The Notification Mailer is a program that performs e-mail send and response processing for the Oracle Workflow Notification System. You need to implement the Notification Mailer only if you wish to have your workflow users receive their notifications via e-mail, as well as from the Notifications Worklist web page. The Notification Mailer polls the database for messages that have to be sent, dequeues these messages from the SMTP advanced queue, and performs the following action for each message:
Resolves the recipient role to a single e-mail address, which itself can be a mail list.
Switches its database session to the role's preferred language and territory as defined by the directory service.
Generates the message and any optional attachments using the appropriate message template.
Sends the message via UNIX Sendmail or any MAPI-compliant mail application on Windows NT.
The Notification Mailer also processes responses by interpreting the text of messages mailed to its response mail account and calling the appropriate notification response function to complete the notification.
The e-mail notifications are based on standard templates defined in the System: Mailer item type, which can be customized using the Oracle Workflow Builder. The templates describe the syntax the reply should follow and list the information needed to confirm the notification. The generated e-mail message also includes any custom site information, the due date, and any information necessary to process the response.
Once you set up the Notification Mailer to run, it continually polls the database for messages to send and checks its response mail account for responses to process. You do not have to do anything else unless you have a need to reload the configuration parameters by either suspending and resuming, verifying, or stopping and restarting the Notification Mailer.
Two Notification Mailer service instances are defined in Oracle Workflow Manager by default, the Workflow Mailer for detail notifications and the Workflow Summary Mailer for summary notifications.
The Workflow Mailer has a service name of WFMGSMD and has the Summary Only configuration parameter deselected. This Notification Mailer sends one e-mail message for each individual notification to users or roles with a notification preference of 'MAILTEXT', 'MAILATTH', or 'MAILHTML'. The Workflow Mailer service instance is automatically assigned the Standard work shift, so that it runs 24 hours every day. You do not need to alter this work shift.
The Workflow Summary Mailer has a service name of WFMGSMS and has the Summary Only configuration parameter selected. This Notification Mailer sends one summary e-mail message listing all notifications since the last summary message to users or roles with a notification preference of 'SUMMARY'. By default, the Workflow Summary Mailer service instance is assigned the Standard work shift, so that it runs 24 hours every day. However, the Workflow Summary Mailer is usually only required to run once a day. To save resources, you should create a new work shift and assign it to the Workflow Summary Mailer in the Edit page for this service instance.
After completing the remaining configuration parameters, you can start these Notification Mailers to handle e-mail processing for your Workflow users.
Attention: The Notification Mailer will shut itself down if a database failure is encountered or if the PL/SQL package state for the session is invalid due to dropping or replacing of package definitions. In Oracle Workflow Manager, you can restart the Notification Mailer program manually or schedule it to restart periodically using workshifts.
This page shows the service instances for the Notification Mailer. For each service instance, the list displays the name, overall status, activated or deactivated state, node on which the Notification Mailer is running, number of actual processes, and number of target processes. Click any column heading to sort the list by that column.
Navigation: Applications Dashboard > (pull-down menu) Workflow Manager > (B) Go > Notification Mailer
To edit the general properties, work shifts, and nodes for a Notification Mailer service instance, select the service instance and click the Edit button.
To view the status for a Notification Mailer service instance, either click the status icon in the Status column, or select the service instance and click the View Status button.
To view process details for a Notification Mailer service instance, either click the service instance link in the Name column, or select the service instance and click the View Processes button.
To define or review the configuration for a Notification Mailer service instance, select the service instance and click the Configuration button.
To control the running of all the Notification Mailer service instances, choose the command you want from the All command pull-down menu and click the Go button. You can choose the following commands:
Start All
Stop All
Abort All
Restart All
Suspend All
Resume All
Verify All
To control the running of a single Notification Mailer service instance, select the service instance, choose the command you want from the command pull-down menu, and click the Go button. You can choose the following commands:
Start
Stop
Abort
Restart
Suspend
Resume
Verify
This page lets you edit the general properties, work shifts, and nodes for a Notification Mailer service instance. After you finish making changes, click the OK button to save your work. You can also click the Cancel button to return to the previous page without saving any changes.
Enabled - Select this option to enable this Notification Mailer.
Manager - The name of this Notification Mailer. The default is Workflow Mailer or Workflow Summary Mailer for these service instances, respectively.
Short Name - The short name for this Notification Mailer. The default is WFMGSMD for the Workflow Mailer and WFMGSMS for the Workflow Summary Mailer. You cannot edit this value.
Application - The application associated with this Notification Mailer. The default is Application Object Library for both the Workflow Mailer and the Workflow Summary Mailer. You cannot edit this value.
Description - A description of this Notification Mailer. The default is Workflow Mailer or Workflow Summary Mailer for these service instances, respectively.
This region lets you assign work shifts to your Notification Mailer. A work shift defines the dates and times the Notification Mailer can run, as well as the number of processes the Notification Mailer can start running during the work shift.
The Workflow Mailer service instance is automatically assigned the Standard work shift, so that it runs 24 hours every day. You do not need to alter this work shift.
The Workflow Summary Mailer service instance is assigned the Standard work shift by default, so that it runs 24 hours every day. However, the Workflow Summary Mailer is usually only required to run once a day. To save resources, you should use the Create A New Work Shift page to create a work shift that runs once a day. Then remove the Standard work shift in the Edit Workflow Summary Mailer page, and add your new work shift instead.
For each work shift, the list shows the name, description, and minimum number of operating system processes.
To add a work shift, click the Add from Available Shifts button.
To remove a work shift, select the work shift and click the Remove button.
To show any service parameters defined for the work shift, click the Show link in the Details column. To hide the service parameters, click the Hide link in the Details column. To edit the service parameters, click the Edit Service Parameters button.
If you are operating in a parallel concurrent processing environment and you want your Notification Mailer to operate on a specific node, select the name of the node.
The primary node, if available, is the node on which your Notification Mailer operates. If the primary node or the database instance on it goes down, your Notification Mailer migrates to its secondary node. Your Notification Mailer migrates back to its primary node when that node becomes available.
Nodes must be previously registered with Oracle Applications, using the Nodes form in Oracle Applications.
This page displays status details for the selected Notification Mailer service instance.
Navigation: Applications Dashboard > (pull-down menu) Workflow Manager > (B) Go > Notification Mailer > (B) View Status
Node - The node where the service instance is running.
Debug - A setting that indicates whether to print debugging information in the Notification Mailer log file.
If debugging is turned off, click the Set Debug On button to turn it on.
If debugging is turned on, click the Set Debug Off button to turn it off.
Note: To ensure that the new Debug setting takes effect, use the command buttons to either verify, suspend and then resume, or stop and then restart the Notification Mailer.
Target - The number of target processes.
Active - The number of active processes.
To control the running of the Notification Mailer service instance, click the button for the command you want to execute. Buttons are available for the following commands:
Start
Stop
Abort
Restart
Suspend
Resume
Verify
This page shows details about the processes for the selected Notification Mailer service instance. For each process, the list displays the status, operating system process identifier (SPID), auditing session identifier (AUDSID), Oracle server process identifier (Oracle SPID), running request ID, and start date and time. Click any column heading to sort the list by that column.
Navigation: Applications Dashboard > (pull-down menu) Workflow Manager > (B) Go > Notification Mailer > (B) View Processes
To view environment variables for a process, select the process and click the Environment button. In the Environment for Workflow Mailer page, you can filter the variables that are displayed by variable name. Enter a filter value in the text field and click the Go button. For each variable, the list displays the variable name and value. Click the Name column heading to sort the list by that column.
To view the log for the manager running a process, select the process and click the Log button.
To view the internal log for a process, select the process and click the ICM Log button.
To view database session information for an active process, click the session ID link in the AUDSID column..
The Notification Mailer Configuration Wizard lets you configure the selected Notification Mailer service instance by entering parameters, defining tags to assign statuses to unusual messages, sending a test message, and reviewing a summary of configuration information.
Navigation: Applications Dashboard > (pull-down menu) Workflow Manager > (B) Go > Notification Mailer > (B) Configuration
This page lets you enter general, e-mail, send, and receive parameters. You must set parameters marked with an asterisk (*) to appropriate values for your environment before you can run the Notification Mailer.
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.
Service Name - The name of the service instance. The service name is included with the outgoing notification ID. The service name for the Workflow Mailer defaults to WFMGSMD, and the service name for the Workflow Summary Mailer defaults to WFMGSMS.
Log - The path and file name of a log file to record activity.
Fail Command - The command to run if the Notification Mailer encounters a fatal error.
Queue - The SMTP advanced queue used by the Notification Mailer. The default is 1.
Idle - The number of seconds to wait before checking for messages to send. The value must be an integer greater than or equal to zero. The default is 30 seconds.
Test Address - 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.
Summary Only - Indicate whether this Notification Mailer processes only notifications assigned to users or roles with a notification preference of 'SUMMARY' or whether it processes only notifications for users or roles with a notification preference of 'MAILTEXT', 'MAILATTH', or 'MAILHTML'. The Summary Only parameter is deselected by default for the Workflow Mailer (WFMGSMD) and selected by default for the Workflow Summary Mailer (WFMGSMS). If any of your workflow users or roles have a notification preference of 'MAILTEXT', 'MAILATTH' or 'MAILHTML', then you should ensure that the Workflow Mailer is correctly configured for your site. If any of your workflow users or roles have a notification preference of 'SUMMARY', then you should ensure that the Workflow Summary Mailer is correctly configured for your site. If you select Summary Only, then the Notification Mailer will shut itself down after it polls the database and delivers any appropriate notification summaries. You must therefore schedule the Notification Mailer to run at the frequency you want notification summaries to be delivered. We recommend you run the summary Notification Mailer once a day, since the summary includes all open notifications.
Debug - Indicate whether to print debugging information in the Notification Mailer log file. This parameter is deselected by default.
Reset Failed - Indicate whether this Notification Mailer should reset all notifications with a mail status of FAILED to a mail status of MAIL when the Notification Mailer is started. This parameter is deselected by default. If Reset Failed is selected, then the Notification Mailer will attempt to resend any notification e-mail messages that failed previously.
SQL Trace - Indicate whether to enable the SQL Trace facility to help assess the efficiency of the SQL statements the Notification Mailer runs. This parameter is deselected by default.
Username - The information to connect to the mail account that the program uses to send notification messages. For MAPI-compliant mail programs, the account information is the mail account profile name and mail account password. For Sendmail, the account information is the full file path of the mail spool file where incoming messages are stored, such as /var/mail/applmgr. Usually, the mail spool file is named after the user account and is located in either the /var/mail or /usr/mail directory. Note that this should correspond to the account from which you start the Notification Mailer, in this example, applmgr. To start the Sendmail version of the Notification Mailer, you must also specify the full path of the Sendmail executable directory in your PATH environment variable.
From - The value that appears in the From: field of the message header when a notification message is delivered to a user. The default is Workflow Mailer or Workflow Summary Mailer for these service instances, respectively.
Reply To - A default e-mail address to reply to, if the e-mail account that processes responses is different from the e-mail account that sends outgoing notifications.
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.
Response Template - Enter OPEN_MAIL_OUTLOOK to use the Workflow Open Mail for Outlook Express message as the template for e-mail notifications that require a response, for users with a notification preference of 'MAILHTML' or 'MAILATTH'. 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 Workflow Open Mail (Templated) and Workflow Open Mail (Direct) templates. If you use one of these e-mail clients, you can select this message template to have e-mail notifications include a link to the Notification Details web page which lets users respond to the notification there. If you want to use the normal Workflow Open Mail (Templated) and Workflow Open Mail (Direct) templates, leave the Response Template parameter blank to let the Notification Mailer use these templates by default.
Attention: If you enter OPEN_MAIL_OUTLOOK in the Response Template parameter, the Notification Mailer will ignore the Direct Response parameter when sending messages to users with a notification preference of 'MAILATTH'. Instead, all users with this notification preference will receive the plain text message body defined for the Workflow Open Mail for Outlook Express template, which uses the templated response method. Consequently, if you do not need to use the Workflow Open Mail for Outlook Express template, you should leave the Response Template parameter blank to let the Direct Response parameter take effect.
Note: The Response Template parameter does not apply to users with a notification preference of 'MAILTEXT'.
Sendmail Arguments - The arguments with which Sendmail should be executed, if you are using the Sendmail version of the Notification Mailer. The default value for the Sendmail arguments is
%s -t -F "%s" < %s
In the Sendmail command line, the first %s is replaced with the sendmail command, the second %s is replaced with the value of the From parameter, and the third %s is replaced with the name of the temporary file. These three substitutions must occur, and must be in this order. However, you can use the Sendmail Arguments parameter to customize other arguments in the command line, as long as the three substitutions occur in the correct order.
Note: If you do not specify the path to the Sendmail executable in your PATH environment variable, you can include the path
in the Sendmail Arguments parameter instead. For example, you could set SENDMAIL_ARG to the following value:/usr/lib/%s t F "%s" < %s
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 electronic mail. This parameter is deselected by default. If Autoclose FYI is deselected, all FYI notifications will remain open in the Notifications Worklist until users manually close these notifications.
Direct Response - Deselect this parameter to send plain text notifications requiring a templated response to users with a notification preference of 'MAILTEXT' or 'MAILATTH'. Select this parameter to send plain text notifications requiring a direct response to users with these preferences. This parameter is deselected by default. 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. For the direct response method, users must enter their response values directly as the first lines of a reply.
Attention: If you specify a value for the Response Template parameter, the Notification Mailer will ignore the Direct Response parameter when sending messages to users with a notification preference of 'MAILATTH'. Instead, all users with this notification preference will receive the plain text message body defined for the Workflow Open Mail for Outlook Express template, which uses the templated response method. Consequently, if you do not need to use the Workflow Open Mail for Outlook Express template, you should leave the Response Template parameter blank to let the Direct Response parameter take effect.
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 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 selected 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.
Process - The full path name of the mail file where the Notification Mailer puts processed notification messages. Select the Truncate check box if you want the Notification Mailer to truncate this file on startup. A hyphen (-) preceding the name also causes the Notification Mailer to truncate this file on startup. The default is process. The Process value must always be the full path name of a mail file. After the initial setup phase for the Notification Mailer is complete, truncating the processed file on startup is recommended to save space in the working directory. However, it is also recommended to back up and archive the processed file to serve as evidence of the receipt of responses.
Unprocess - The full path name of the mail file where the Notification Mailer puts unprocessed notification messages. Select the Truncate check box if you want the Notification Mailer to truncate this file on startup. A hyphen (-) preceding the name also causes the Notification Mailer to truncate this file on startup. However, truncating the unprocessed file is not recommended during normal operation of the Notification Mailer. The default is unprocess. The Unprocess value must always be the full path name of a mail file.
Discard - The full path name of the mail file where the Notification Mailer puts discarded messages. Select the Truncate check box if you want the Notification Mailer to truncate this file on startup. A hyphen (-) preceding the name also causes the Notification Mailer to truncate this file on startup. The default is discard. The Discard value must always be the full path name of a mail file. After the initial setup phase for the Notification Mailer is complete, truncating the discard file on startup is recommended to save space in the working directory. It is also recommended to back up the discard file before the Notification Mailer is restarted and the file is truncated, so that you can review the file's contents to determine why messages are being discarded.
Allow Forwarded Messages - Indicate whether to allow a user to respond to an e-mail notification that has been forwarded from another role. This parameter is deselected by default.
If Allow Forwarded Messages 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.
If Allow Forwarded Messages is selected, the Notification Mailer never checks the "From:" e-mail address of the notification response and always allows the response to be processed.
Attention: Note that there are limitations when you deselect Allow Forwarded Messages. 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.
This page lets you enter strings of text found in unusual messages and the status you want to assign to a message response if it contains any of those strings. 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 a tag file 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 file 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 file 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 file 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 file 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 keeps sending out an 'Invalid' message and the 'Invalid' message bounces back or is auto-replied.
Attention: If a message response matches more than one string in the tag file, it gets tagged with the status of the first string it matches in the file. That is, the Notification Mailer performs a top to bottom comparison against the tag file. Due to this behavior, you should prioritize your strings listing the ERROR tags first, followed by the UNAVAIL and then IGNORE tags.
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.
The Test page lets you test the 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 Notifications Worklist 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.
Note: The settings you define for the 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 Notifications Worklist unless you display your closed messages.
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.
In the Summary page, you can review the configuration parameter values and the tags that you defined for this Notification Mailer service instance.
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.