Modifying Your Message Templates

Notification mailers use message templates defined in Oracle Workflow Builder to generate e-mail notifications. Oracle Workflow provides a set of standard templates which are used by default, as well as some alternative templates for certain types of messages. These message templates are defined in the System: Mailer item type. Although message templates are defined as messages in Oracle Workflow Builder, they are not true messages. Rather, they serve as outlines for e-mail messages sent by notification mailers. Message templates determine the basic format of an e-mail notification, including what header information to include, and whether and where to include details such as the message due date and priority. Message templates for notifications that require a response should also describe the syntax the reply should follow and list the information needed to confirm the notification.

It is not recommended to modify the standard templates. However, you can optionally customize the message templates used to send your e-mail notifications by either using the alternative templates provided in the System: Mailer item type by Oracle Workflow, or creating your own custom message templates in the System: Mailer item type using the Workflow Builder. You can implement alternative standard or custom templates in the following ways:

• Assign the templates you want to a particular notification mailer service component in the mailer configuration parameters. The templates assigned to a mailer override the default System: Mailer templates. See the Oracle Applications Manager online help or the Oracle Enterprise Manager online help.

• Assign the templates you want to a particular notification in a workflow process by defining special message attributes. In this case the templates assigned to the notification override both the templates assigned to a mailer and the default System: Mailer templates. See: Notification Mailer Message Template Attributes, Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide.

The templates in the System: Mailer item type have message attributes that represent every part of the notification message. Within the body of a template, the message attributes are token substituted to insert the specific information for a particular instance of a notification into the message outline.

Note: Do not modify, add new attributes to, or delete existing attributes from the standard message templates in the System: Mailer item type. If you create new custom templates, you must name the message attributes for these templates with the same names as the message attributes for the standard templates. A

notification mailer can only token substitute the attributes in the message body if you use the standard attribute names.

You can optionally omit some of the standard tokens from your custom templates, if you do not want to send the information they represent. However, you should not omit the tokens that represent the key information to be conveyed in the notification. For example, if you define a custom version of a template that includes the &BODY token, you must include the &BODY token in the custom template as well, in order to include the body text of the particular notification that is being sent into the template outline. If you add a new token in a custom template, you must set up the necessary substitution yourself. By default, a notification mailer only performs token substitution for the standard tokens that are listed for the default templates.

Oracle Workflow provides the following message templates.

Note: In addition to the message templates listed here, the

System: Mailer item type also includes some other messages which are not currently used.

• Workflow Open Mail (Templated) Message, page 2-81 • Orig. Workflow Open Mail (Templated) Message, page 2-83 • Workflow Open Mail (Direct) Message, page 2-85

• Orig. Workflow Open Mail (Direct) Message, page 2-88 • Workflow Open Mail for Outlook Express Message, page 2-90 • Orig. Workflow Open Mail for Outlook Express Message, page 2-93 • Workflow Open FYI Mail Message, page 2-95

• Orig. Workflow Open FYI Mail Message, page 2-97 • Workflow View From UI Message, page 2-98 • Workflow View FYI From UI Message, page 2-99 • Workflow URL Attachment Message, page 2-101 • Workflow Canceled Mail Message, page 2-102 • Orig. Workflow Canceled Mail Message, page 2-103 • Workflow Invalid Mail Message, page 2-104

• Orig. Workflow Invalid Mail Message, page 2-107 • Workflow Closed Mail Message, page 2-110 • Orig. Workflow Closed Mail Message, page 2-111 • Workflow Summary Mail Message, page 2-112

• Workflow Summary Mail (HTML) Message, page 2-113 • Workflow Warning Mail Message, page 2-114

• Workflow Signature Required Mail Message, page 2-115 • Workflow Signature Warning Mail Message, page 2-117 • Workflow Secure Mail Content Message, page 2-118

• Workflow Open Mail (More Information Request) Message, page 2-119 • Orig. Workflow Open Mail (More Information Request) Message, page 2-122 • Workflow Open Mail (More Information Request for Outlook Express) Message,

page 2-124

• Workflow Invalid Open Mail (More Information Request) Message, page 2-127 See: Reviewing Notifications via Electronic Mail, Oracle Workflow User's Guide.

Workow Open Mail (Templated) Message:

If you use the templated response method, the Notification System uses the Workflow Open Mail (Templated) message as a default template for e-mail notifications that require a response. The notification template includes generic instructions on how to respond to a notification. It also includes the date that a response is due and any history of actions on the notification.

Note: The templated response method is the default response method for Oracle Workflow. Notification mailers use the templated response method unless you have manually set the internal mailer parameter named DIRECT_RESPONSE to Y. See: Setting Up Notification Mailers, page 2-55.

The response instructions in the plain text message body describe how to reply manually using the templated response method. This message is used for notifications sent to performers with a notification preference of MAILTEXT or MAILATTH. The response instructions in the HTML-formatted message body describe how to reply using the automatically generated response template. This message is used for notifications sent to performers with a notification preference of MAILHTML or MAILHTM2, and is also attached to notifications sent to performers with a notification preference of MAILATTH. The Workflow Open Mail (Templated) message has the following message attributes. The values are drawn from the message definition associated with a notification activity.