Notifications

The Notifications feature is a time-saving function for sending notifications of various conditions as they occur to designated recipients, for example, adding or updating a record. Archer administrators can customize notifications using blueprints by defining the appearance and page properties that then can be used by multiple notifications.

Specified users receive notifications when a defined trigger occurs in an application or questionnaire. A trigger is any change detected in Archer that initiates the publishing of a notification. A trigger can be any of the following:

Saving a record
Periodic reports
Workflow stage changes
Daily record search based on filter criteria

When a specified trigger occurs, notifications are queued after a save or based on a specific schedule.

Global Notification Settings are general properties that define default values for all notifications, as well as read-receipt functionality. The Read Receipt properties enable administrators to activate the read-receipt functionality. A designated email account tracks the receipt of notifications triggered by a notification blueprint.

Recipients can receive notifications using any email-based device. Archer users can select the notifications that they want to receive from the User Preferences menu.

On this page

Essential terminology

The following table defines important terms to understand when working with notifications.
Term	Definition
Layout	The format of the content in the body of a notification. Content can be structured or free form.
Notification	The notice that specified recipients receive based on a set of pre-defined conditions.
Notification Blueprint	The specification of properties and settings for the notifications. The notification blueprint defines what information is sent, when it is sent, who should receive it, and how the information is displayed.
Notification Publishing	The act of creating and sending notifications. Publishing includes a delivery method, subscription behaviors, and recipients.
Recipient	An Archer user or other user who receives notifications. Depending on the notification blueprint, recipients can be one or a combination of the following: Archer users and groups Archer users contained in Record Permission fields Other users that are manually entered in the blueprint (non-Archer users) Note: If a user is specified multiple times (for example, individually, and as part of a group or role), that user receives only 1 notification each time the notification is triggered.
Record	A set of data or fields that is entered to populate Archer elements.
Template	A preset format of a notification type made up of the name, letterhead and body layout in the notification blueprint.
Trigger	Any change detected in Archer that initiates the publishing of a notification. When a specified trigger occurs, notifications are queued and processed.

Recipient rules

Recipients can be users, groups, or manually entered email addresses. Recipients who are non-Archer users receive all content regardless of permissions.

If a user account is Locked, that account does not receive any notifications to which it was subscribed.

The following table describes recipient rules.
Type	Description
Users	A specific Archer user receives the notification. The primary email address for the user listed in the user account is used to send the notification. If the user is subscribed to a notification and selects a different address in the Manage Your Email Subscription page from the Preferences menu, the specified email address is used.
Groups	A specific group receives the notification. Each user in the group is treated individually at the time the notification is sent. The user email address follows the same rules defined for the Users type.
Fields	The fields that contain email addresses at the time of publication receive the notification. The following types of fields can contain email addresses: Record Permissions. Recipients are specified at the record level. Text. Recipients are specified as users in the field. User/Groups List. Recipients are specified in a list of users and groups in Archer. Values List. Recipients are specified in a list of predetermined values. Workflow. Recipients are specified in the Workflow Stage Properties. User/Group Lists are not record-based. All other field types are record-based Text fields. Values Lists do not use record permissions.
Static	The email address that is entered manually in the notification blueprint.

Subscription rules

Notification subscriptions enable recipients to receive notifications after the adding or updating of records in specified applications or questionnaires. The following table describes the available subscription types.

The following table describes the available subscription types.
Subscriber Type	Description
None	Users are not subscribed by default. Users can subscribe and cancel at any time.
New Users	New users receive notifications by default, but they can cancel the subscription at any time.
All Users	New and existing users receive notifications by default, but they can cancel the subscription at any time.
Required	New and existing users receive notifications by default, but they cannot cancel the subscription.

Administrators specify the default settings for notifications in the notification blueprints. Archer users can subscribe or unsubscribe to notifications from the User Preferences menu > Manage Your Email Subscriptions.

All selected recipients automatically receive notifications.