project folder |
|
Project copy discarded |
When a project copy is discarded (not deleted) from a project folder. |
Master document or parent project folder |
|
Project copy released |
When a project copy is released from a project folder as a new revision of its master (source) document. |
Master document or parent project folder |
|
Project workflow transition executed |
When a project folder is routed to a different intermediate (not released) state in its workflow. |
Parent project folder |
These definitions cannot be deleted. Additional definitions can be created for custom requirements and the definitions used in VBScript programming. Each notification definition can send messages to the users of any of the groups described in Email Notifications.
Subscription notifications use the same definitions as event notifications except that the recipients must register their subscriptions to documents manually (opt-in) in order to receive the notification messages. In addition, each definition must be enabled for the Subscribers group as described in the following tasks.
Notes about Functionality
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To subscribe to documents for themselves or for others, users must have the Allow Subscriptions or Allow Management of Subscriptions for others privileges.
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Notifications are not sent when documents are released using VBScript (for example, Document.ChangeWorkflowState AS_WF_RELEASED, "", "") if the SDWFEvents setting is set to N (default). If such script exists in the vault configuration and the document type workflow events must be prevented, then you must provide custom notification scripting. If the document type workflow events do not need to be prevented, set SDWFEvents to Y. The setting can be found in the [ScriptEvents] section of the Application Integration tab in the Environment branch of the configuration tree in Configurator.
For more information about limiting the events generated by VBScript, see Limiting Events Generated By VBScript.
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To disable notification for specific transitions of a workflow definition, see Create And Edit Transitions.
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Event notifications occur for both the Managed Change and Meridian Advanced Project Workflow Module features.
Configure Event Notifications
To configure event notifications:
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In Configurator, expand Environment in the configuration tree and select Notification Settings.
The Notification Settings page appears in the right pane. The page lists the existing notification definitions for the current vault.
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Click Edit.
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Choose between two options:
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To enable or disable notifications for combinations of events and recipient groups, select check boxes in the columns of the definitions list that correspond to the users that you want to receive notifications when the event occurs.
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To view or edit the details about specific event notifications:
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Double-click the row of the event, or select the row and click Edit.
The definition's Properties dialog box appears.
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For each tab in the dialog that represents a group of recipients, click options or type values using the descriptions in the following table.
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Click OK.
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Click OK.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
|
Notify this group |
Sends notifications to this group of users. |
|
Message subject |
Type the subject of the message that you want to send to these users. |
|
Message text |
Type the text of the message that you want to send to these users. The text can include any of the following variables:
|
|
Message format |
Select the format of the message that you want to send to these users. |
|
Include links |
Select the links that you want to include in the message together with the message text. If the Plain text format is selected, the links will be plain text paths and not hyperlinks. Important!
Be careful when enabling the Rendition option. Notifications are initiated before renditions are updated by workflow transitions. If the definition being configured is for a workflow transition and the Subscribers group is enabled for the definition, the notification recipients could receive an outdated rendition of the document depending on the transition that is executed. To avoid this situation, clear the Rendition option for events that generate renditions and enable it for a subsequent event definition instead. To use VBScript to calculate custom text (for example, property values) for notifications:
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to build a VBScript expression. Create a Notification Definition
To create a notification definition:
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In Configurator, expand Environment in the configuration tree and select Notification Settings.
The Notification Settings page appears in the right pane.
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Click Edit.
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Click New.
A new row is added to the definition list and its name is editable.
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Type a descriptive name for the definition and press Enter.
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Choose between two options:
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To enable or disable notifications for combinations of events and recipient groups, select check boxes in the columns of the definitions list that correspond to the users that you want to receive notifications when the event occurs.
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To view or edit the details about specific event notifications:
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Double-click the row of the event, or select the row and click Edit.
The definition's Properties dialog box appears.
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For each tab in the dialog that represents a group of recipients, click options or type values using the descriptions in the following table.
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Click OK.
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Click OK.
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Specify the definition name in a VBScript procedure that executes when the event occurs.
For more information about sending custom notifications using a notification definition, see the Vault.SendNotification, Document.Subscribe, and Document.Unsubscribe methods.
Edit a Notification Definition
To edit a notification definition:
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In Configurator, expand Environment in the configuration tree and select Notification Settings.
The Notification Settings page appears in the right pane.
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Click Edit.
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Make your changes.
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Click OK.
Delete a Notification Definition
To delete a notification definition:
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In Configurator, expand Environment in the configuration tree and select Notification Settings.
The Notification Settings page appears in the right pane. The page lists the existing notification definitions for the current vault.
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Select the definition row that you want to delete and click Remove.
The row is deleted from the definition list.
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Click OK.
