The notification mailer program performs e-mail send and response processing for the Oracle Workflow Notification System, using the JavaMail API. You need to implement a notification mailer only if you want to have your workflow users receive their notifications by e-mail, as well as from the Worklist web pages.
The notification mailer program is defined as a service component type in the Generic Service Component Framework. This framework helps to simplify and automate the management of background Java services.
Oracle Workflow provides one seeded notification mailer service component, called Workflow Notification Mailer. Most of the configuration parameters for this mailer are set to default values. You can enter several of the remaining required parameters using AutoConfig. After installation, you then only need to enter the e-mail inbox password in order to complete the configuration of this mailer. If the mail servers and Business Event System components used by the notification mailers are set up, and the Workflow Mailer Service container to which the Workflow Notification Mailer belongs is started, the seeded notification mailer automatically starts running once its configuration is complete.
You can also optionally modify some of the default values for the seeded Workflow Notification Mailer or create additional notification mailer service components. For example, you can create a notification mailer that processes only messages that belong to a particular workflow item type. You can also configure any notification mailer service component to process only inbound messages, or only outbound messages.
You can associate inbound and outbound mailers with each other by assigning them the same mailer node name. You can optionally assign the same node name to multiple outbound mailers, but you must not assign the same node name to more than one mailer that performs inbound processing.
If you create an outbound-only mailer, but you still want to perform response processing for responses to the outbound messages it sends, you should create exactly one other mailer with the same node name that does perform inbound message processing.Otherwise, there will be no inbound mailer that can process incoming responses to outbound messages sent by this outbound mailer. However, if you only plan to send outbound messages for summary or For Your Information (FYI) notifications that do not require a response, then you can configure an outbound-only mailer without creating a corresponding inbound mailer.
If you create an inbound-only mailer, you should create at least one outbound mailer with the same node name. Otherwise, no inbound response messages will be marked with that node name and this inbound mailer will have no messages to process.
Currently, Oracle Workflow supports the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) for outbound messages and the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) for inbound messages. You must have an SMTP server and an IMAP server set up in order to send and receive Oracle Workflow notification e-mail messages. Users can receive e-mail notifications using various e-mail clients, though notifications may be displayed differently in different clients, depending on the features each client supports.
Note: If you have certain types of software installed, you may already have the necessary mail server functionality available. For example, products such as Oracle Email, Microsoft Exchange, or Lotus Notes include IMAP services. On UNIX, you can use the Sendmail program as your SMTP server.
Additionally, you can choose to use IMAP server software that is available for free download from some sources. For example, the University of Washington offers IMAP software as a public service. You might choose this option if your enterprise uses UNIX Sendmail e-mail accounts, for instance. For more information, see: http://www.washington.edu/imap/ and http://www.imap.org/.
To set up a notification mailer, you must perform the following steps.
Set up an SMTP mail server to send outbound messages.
Set up an IMAP mail server to receive inbound messages.
Set up an e-mail account for the notification mailer on your IMAP mail server, and set up three folders within that account: one to use as an inbox, one to store processed messages, and one to store discarded messages. The default values for these folders in the notification mailer configuration wizard are INBOX, PROCESS, and DISCARD. To avoid having to change these configuration parameters, name the folders within your account with these default names. Note that the values for the processed message folder and discard message folder are case-sensitive, while the name of the inbox folder is not case-sensitive.
You can use AutoConfig to enter the following configuration parameters for the seeded notification mailer service component during installation. For more information about running AutoConfig, see MetaLink Note 165195.1 and AutoConfig, Oracle Applications AD Utilities Reference Guide.
SMTP Server
IMAP Server
Inbox Username
Reply To E-mail Address
HTML Agent Name - This parameter defaults to the value you enter for the Applications Web Agent parameter in AutoConfig.
Ensure that the Business Event System status is set to Enabled in the Global Workflow Preferences page, and that the JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES and AQ_TM_PROCESSES database initialization parameters, which are required for the Business Event System, are set to appropriate values. The Business Event System status is set to Enabled by default, and usually you do not need to change the status. If notification processing is not being completed, however, you should check this preference value.
Before a service component can run, the container which manages it must first be started. Notification mailer service components belong to a container named Workflow Mailer Service, while the agent listener service components that are also required for notification mailer processing belong to a container named Workflow Agent Listener Service. You should ensure that these two containers are running. Use the Service Instances page to start the containers as service instances in Generic Service Management (GSM).
When the Workflow Agent Listener Service container is running, it automatically starts agent listener service components for the standard WF_DEFERRED, WF_ERROR, and WF_NOTIFICATION_IN agents in the Business Event System, which are required for notification mailer processing. Ensure that these agent listeners are running.
Use the notification mailer configuration wizard to configure the notification mailer service component you want. If you entered configuration parameters for the seeded Workflow Notification Mailer through AutoConfig, you only need to enter the password for the e-mail inbox in order to complete the configuration for that mailer and begin running it. If you did not enter parameters for the seeded mailer through AutoConfig, then in order to complete the configuration for that mailer you need to enter only the IMAP server, SMTP server, e-mail inbox username, e-mail inbox password, reply to e-mail address, and HTML agent name. All other configuration parameters for the seeded Workflow Notification Mailer are initially set to default values and do not need to be changed, although you can optionally do so if you choose.
(Optional) By default, the seeded Workflow Notification Mailer has a Launch Summary Notifications event scheduled to send summary notifications once a day. You can optionally use the notification mailer configuration wizard to modify the start time and interval for this event's schedule, or to schedule the Launch Summary Notifications event at the interval you choose for any notification mailer service component. When this event is processed, a summary notification is sent to each role with a notification preference of SUMMARY, listing all the notifications that are currently open for that role.
(Optional) You can optionally use the WF: Mailer Cancellation Email profile option to determine whether notification mailers send Workflow Canceled Mail messages when previously sent notifications are canceled. Set this profile option to Enabled if you want to send cancellation messages, or to Disabled if you do not want to send cancellation messages. The WF: Mailer Cancellation Email profile option must be set at site level. The default value is Enabled. See: Overview of Setting User Profiles, Oracle Applications System Administrator's Guide.
(Optional) The seeded Workflow Notification Mailer uses the Automatic startup mode by default and will be started automatically when you complete its configuration. If you select the Manual startup mode for a notification mailer service component, use the Service Components page or the Component Details page to start that notification mailer. You can also use these pages to manage any notification mailer service component.
When the Workflow Engine determines that a notification message must be sent, it raises an event in the Business Event System called oracle.apps.wf.notification.send. Oracle Workflow provides a seeded subscription to this event, which is defined to be deferred immediately so that the workflow process that owns the notification can continue. The event is placed on the standard WF_DEFERRED agent. Oracle Workflow provides a seeded agent listener named Workflow Deferred Agent Listener that runs on this agent to continue notification processing.
When the event is dequeued from WF_DEFERRED and the subscription is processed, the subscription requires the event data for the event, causing the Generate function for the event to be executed. The Generate function for this event performs the following actions:
Resolves the notification recipient role to a single e-mail address, which itself can be a mail list.
Checks the notification preference of the recipient to determine whether an e-mail notification is required, and in what type of format.
Switches its database session to the recipient role's preferred language and territory as defined in the directory service.
Generates an XML representation of the notification message and any optional attachments using the appropriate message template.
Finally, the subscription places the event message on the standard WF_NOTIFICATION_OUT agent.
A notification mailer service component polls the WF_NOTIFICATION_OUT agent for messages that must be sent by e-mail. When the notification mailer dequeues a message from this agent, it uses a Java-based notification formatter to convert the XML representation of the notification into a MIME (Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions) encoded message and sends the message by the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
The e-mail notifications are based on message templates defined in Oracle Workflow Builder. Oracle Workflow provides a set of standard templates in the System: Mailer item type, which are used by default. It is not recommended to modify the standard templates. However, you can customize the message templates used to send your e-mail notifications by creating your own custom message templates in the System: Mailer item type using the Workflow Builder, and assigning these templates to a particular notification mailer service component in the mailer configuration parameters. The templates assigned to a mailer override the default System: Mailer templates.
Additionally, you can create your own custom message templates in a custom item type using the Workflow Builder, and assign these templates 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.
A notification mailer can also processes e-mail responses from users, using the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). The notification mailer uses a Java-based e-mail parser to interpret the text of each message and create an XML representation of it.
A notification mailer uses three folders in your response mail account for response processing: one to receive incoming messages, one to store processed messages, and one to store discarded messages.
A notification mailer does the following to process response messages:
Logs into its IMAP e-mail account.
Checks the inbox folder for messages. If a message exists, the notification mailer reads the message, checking for the notification ID (NID) and node identifier in the NID line.
If the message is not a notification response, meaning it does not contain an NID line, the notification mailer moves the message to the discard folder and sends a Workflow Warning Mail message back to the sender of the message.
If the message is a notification response, but for the wrong node, the notification mailer leaves the message in the inbox.
If the message is a notification response for the current node, meaning it contains an NID line including the node identifier of the current node, the notification mailer processes the message.
The notification mailer performs the following steps for messages that belong to its node.
Retrieves the notification ID.
Checks to see if the message bounced by referring to the tags specified in the configuration parameters, if any. If the message bounced, the notification mailer reroutes it or updates the notification's status and stops any further processing, depending on the specifications of the tag list.
Checks the Oracle Workflow database for this notification based on the NID line.
If the notification does not exist, meaning the notification ID or the access key in the NID line is invalid, the notification mailer moves the message to the discard folder. If the NID line is incorrectly formatted, the notification mailer moves the message to the discard folder and sends a Workflow Warning Mail message back to the sender of the message.
If the notification exists, but is closed or canceled, the notification mailer moves the message to the discard folder and sends a Workflow Closed Mail or Workflow Canceled Mail message to the recipient role, respectively.
If the notification exists and is open, the notification mailer verifies the response values with the definition of the notification message's response attributes in the database. If a response value is invalid, or if no response value is included, the notification mailer sends a Workflow Invalid Mail message to the recipient role. If the responses are valid, the notification mailer generates an XML representation of the message and places it on the standard WF_NOTIFICATION_IN agent as an event called oracle.apps.wf.notification.receive.message.
Note: If the character encoding of the response message is not compatible with the database codeset, the notification mailer may not be able to parse the response and recognize the response values. Ensure that the character encoding of messages in your mail client is compatible with the codeset of your database.
Moves the message for the completed notification to the processed folder.
Finally, if there are no more unprocessed messages in the inbox, the notification mailer logs out of the mail and database accounts.
Oracle Workflow provides a seeded agent listener named Workflow Inbound Notifications Agent Listener that runs on the WF_NOTIFICATION_IN agent to continue notification processing for the valid response messages placed on that agent. When an event message is dequeued from WF_NOTIFICATION_IN, Oracle Workflow executes a seeded subscription that calls the appropriate notification response function to record the response and complete the notification.
The notification mailer configuration wizard lets you configure a notification mailer service component by defining general and detail attributes, defining e-mail server and message generation parameters, scheduling control events, defining tags to assign statuses to unusual messages, and sending a test message. You can use the configuration wizard to configure a new notification mailer service component, or to edit the configuration of an existing notification mailer service component.
Note: If you are configuring the seeded Workflow Notification Mailer and you entered configuration parameters for this mailer through AutoConfig, then you only need to enter the password for the e-mail inbox in order to complete the configuration for that mailer. If you did not enter parameters for the seeded mailer through AutoConfig, then in order to complete the configuration for that mailer you need to enter only the IMAP server, SMTP server, e-mail inbox username, e-mail inbox password, reply to e-mail address, and HTML agent name. If you did enter an Applications Web Agent parameter in AutoConfig, the HTML agent name defaults to that value. All other configuration parameters for the seeded Workflow Notification Mailer are initially set to default values and do not need to be changed, although you can optionally do so if you choose.
Navigation: Applications Dashboard > (pull-down menu) Workflow Manager > (B) Go > Notification Mailer status icon > (B) Create > (B) Create Service Component
Navigation: Applications Dashboard > (pull-down menu) Workflow Manager > (B) Go > Notification Mailer status icon > (B) Edit
This page lets you define general service component attributes for a notification mailer. Some attributes are already set to required values and cannot be modified. You must set attributes marked with an asterisk (*) to appropriate values for your environment before you can run the notification mailer.
ID - When you edit a previously created notification mailer service component, the configuration wizard displays the identifier for the service component.
Status - When you edit a previously created notification mailer service component, the configuration wizard displays the status of the service component.
Name - The name of the notification mailer service component. This name must be unique. The name of the seeded notification mailer service component is Workflow Notification Mailer, and you cannot change this value.
Startup Mode - Select Automatic, Manual, or On-Demand as the startup mode for the service component. The seeded Workflow Notification Mailer is assigned the Automatic startup mode by default, but you can optionally change this value.
Container Type - The container type to which this service component belongs. In Oracle Applications, the container type is always Oracle Applications Generic Service Management (Oracle Applications GSM).
Inbound Agent - The Business Event System agent for inbound processing. The inbound agent for a notification mailer service component is always WF_NOTIFICATION_IN.
Outbound Agent - The Business Event System agent for outbound processing. The outbound agent for a notification mailer service component is always WF_NOTIFICATION_OUT.
Correlation ID - Optionally select an item type to specify that this notification mailer should only process messages that belong to that item type. If you enter a partial value, this notification mailer will process messages that belong to any item type whose internal name begins with that value. You can enter an item type as the correlation ID if you want to increase throughput for that particular item type by dedicating a notification mailer to it.
If you leave the correlation ID blank, this notification mailer will process messages from any item type. The seeded Workflow Notification Mailer does not have any correlation ID specified, so that it can operate generally to process all messages; you cannot change this setting.
Both dedicated and general notification mailer components are compatible with each other. You can run several dedicated and general notification mailers at the same time if you choose. In this case, note that even if you have configured a dedicated mailer for a particular item type, a message from that item type may still be processed by a general mailer if that mailer is the first to access the message.
To cancel the configuration without saving any changes, click the Cancel button.
To save these settings and proceed to the next step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Next button.
To save these settings and proceed to the last step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Finish button.
This page lets you define detail attributes for the notification mailer.
ID - When you edit a previously created notification mailer service component, the configuration wizard displays the identifier for the service component.
Status - When you edit a previously created notification mailer service component, the configuration wizard displays the status of the service component.
Name - The configuration wizard displays the name defined for the notification mailer service component in the Define page.
Container - The container to which the service component will belong. The container for notification mailer service components must always be a predefined container provided by Oracle Workflow called Workflow Mailer Service.
Maximum Idle Time - If you selected the On-Demand startup mode for the service component, enter the maxium time in minutes that the service component can remain idle before it is stopped. An on-demand component that is stopped in this way will be restarted by its container when it is needed again to process new messages.
To cancel any changes on this page, click the Cancel button.
To return to the previous step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Back button.
To save these settings and proceed to the next step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Next button.
To save these settings and proceed to the last step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Finish button.
This page lets you define e-mail server parameters for the notification mailer. Some parameters are already set to required values and cannot be modified. You must set parameters marked with an asterisk (*) to appropriate values for your environment before you can run the notification mailer. If the notification mailer is currently running, then parameters marked with a refresh icon will be refreshed immediately when you select the Next button or the Finish button.
Mailer Node Name - The node identifier name used by this notification mailer. The node name is included with the outgoing notification ID in outbound messages, and is used in inbound messages to identify the notification mailer that should process the messages. If you use the inbound and outbound thread count parameters to create notification mailers that are dedicated to either inbound or outbound processing, you should ensure that you assign the same node name to at least one outbound mailer and one inbound mailer, so that that inbound mailer can process responses to messages sent by the outbound mailer. You can optionally assign the same node name to multiple outbound mailers, but you must not assign the same node name to more than one mailer that performs inbound processing. The default node name is WFMAIL. For the seeded Workflow Notification Mailer, you cannot change this value.
Email Parser - The Java class used to parse an incoming notification response e-mail and create an XML document for the response. You can enter one of two e-mail parsers provided by Oracle Workflow, depending on the response method you want to use.
oracle.apps.fnd.wf.mailer.TemplatedEmailParser - Enter this e-mail parser if you want to send plain text notifications requiring a templated response to users with a notification preference of MAILTEXT or MAILATTH. This is the default e-mail parser. For the templated response method, users must reply using a template of response prompts and enter their response values between the quotes following each prompt.
oracle.apps.fnd.wf.mailer.DirectEmailParser - Enter this e-mail parser if you want to send plain text notifications requiring a direct response to users with a notification preference of MAILTEXT or MAILATTH. For the direct response method, users must enter their response values directly as the first lines of a reply.
Max Error Count - The number of times the notification mailer can encounter an error and retry the errored processing before its container stops it and changes its status to Stopped with Error. If an error is resolved and processing can continue, the error count is reset. The default value for the maximum error count is 10.
Inbound Thread Count - Set the inbound thread count to 1 (one) to perform inbound message processing with this notification mailer. Set this parameter to 0 (zero) to disable inbound message processing for this notification mailer and dedicate the notification mailer solely to outbound processing. The default value is 1.
The inbound thread count cannot be greater than 1, because only one thread can access the e-mail inbox at a time. If you disable inbound message processing for this notification mailer, but you still want to perform notification response processing, you should create exactly one other notification mailer with the same node name that does perform inbound message processing. Otherwise, there will be no inbound mailer that can process incoming responses to outbound messages sent by this outbound mailer.
If you only plan to send outbound messages for summary or For Your Information (FYI) notifications that do not require a response, then you can configure an outbound-only mailer without creating a corresponding inbound mailer.
Outbound Thread Count - The number of outbound processing threads you want to execute simultaneously with this notification mailer. You can set the outbound thread count to 1 (one) or more depending on the volume of outbound messages you need to send. Set this parameter to 0 (zero) to disable outbound message processing for this notification mailer and dedicate the notification mailer solely to inbound processing. If you disable outbound message processing for this notification mailer, you should create at least one dedicated outbound notification mailer with the same node name. Otherwise, no inbound response messages will be marked with that node name and this inbound mailer will have no messages to process. The default value for the outbound thread count is 1.
Log Level - Select the level of detail for the information you want to record in the service component container log. The recommended log level, which is also the default value, is Exception. Usually the log level only needs to be changed if you want to record additional detailed information for debugging purposes. You can choose the following levels:
1 - Statement
2 - Procedure
3 - Event
4 - Exception
5 - Error
6 - Unexpected
Expunge Inbox on Close - Select this parameter to purge deleted messages from the inbox folder when the notification mailer closes this folder. If you do not select this parameter, copies of messages that were moved to the discard or processed folders remain in the inbox, in a deleted state, until you purge them using your e-mail application. This parameter is deselected by default.
Protocol - Oracle Workflow currently supports the IMAP protcol for inbound e-mail.
Server - The name of the inbound mail server.
Username - The user name of the mail account that the notification mailer uses to send and receive e-mail messages. Note that this should correspond to the account from which you start the notification mailer. You can assign the same mail account to more than one notification mailer service component.
Password - The password for the mail account specified in the Username parameter. The password value is masked as asterisks in the display and is stored in encrypted form.
Inbox Folder - The name of the folder from which the notification mailer receives inbound messages. This value is case-insensitive. The default value is INBOX. Each notification mailer that performs inbound processing should have its own separate inbox.
Note: Usually, you use a dedicated mail account for notification mailer processing. If you want to use a mail account for the notification mailer that you also use for other purposes, you should create a folder in that account where you will place inbound messages destined for the notification mailer and specify that folder in the Inbox Folder parameter. Otherwise, the notification mailer will attempt to process all messages in the regular inbox and discard any messages that are not notification responses. If you do specify a separate folder to use as the notification mailer inbox folder, however, you must move messages from the regular inbox to that separate folder yourself. Depending on your mail program, you may be able to create a filter in the mail account to move such messages automatically. If you want to use the same mail account for two inbound mailers, you can also use this method to create separate inboxes for the two mailers within that account.
Test Address - Optionally enter a test e-mail address where you want to direct all outgoing e-mail notifications. The test address overrides each recipient's e-mail address so that you can test a workflow process without having to change each recipient's e-mail address to access the test notifications. If you do not want to specify a test address, enter the value NONE for this parameter, or leave this parameter blank. The default value is NONE.
Protocol - Oracle Workflow currently supports the SMTP protcol for outbound e-mail.
Server - The name of the outbound mail server.
Processed Folder - The name of the mail folder where the notification mailer places successfully processed notification messages. The processed folder value is case-sensitive and must match the name of the mail folder on the mail server exactly. The default value is PROCESS.
Note: The notification mailer does not perform any further operations on messages in this folder. You can review, back up, or delete these messages through your e-mail application if necessary.
Discard Folder - The name of the mail folder where the notification mailer places incoming messages that are not recgonized as notification messages. The discard folder value is case-sensitive and must match the name of the mail folder on the mail server exactly. The default value is DISCARD.
Note: The notification mailer does not perform any further operations on messages in this folder. You can review, back up, or delete these messages through your e-mail application if necessary.
Allow Forwarded Response - Indicate whether to allow a user to respond by e-mail to an e-mail notification that has been forwarded from another role. This parameter is selected by default.
If Allow Forwarded Response is selected, the notification mailer never checks the "From" e-mail address of the notification response and always allows the response to be processed.
If Allow Forwarded Response is deselected, the notification mailer will check if the "From" e-mail address of the notification response exactly matches the e-mail address of the recorded recipient role or the e-mail address of a user in that role. If the two e-mail addresses match exactly, meaning the notification was not forwarded or was forwarded according to a valid routing rule, the notification mailer treats the response as a valid response. If the two e-mail addresses do not match exactly, meaning the notification was simply forwarded using the e-mail Forward command, the notification mailer does not process the response and treats it as unsolicited mail.
Attention: Note that there are limitations when you deselect Allow Forwarded Response. For example, suppose a notification is sent to a distribution list mail alias that does not have a user/role relationship in the Oracle Workflow directory service. If any user from the distribution list responds to the notification, the notification mailer will always treat that notification response as unsolicited mail, because the "From" e-mail address, which is an individual user's e-mail address, will never match the distribution list mail alias.
To cancel any changes on this page, click the Cancel button.
To return to the previous step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Back button.
To save these settings and proceed to the next step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Next button.
To save these settings and proceed to the last step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Finish button.
Note: When you click the Next or Finish button, the configuration wizard validates the parameters you entered, including verifying that it can connect to the e-mail account on the specified inbound mail server with the specified user name and password, and that the folders specified in the Processed Folder and Discard Folder exist in that e-mail account. If the parameters are successfully validated, and the notification mailer is currently running, then Workflow Manager immediately refreshes the notification mailer with the new parameters.
This page lets you define message generation parameters for the notification mailer. Some parameters are already set to required values and cannot be modified. You must set parameters marked with an asterisk (*) to appropriate values for your environment before you can run the notification mailer. If the notification mailer is currently running, parameters marked with a refresh icon will be refreshed immediately when you select the Next button or the Finish button.
From Address - The value that appears in the From field of the message header when a notification message is delivered to a user. The default value is Workflow Mailer.
If a particular notification message has the special #WFM_FROM message attribute defined, however, the notification mailer will use the #WFM_FROM attribute value in the From field for that message, instead of the From Address mailer parameter value.
Reply To - The address of the e-mail account that receives incoming messages, to which notification responses should be sent.
If a particular notification message has the special #WFM_REPLYTO message attribute defined, however, the notification mailer will use the #WFM_REPLYTO attribute value as the reply address for that message, instead of the Reply To mailer parameter value.
HTML Agent - The base URL that identifies the HTML web agent that handles HTML notification responses. This URL is required to support e-mail notifications with HTML attachments. The default URL is derived from the Workflow Web Agent specified in the Global Preferences web page, but you can override this default by entering a different value for this parameter. The HTML agent should be specified in the following format:
http://<server.com:portID>/pls/<DAD_name>
where <server.com:portID> represents the server and TCP/IP port number on which your web listener accepts requests, and <DAD_name> represents the name of the DAD configured for the Oracle Workflow database schema.
If a particular notification message has the special #WFM_HTMLAGENT message attribute defined, however, the notification mailer will use the #WFM_HTMLAGENT attribute value as the HTML web agent for that message, instead of the HTML Agent mailer parameter value.
Message Formatter - Oracle Workflow uses the oracle.apps.fnd.wf.mailer.NotificationFormatter Java class to generate notification messages.
Autoclose FYI - Indicate whether this notification mailer automatically closes notifications that do not require a response, such as FYI (For Your Information) notifications, after sending the notifications by e-mail. This parameter is selected by default. If Autoclose FYI is deselected, all FYI notifications will remain open in the Worklist until users manually close these notifications.
Send Access Key - Select this parameter to include an access key in the Notification Detail Link attachment that is sent with HTML e-mail notifications with attachments and with plain text e-mail notifications with HTML attachments. The access key allows users to access the Notification Details web page directly by clicking the Notification Detail Link, whether they are currently logged in or not. However, if users are not already logged in, they cannot access any other notifications except the notification with which the attachment was sent. Deselect this parameter to exclude the access key from the Notification Detail Link. When users click the link without the access key, they are prompted to log in, if they have not already done so, before they can access the Notification Details web page. The Send Access Key parameter is deselected by default.
Reset NLS - Indicate whether the notification mailer should convert the NLS codeset for a notification message according to the notification recipient's preferences before composing the message. This parameter is deselected by default. If Reset NLS is selected, the notification mailer will convert the message to the codeset listed in the WF_LANGUAGES table for the language and territory specified in the recipient's Workflow user preferences. If no preferred territory is specified, the notification mailer will use the codeset associated with the first entry it encounters for the user's preferred language. If neither a language nor a territory is specified in the user preferences, the notification mailer will use the codeset seeded in WF_LANGUAGES for the language AMERICAN and territory AMERICA. This parameter is relevant when there are several languages installed in the database and the character set of the user's e-mail client is not the same as the one specified for the database. For example, when a UTF8 database is used, the character set of e-mail clients used in Western Europe is generally 'Western (ISO-8859-1)'. In this case, selecting the Reset NLS means that users who specify a Western European language such as French or German in their Workflow user preferences will receive any e-mail notification messages in the correct character set for the e-mail client.
Inline Attachments - Select this parameter to set the Content-Disposition MIME header to inline for attachments to notification messages, including the Notification Detail Link, HTML Message Body, Notification References containing attached URLs, and attached PL/SQL or PL/SQL CLOB documents. Deselect this parameter to set the Content-Disposition MIME header to attachment for these attachments. For example, if your e-mail application cannot display HTML content such as the Notification Detail Link inline, deselect this parameter to display this link as an attachment instead. The Inline Attachments parameter is deselected by default. Note, however, that some e-mail clients may not support the Content-Disposition header, or may support it in varying ways. Consequently, the Inline Attachment setting may not always have the desired effect, depending on the e-mail clients with which users read their e-mail messages.
This region lets you specify the message templates you want to use to generate e-mail notifications. The template for a particular type of e-mail notification determines the basic format of the notification, including what header information to include, and whether and where to include details such as the message due date and priority.
Oracle Workflow provides a set of standard templates in the System: Mailer item type, which are used by default. It is not recommended to modify the standard templates. However, you can customize the message templates used to send your e-mail notifications by creating your own custom message templates in the System: Mailer item type using the Workflow Builder, and assigning these templates to a particular notification mailer service component in this region. The templates assigned to a mailer override the default System: Mailer templates.
Additionally, you can create your own custom message templates in a custom item type using the Workflow Builder, and assign these templates 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.
Attached URLs - The notification mailer uses this template to create the Notification References attachment for HTML-formatted notification messages that include URL attributes with Attach Content checked. The template must includes a list with links to each URL.
Closed Notification - The notification mailer uses this template to inform the recipient that a previously sent notification is now closed.
Cancelled Notification - The notification mailer uses this template to inform the recipient that a previously sent notification is canceled. In Oracle Applications, you can optionally use the WF: Mailer Cancellation Email profile option to determine whether or not the notification mailer should send Cancelled Notification messages.
Invalid Response - The notification mailer uses this template to inform a user that the user responded incorrectly to a notification. For example, if a response message from a user contains a valid notification ID (NID) line matching it with a notification, but does not contain any response value or contains an invalid response value, the notification mailer sends an Invalid Response message to the user. This template must describe how to respond to the notification correctly.
Open Notification - If you choose the e-mail parser for the templated response method, the notification mailer uses this template to send open notifications that require a response. This message template must provide a response template for the recipient as well as instructions on how to use the response template.
Note: In addition to the default Workflow Open Mail (Templated) message template, Oracle Workflow also provides a predefined template called Workflow Open Mail for Outlook Express. This template is provided to accommodate e-mail applications such as Microsoft Outlook Express or other e-mail clients that cannot process the response links included in the HTML bodies of the Workflow Open Mail (Templated) and Workflow Open Mail (Direct) templates. If you use one of these e-mail clients, you can select the Workflow Open Mail for Outlook Express message template to have HTML e-mail notifications include a link to the Notification Details web page which lets users respond to the notification there.
Open Notification (Direct Response Parsing) - If you select the e-mail parser for the direct response method, the notification mailer uses this template to send open notifications that require a response. The response instructions in the plain text message body must describe how to reply using the direct 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 must 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.
Note: Responses that are generated automatically from an HTML-formatted notification or attachment must always use a response template, regardless of which response method you select with your e-mail parser.
Open FYI Notification - The notification mailer uses this template to send notifications that do not require a response. The template must indicate that the notification is for your information (FYI) and does not require a response.
Summary Notification
- The notification mailer uses this template to send a summary of currently
open workflow notifications to users and
roles that have their notification preference set to SUMMARY in the
Oracle Workflow directory service.
Warning Notification
- The notification mailer uses this template to send a message to a user
if it receives unsolicited mail from
that user. For example, if a message from a user does not contain a
notification ID (NID) line matching it with a notification, or contains
an
incorrectly formatted NID line, the notification mailer sends a Warning
Notification message to the user.
To cancel any changes on this page, click the Cancel button.
To return to the previous step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Back button.
To save these settings and proceed to the next step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Next button.
To save these settings and proceed to the last step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Finish button.
Note: When you click the Next or Finish button, the configuration wizard validates the parameters you entered. If the parameters are successfully validated, and the notification mailer is currently running, then Workflow Manager immediately refreshes the notification mailer with the new parameters.
This page lets you schedule events to control the running of the notification mailer service component. The events are raised at the scheduled time by DBMS jobs. For a notification mailer service component, you can schedule the following events:
Start
Refresh
Suspend
Resume
Stop
Launch Summary Notifications
For each event, the list displays the event name, date and time when the event is first scheduled to be raised, the interval in minutes at which the event is reraised, and, for a Refresh event, any parameters to be refreshed. You can specify the following refreshable parameters, using the parameters' internal names, when you refresh the notification mailer.
DIRECT_RESPONSE - E-mail Parser
PROCESSOR_IN_THREAD_COUNT - Inbound Thread Count
PROCESSOR_OUT_THREAD_COUNT - Outbound Thread Count
COMPONENT_LOG_LEVEL - Log Level, specified as a numerical value
1 - Statement
2 - Procedure
3 - Event
4 - Exception
5 - Error
6 - Unexpected
EXPUNGE_ON_CLOSE - Expunge Inbox on Close
TEST_ADDRESS - Test Address
ALLOW_FORWARDED_RESPONSE - Allow Forwarded Response
FROM - From Address
REPLYTO - Reply To
HTMLAGENT - HTML Agent
AUTOCLOSE_FYI - Autoclose FYI
SEND_ACCESS_KEY - Send Access Key
RESET_NLS - Reset NLS
INLINE_ATTACHMENT - Inline Attachment
ATTACHED_URLS - Attached URLs
CLOSED - Closed Notification
CANCELED - Cancelled Notification
OPEN_INVALID - Invalid Response
OPEN_MAIL - Open Notification
OPEN_MAIL_DIRECT - Open Notification (Direct Response Parsing)
OPEN_MAIL_FYI - Open FYI Notification
SUMMARY - Summary Notification
WARNING - Warning Notification
If no events are currently scheduled, click the Add a Row button to add a new row to the list of events and enter the information for the event.
Select the event for the command you want to schedule. Oracle Workflow provides events to let you start, stop, refresh, suspend, or resume the notification mailer, or to have the notification mailer send summary notifications to roles with a notification preference of SUMMARY.
Select the date when you want the event to be raised first.
Select the hour and minute to specify the time on the specified date when you want the event to be raised first. The hour values are in a twenty-four hour format. For example, select 00 for midnight, or 23 for 11 PM.
If you want to raise the event periodically, enter the time interval in minutes at which you want to raise the event. If you do not specify a repeating interval, the event is raised only once.
If you choose the refresh event, you can optionally enter any parameters you want to include with the event in order to refresh the notification mailer configuration parameters with those values when the event is raised. Specify the parameter names and values in the following format, separating the parameters with a colon (:): internal_parameter_name=parameter_value
For example: PROCESSOR_OUT_THREAD_COUNT=3
To schedule another event, click the Add Another Row button and enter the information for the event.
To remove an event, select the event and click the Remove button.
To cancel any changes on this page, click the Cancel button.
To return to the previous step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Back button.
To save these settings and proceed to the next step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Next button.
To save these settings and proceed to the last step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Finish button.
Note: The configuration wizard verifies that an event is specified for every row in the list when you click the Next or Finish button. If you do not want to schedule another event, you should remove any empty rows before proceeding.
This page lets you enter strings of text found in unusual messages and the status you want to assign to an inbound message if it contains any of those strings. For example, unusual messages include bounced or returned messages and auto-reply messages such as those sent by vacation daemons, mass mailing lists, and so on. Since different mail systems vary in how they identify bounced, undeliverable, or otherwise invalid messages, you can use notification mailer tags to specify how your mail system identifies those stray messages and how you want the notification mailer to handle those messages should it come across them.
Oracle Workflow provides several predefined tags for text commonly found in undeliverable or auto-reply messages. For each tag, the list displays the pattern, which is the string of text to look for in the From line, Subject line, or body of the message, and the action, which is the status to assign to the message if that pattern is found. The notification mailer handles messages according to these status values, as follows:
Error - Moves the message to the discard folder and initiates an error process, if one is defined. The notification's status is still OPEN, but its mail status and activity status are updated to ERROR. Ideally, the workflow administrator corrects the problem and resends the notification by updating its mail status to MAIL.
Unavailable - Moves the message to the discard folder and continues waiting for a reply to the notification since the notification's status is still OPEN, but its mail status is updated to UNAVAIL. This status is purely informative, as no further processing occurs with this notification.
Ignore - Moves the message to the discard folder and continues waiting for a valid reply to the open notification. The notification's status is still OPEN and its mail status is still SENT.
You can define additional tags for other patterns you want the notification mailer to handle automatically.
To add a new tag, click the Add Another Tag button, enter the string of text in the Pattern column, and select the status you want to assign to messages containing that pattern in the Action column.
To remove a tag, select the tag and click the Remove button. You can only remove custom tags that you defined. You cannot remove predefined tags provided by Oracle Workflow.
Attention: Only a message response that contains a notification ID is checked against the tags. If the notification mailer receives a message response that does not contain a notification ID, it moves the message response to the discard folder and sends a 'Warning' message to the sender that it received unsolicited mail.
Attention: It is important that you uniquely identify bounced messages and auto-replies by defining tags to distinguish them from normal responses. If you do not identify bounced and auto-reply messages, the notification mailer can mistake these as invalid responses, send an 'Invalid' message, and continue to wait for a reply. In both cases a perpetual loop would occur where the notification mailer continues sending out an 'Invalid' message and the 'Invalid' message bounces back or is auto-replied each time.
Attention: If a message response matches more than one string in the list of tags, the message is tagged with the status of the first tag it matches. That is, the notification mailer performs a top to bottom comparison against the tag list. Due to this behavior, you should prioritize your strings listing the ERROR tags first, followed by the UNAVAIL and then IGNORE tags.
To cancel any changes on this page, click the Cancel button.
To return to the previous step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Back button.
To save these settings and proceed to the next step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Next button.
To save these settings and proceed to the last step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Finish button.
This page lets you test the notification mailer configuration by sending a sample notification message. Select the recipient role to which the message should be sent, and click the Send Test Message button. Then check the Worklist page or the e-mail account for the recipient role, depending on the role's notification preference, to verify that the test message was received. The test message does not require a response, so you can close it after reviewing it. However, you can optionally respond with a comment to acknowledge the message.
To successfully send a test message, you must select a recipient role that either has a valid e-mail address defined, or that has members with valid e-mail addresses defined.
Note: The settings you define for previous configuration parameters determine how the test message is sent. For example, if you specify an e-mail address in the Test Address parameter, that address overrides the e-mail address of the recipient role and the test message is sent to the test address instead. Also, if you select the Autoclose FYI parameter, the test message is automatically closed and does not appear in the Worklist unless you display your closed messages.
To return to the page from which you accessed the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Cancel button.
To return to the previous step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Back button.
To proceed to the next step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Next button.
To proceed to the last step of the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Finish button.
This page lets you review the configuration parameter values that you set, the events that you scheduled, and the tags that you defined for this notification mailer service component.
To return to the page from which you accessed the notification mailer configuration wizard, click the Cancel button.
If you want to change any of these settings, return to the appropriate step in the notification mailer configuration wizard to make your changes. To return to the previous step, click the Back button.
To save these settings and finish the configuration, click the Finish button.
The Component Details page lets you review the configuration and control the running of a notification mailer service component.
Navigation: Applications Dashboard > (pull-down menu) Workflow Manager > (B) Go > Notification Mailer status icon > (B) View Details
To add the information from this page to your support cart, click the Add to Support Cart button.
To delete this notification mailer, click the Delete button.
Note: You cannot delete the seeded Workflow Notification Mailer component. If you want to disable it, you can stop it manually using the Stop command from the command pull-down menu.
To send a test message, click the Test Mailer button. In the Test page, select the recipient role to which the message should be sent, and click the Send Test Message button. Then check the Worklist page or the e-mail account for the recipient role, depending on the role's notification preference, to verify that the test message was received. The test message does not require a response, so you can close it after reviewing it. However, you can optionally respond with a comment to acknowledge the message. In the Test page, you can also choose Cancel to return to the previous page without sending a test message.
Note: The settings you defined for other configuration parameters determine how the test message is sent. For example, if you specified an e-mail address in the Test Address parameter, that address overrides the e-mail address of the recipient role and the test message is sent to the test address instead. Also, if you selected the Autoclose FYI parameter, the test message is automatically closed and does not appear in the Worklist unless you display your closed messages.
To review the events that have been scheduled to control the running of the notification mailer, click the Event History button. For each event, the Event History page displays the event name, status, user who requested the event, component status before the event was processed, date the event processing was completed, container for the service component, container type, and any event parameters for a refresh event. You can use this event history as an audit trail to review who scheduled control events for the notification mailer. The status of an event may be Pending, Skipped, In Progress, Completed, or Error. In some cases, an event may be skipped if the component is not in an appropriate status at the time for which the event is scheduled. For example, a refresh event cannot be executed if the component is stopped at the scheduled time, since the component parameters can only be refreshed while the component is active.
To view the diagnostic log of the Generic Service
Management (GSM) service component container in which this notification
mailer is running, click
the View Log button. The log includes log messages for this component
and any other component belonging to that container.
To manually control the running of the notification mailer service
component, choose the command you want from the command pull-down menu,
and click the Go button. You can choose the following commands:
Launch Summary Notifications
Refresh
Resume
Start
Stop
Suspend
The Component Details page displays the configuration attributes and parameters defined for the notification mailer. If you want to change the value of any parameter, edit the configuration using the notification mailer configuration wizard.
The Component Details page also displays the control events that are currently scheduled for the notification mailer. For each event, the list shows the event name, initial start time, whether the event is currently running, the next scheduled execution time for a repeating event, the last previous execution time for a repeating event, the interval in minutes between executions of a repeating event, the number of times the event has failed, the job ID of the DBMS job used to schedule the event, and the PL/SQL API that DBMS job runs.