E-mail Responses

The E-mail Responses page enables you to configure user response options for notifications. Response options can appear as links or buttons in a notification message, which enable the recipient to transition an item without requiring him or her to log in.

For example, you can create a notification that contains "Approve" or "Reject" links that a manager can use to quickly approve or reject a vacation request while it is in the Pending Approval state. The manager does not need to provide any login credentials to invoke these transitions. The manager simply approves or rejects the request directly from the notification message by clicking one of the response options. This launches a new browser window, and a confirmation message appears if the transition succeeds. If the item is no longer in an applicable state, a failure message appears.

You can optionally configure an e-mail response to transition an item with a quick reply message. This enables the manager to approve a request by replying to the e-mail with a simple phrase like "OK" or "Yes".

Note the following important information:

• The E-mail Responses tab only appears in the Notifications view if the notification's action is set to Send E-mail User Channel.
• When the notification rule becomes true, the message is sent to the subscribed user. The recipient must have a valid e-mail address and privilege to transition the item.
• The response options can include one or more transitions in the item's workflow that are valid for the item's current state. If you configure the response to execute a regular transition (not a quick transition), you must map any required fields when you create the response in Application Administrator.
• The recipient is not required to log in to transition the item; instead, the responses each contain a unique expiring token that is embedded in the URL, which grants the recipient the ability to execute the transition. Because the user does not have to log in, no license is used. This token cannot be reused in any way and only grants the recipient the ability to perform the associated transition. If the recipient attempts to respond after the designated expiration time has passed, he or she must enter login credentials to access the item and perform the transition.

  On-premise customers can configure the expiration time for the token in the Mail Services tab in SBM Configurator. For details, refer to the SBM Installation and Configuration Guide or SBM Configurator help. On-demand customers can configure this setting in the Notification System Settings tab in the Notifications view in Application Administrator.

To create a new e-mail response:

1. Open the E-mail Responses tab, and then click Add new response.
2. Enter a Name for the response. Take note of the name that you enter for each e-mail response that you will configure—you will use them with the $EMAILRESPONSE() tag when you customize to the notification e-mail template later.
3. Optionally, select the check box next to the Name field and enter one or more aliases for the response in the Alias field. The aliases that you enter correspond to one or more replies that the recipient could use to transition the item. For example, to execute the Approve Request transition, create a new response named Approve, and then enter likely replies that the recipient might use, such as:

   Ok,Yes,Approved

   Or:

   Ok:Yes:Approved

   This enables the recipient to approve the request by replying to the e-mail with any one of the words that are listed above. If you are using multiple languages, enter aliases in each language here as well.

4. Select the Initial State. This determines which transitions are available.
5. Select a Transition to Execute. Select the Quick Only check box to see only quick transitions.
   Tip: Click Show Workflow to view a diagram that shows each state and all available transitions.
6. Enter a Priority number if you are creating multiple responses and using aliases. The response with the highest priority will be executed first in the event the recipient replies without specifying one of the defined aliases.
7. Click Save to save your changes.
8. If you selected a regular transition, click the Mappings button to open the Transition Mappings page and map any required field values in the transition. Select Required Only to see only required fields in the transition; select Read Only limit the list to read-only fields. Click Save when you are finished.
9. Click Add new response to add another response, if necessary.
10. After you add responses, you must add the $EMAILRESPONSE() tag to your notification template and reference the response options that you created. For details, refer to Notification Tags.

After you ensure that your notification is using the template that contains the $EMAILRESPONSE() tag and your response options, test the notification to ensure the setup is complete.