Alert Summary Emails

Alert notifications are created from an alert rule, when the particular event (e.g. a field value is changed) that is configured on the rule occurs. The user configured on the alert rule will receive an alert notification in the Action center each time the event occurs. If the user group is also configured on the alert rule (this is an additional option added by Docentric), then each member of this user group will also be receiving alert notifications.

Additionally, besides the created alert notification for the configured user and user group members on the alert rule, an email will be sent if configured so (i.e. if the Send email option is turned on). The email will be sent to all email addresses configured in the Email recipients filed, regardless of the configured user and user group ID on the alert rule.

You can also send alert emails using Docentric, which enables alert email notifications based on the selected email template and additional options such as Cc and Bcc fields, placeholders in email recipients and emailing via Email distributor batch (the Send email using Docentric field in the Docentric email settings tab).

Learn more on Alert emails >>

However, although you can use advanced emailing options with Docentric, you still cannot send multiple alert notifications in a single email. This is where Alert summary emails comes into play. This feature enables sending a periodic summary email of all alert notifications based on the alert rules marked to be included in the summary emails (the Include in summary emails option turned on) to each of the recipients configured on these alert rules (the Summary email recipients field). The periodic alert summary emails are sent by the Alert summary email distributor job.

The only feature that is not included in Free Edition is Alert summary emails. All other alert improvements you can use completely for free.

Alert summary emails are introduced in Docentric 3.4.5 version.

Setup

Alert summary emails can be configured on both Create a custom alert (EventCreateRule) and Manage my alerts / Alert rules (EventRule) forms.

 

Alert summary emails fields:

  • Include in summary emails: If turned on, the data from the alerts created from this alert rule will be included in summary emails sent periodically to each of the recipients specified in the Summary email recipients field. Summary emails are sent via the Alert summary email distributor job.
  • Summary email recipients: Alert summary emails will be sent to each of these recipients by the Alert summary email distributor job, if configured so (in Records to include of the job). The emails are sent using Docentric so beside fixed email addresses, you can also use OOTB placeholders %USERGROUP_XXX% and %USER_XXX%, which will resolve as the belonging user email addresses, or any custom placeholder defined and handled by the ETH class of the selected Email template.
The Docentric email settings tab and the Send email using Docentric option don’t affect sending Alert summary emails.

System email templates for Alert summary emails

Alert summary emails are created from System email templates that are marked with the Alert summary emails flag set to true. When the Alert summary emails option is turned on, the DocAlertSummaryETH class is selected as Class for placeholders and a default Email body template is loaded from AOT Resource (DocAlertSummaryEmailBodyHTM).

Download default Alert summary email HTML template  

 

Alert summary email distributor job

This job enables you to select which alerts to include in summary emails to be sent to those email recipients configured in the originating alert rules marked with Include in summary emails (the Summary email recipients field). By running the job, each of recipients will get a single summary email with links to all alerts targeting his/her email address, considering the job parameters and criteria configured through Records to include.

 

The job can be started by invoking a menu item in System administration > Periodic tasks > Alerts > Alert summary email distributor.

Parameters

  • System email template: the template based on which alert summary emails will be created. You can choose among all System email templates which have the flag Alert summary emails set to true.
  • Max alerts in summary: Maximum number of alert notifications to include in a summary email for a single email recipient; default value = 50; max value = 500.
  • Email sending mode: To send emails using Batch email sending status, select Email processing. Otherwise, alert summary emails will be sent synchronously.
  • Email processing description: The text which will appear in the Description field in Batch email sending status, which you can use for filtering.
  • Cc, Bcc: Specify Cc/Bcc recipients separated by commas or semicolons. You can also use placeholders provided by the ETH class that is bound to the selected System email template or OOTB placeholders %USERGROUP_XXX% and %USER_XXX%, which will resolve as the belonging user email addresses.

Records to include

The default value for the Alert created date and time field is the last 7 days (greaterThanUtcDate(-7)), which means by default alert summary email distributor job will process only alerts not older than 7 days. This can be changed as well as you can limit summary emails to specific alert rules, for example only to those related to sales or purchase orders. You can also schedule multiple Alert summary email distributor jobs to run at once.

How it works

There are two tables “collecting” alert notifications to send them afterwards in alert summary emails:

  • Alert summary email status (the DocAlertSummaryEmailStatusTable table)
  • Alert summary email status details (the DocAlertSummaryEmailStatusLine table)

Each time an alert notification is created, a record is inserted in the DocAlertSummaryEmailStatusTable table with the status Created if the originating alert rule is marked with the Include in summary emails flag set to true. Additionally, for each of the email recipients in the Summary email recipients field on the alert rule, a record is inserted in the DocAlertSummaryEmailStatusLine table with the status Created.

When the Alert summary email distributor job runs, first all records from both tables with status Created, Partially processed and Error (please see below for explanation of the statuses) are marked for processing, considering also the condition configured in the query Records to include. Afterwards, the marked records from the DocAlertSummaryEmailStatusLine table are grouped by email recipient and alert summary emails are created with all alerts meant for each of the recipients but not exceeding the limit configured in the Max alerts in summary parameter of the Alert summary email distributor job. Finally, alert summary email is created based on the selected System email template and sent to each of the alert summary recipients.

However, it can happen that an error occurs during the processing or the number of alert notifications in a single summary email is exceeded so some of the recipients (i.e. the records from the DocAlertSummaryEmailStatusTable/Line tables) will be left as partially processed. Possible statuses of the records in the DocAlertSummaryEmailStatusTable/Line tables are: Created, In processing, Partially processed, Fully processed, Error.

 

You can view the DocAlertSummaryEmailStatusTable/Line tables in Table Browser, however, you can also edit them, also in production, using Docentric Table Browser.

You can open a table with Docentric Table Browser in the following way:
https://usnconeboxax1aos.cloud.onebox.dynamics.com/?mi=DocTableBrowser&TableName=DocAlertSummaryEmailStatusTableThe records from the DocAlertSummaryEmailStatusTable/Line tables are deleted in cascade when the related records representing alert notifications are deleted from the EventInbox table.

Security

While all users can configure Alert summary emails on both Create a custom alert (EventCreateRule) and Manage my alerts / Alert rules (EventRule) forms without any special permissions granted, the running the Alert summary email distributor job requires them. Learn more >>

See also

Improved Alert Emails >>
Improved Alerts Security >>
Improved Alert Rules >>
Improved Email Templates >>
Improved Email Processing >>

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