Managing Notifications for Knowledge Workflows

Internal and external notifications can be sent to submitters and owners of articles and to contributors in each stage of the workflow. Internal notifications use the Internal Messaging feature, and these notifications are available from all consoles (from the Notifications button in the Console toolbar) of the product. External notification emails are sent to the email address specified as the business email address of the user from the Administration Console. 

Submitters and owners get notifications when articles are moved from one stage to another, when articles are sent back to draft stage for edits, and when the submitted articles are published. Contributors get a notification when new articles are available to work on. There are no skip stage notifications. The type of notification that is sent is based on which stage the article is sent to, regardless of what stages may or may not have been skipped.

If at any time, an article lands in a stage where no contributor can work on an article, a system notification is sent to the Knowledge Base Manager.

Types of Notifications

Notifications for Article Workflows:

• Submitter - Intermediate Stage email content: This notification is sent to the submitter when an article moves from one stage to another.

• Submitter - Back to Draft Stage email content: This notification is sent to the submitter when an article is sent back to draft stage.

• Submitter - Published email content: This notification is sent to the submitter when an article is published.

• Owner - Intermediate Stage email content: This notification is sent to the owner when an article moves from one stage to another. 

• Owner - Back to Draft Stage email content: This notification is sent to the owner when an article is sent back to draft stage. 

• Owner - Published email content: This notification is sent to the owner when an article is published. 

• Contributors - My work: This notification is sent to contributors when articles become available to work on in a stage.

Notifications for Suggestion Workflows:

• Submitter - Intermediate Stage email content: This notification is sent to the submitter when an article moves from one stage to another.

• Submitter - Back to New Stage email content: This notification is sent to the submitter when an article is sent back to new stage.

• Submitter - Closed email content: This notification is sent to the submitter when an article is published.

• Contributors - My work: This notification is sent to contributors when articles become available to work on in a stage.

Out-of-the-Box Content of Notifications

Notifications come with out-of-the-box content that cannot be changed. In addition to this content, you can add your own content using knowledge articles. Before you begin, create the articles you want to use in each notification. If you do not want to add any content in addition to the out-of-the-box content, you can create a single blank article and use that for all notifications. However, you have to select an article to enable these notifications.

Typically, notifications have the following out-of-the-box content:

• Article name

• Location

• Knowledge Workflow

• Previous Stage

• Current Stage

• Last Modified By

  

Example of How Users are Notified

For example, let's say you have an article workflow with three stages in the specified order:

1. Initial Review

2. Legal Review

3. Final Review

 Three authors in the system who can submit articles:

• Jane

• Mike

• John

Three authors who can work on articles in the three stages are:

• Tracy - contributor in Initial Review stage

• Laura - contributor in Legal Review stage

• Kristen - contributor in Final Review stage

The following table describes the notifications which are sent as articles are processed by the workflow:

 

Action	Submitter Notifications	Owner Notifications	Contributor Notifications
Jane creates an article  "How to create an account" and sends it to the Initial Review stage.	_	_	Tracy gets a notification
Tracy picks the article sends it back to the draft stage.	Jane gets the Back to draft email notification.	This notification is not sent as Owner and Submitter are the same.	_
Mike works on the article and sends it to the Initial Review stage. Note: Submitter is changed to Mike.	_	_	Tracy gets a notification.
Tracy sends the article to the Legal Review stage.	Mike gets the Intermediate stage email notification.	Jane gets the Intermediate stage email notification.	Laura gets a notification.
Laura approves the article and sends it to the Final Review stage.	Mike gets the Intermediate stage email notification.	Jane gets the Intermediate stage email notification.	Kristen gets a notification.
Kristen approves the article and publishes it.	Mike gets the Published email notification.	Jane gets the Published email notification.	_
Now, John picks the "How to create an account" article, makes edits to the article, makes himself the owner of the article, and sends it to the Initial Review stage. Note: Owner and Submitter are changed to John.	_	_	Tracy gets a notification.
Tracy picks the article and sends it back to the draft stage.	John gets the Back to draft email notification.	This notification is not sent as Owner and Submitter are the same.	_

To set up notifications:

1. Create a knowledge workflow.

2. Depending on the type of workflow you have created, you can configure the Notifications. In the Notification tab of the workflow, specify the following for Article workflows:

3. • Notification type: From the dropdown menu, select the type of notifications to be sent during various stages of the process. You can send emails, internal messages, or both emails and internal messages.

   • Submitter/Owner - Intermediate Stage email content: In this field, click the Edit  button to specify the content of the notification to be sent when an article moves from one stage to another. If you do not want to add any content in addition to the out-of-the-box content, append a blank article to the notification.

     

   • Submitter/Owner - Back to Draft Stage email content: In this field, click the Edit  button to specify the content of the notification to be sent when an article is sent back to the draft stage. If you do not want to add any content in addition to the out-of-the-box content, append a blank article to the notification.

   • Submitter/Owner - Published email content: In this field, click the Edit  button to specify the content of the notification to be sent when an article is published. If you do not want to add any content in addition to the out-of-the-box content, append a blank article to the notification.

   • Contributors - My work email content: In this field, click the Edit  button to specify the content of the notification to be sent to contributors when articles become available to work on in a stage. If you do not want to add any content in addition to the out-of-the-box content, append a blank article to the notification.

   In the Notification tab, specify the following for Suggestion workflows:

   • Notification type: From the dropdown menu, select the type of notifications to be sent during various stages of the process. You can send emails, internal messages, or both emails and internal messages.

   • Submitter - Intermediate Stage email content: In this field, click the Edit  button to specify the content of the notification to be sent when an article moves from one stage to another. If you do not want to add any content in addition to the out-of-the-box content, append a blank article to the notification.

   • Submitter - Back to New Stage email content: In this field, click the Edit  button to specify the content of the notification to be sent when an article is sent back to the new stage. If you do not want to add any content in addition to the out-of-the-box content, append a blank article to the notification.

   • Submitter - Closed email content: In this field, click the Edit  button to specify the content of the notification to be sent when an article is closed. If you do not want to add any content in addition to the out-of-the-box content, append a blank article to the notification.

   • Contributors - My Work email content: In this field, click the Edit  button to specify the content of the notification to be sent to contributors when articles become available to work on in a stage. If you do not want to add any content in addition to the out-of-the-box content, append a blank article to the notification.

If at any time, an article lands in a stage where no contributor can work on an article, a system notification is sent to the KB Manager.

3. Click the Save button.

Related Topics

• About Knowledge Workflows

• Creating Knowledge Workflows