Notification Settings (M-Files Admin)

M-Files can be requested to send e-mail notifications to end users about object-related actions. Users can create new notification rules via M-Files Desktop (see Notification Settings (M-Files Desktop) and "Follow this object" functionality).

Note: In addition to enabling notifications via M-Files Admin, for the end users to receive e-mail notifications, event logging and M-Files Desktop notifications must be enabled.

Do the following steps to enable e-mail notifications on the M-Files Server computer:

Steps

Open M-Files Admin.
In the left-side tree view, right-click the desired connection to M-Files Server and select Notification Settings from the context menu.
The Notification Settings dialog is opened.
Check the Enable notifications option check box.
In the SMTP server field, enter the address of the SMTP server to be used for sending notification e-mail messages.
For example, mail.company.com. Ask your network administrator for the e-mail server name used by your company.
Optional: Check the Use encrypted connection (SSL/TLS) option check box if the connection to the SMTP server is encrypted.
In the SMTP server port field, enter the port number that the SMTP server is using.
The default ports are 25 (without SSL), and 587 (with SSL). The most commonly used ports are 25, 465, and 587.
Optional: Check the SMTP server requires authentication option check box if the SMTP server requires the sender to be authenticated.
1. In the Account name field, enter the username of the sender's e-mail account.
2. In the Password field, enter the password of the sender's e-mail account.
In the Sender's e-mail address field, enter the e-mail address for the notification sender.
For example, [email protected]. The e-mail address does not have to actually exist.
In the Sender's display name field, enter the name for the notification sender to be displayed in the From field of notification messages.
For example, M-Files.
In the Digest message field, specify the time when the daily digest messages are sent.
M-Files users can choose to receive their notifications as individual messages or as a daily digest message. For more information, see Notification Settings (M-Files Desktop).
Click OK to save your changes and to close the Notification Settings dialog.

Results

Notifications are now enabled on the M-Files server.

What to do next

Users must enable notifications in M-Files Desktop to be able to receive notifications. For instructions, see Notification Settings (M-Files Desktop).
The administrator and users can also create notification rules on the basis of which notification messages are sent. See Notification Settings (M-Files Desktop) for more information.
You can customize your notification messages. For instructions, see Personalizing Notification Messages.

Personalizing Notification Messages

M-Files uses customizable templates for e-mail notifications. The notification templates can be modified to match the requirements of your organization.

The M-Files installation directory contains a server-level template file as well as various vault-specific template files.

Note: Modifications to the server-level notification templates are reset when M-Files Server is updated. Modifications to vault-specific templates are preserved during the migration to a new M-Files version, but as they are not saved to the vault database, the templates are not included in a vault backup or a copy of a vault.

Do the following steps to personalize notification messages:

Steps

Either:
1. If you wish to modify the server-level template, navigate to the directory C:\Program Files\M-Files\<M-Files version>\Server on the M-Files server computer and open the file notifications_template.txt in a text editor of your choice.
  or
2. If you wish to modify a vault-specific template, navigate to the directory C:\Program Files\M-Files\<version>\Server\Data\Notifications\<vault GUID>\<notification rule ID> on the M-Files server computer and open the file notifications_template.txt in a text editor of your choice.
  or
3. If you wish to create and modify a template for a notification rule, take note of the notification rule ID, create the folder C:\Program Files\M-Files\<version>\Server\Data\Notifications\<vault GUID>\<notification rule ID> on the M-Files server computer, and create a new notifications_template.txt file in the folder.
  Note: Your M-Files installation directory may vary from the example given.
  
  Note: You can view the notification rule ID via the M-Files Desktop Notification Settings dialog, and the vault GUID under the name of an existing vault in the Document Vault Properties dialog.

Edit the lines that begin with a colon (:) to customize the content of the notification messages. Make sure to preserve the colon at the beginning of each line that you edit.

View the template files for additional instructions. Editing the templates requires a basic understanding of HTML and CSS.

The notification messages can include placeholders. For example, to include an object ID in the message, add the string %OBJID% to the template in the appropriate location. The available placeholders are described in the table below.

Placeholder	Description
`CAUSEDBY`	The name of the user who caused the event.
`CAUSEDBYACCOUNT`	The account name for the user who caused the event.
`FILENAME`	The name of the file.
`HYPERLINKFRAGMENTHTML`	An HTML formatted hyperlink containing URLs to the object for M-Files Desktop, M-Files Web, and M-Files Mobile.
`HYPERLINKFRAGMENTPLAIN`	A plain-text formatted text fragment containing URLs to the object for M-Files Desktop, M-Files Web, and M-Files Mobile.
`INTERNALID`	The (internal) ID of the object. The internal ID is always unique for each object of a single object type and within a single vault (see also OBJID).
`MFILESURL`	An M-Files URL that shows the latest version of the object in question.
`MFILESURLTOVERSION`	An M-Files URL that shows the specific version of the object in question.
`MOBILEURL`	M-Files Mobile URL that shows the latest version of the object in question.
`MOBILEURLTOVERSION`	M-Files Mobile URL that shows the specific version of the object in question.
`NOTIFICATIONRULENAME`	The name of the notification rule that caused the event. Available for notification templates.
`OBJID`	The (external) ID of the object (see also INTERNALID).
`OBJTITLE`	The name or title of the object.
`OBJTYPE`	Object type.
`OBJVER`	Object version.
`ROLLEDBACKTOVERSION`	The version that the object was rolled back to.
`TIMESTAMP`	The time when the event occurred.
`USERCAUSEDWORKFLOWSTATE_Z`	The user who moved the object into a specific state, Z being the ID of the workflow state.
`VAULTNAME`	The name of the document vault.
`VAULTGUID`	The unique identifier (GUID) of the vault.
`WEBURL`	An M-Files Web URL that shows the latest version of the object in question.
`WEBURLTOVERSION`	An M-Files Web URL that shows the specific version of the object in question.
`PROPERTY_<ID>`	The value of the specified property of the object. (Replace `<ID>` in the placeholder with the ID of the property definition.)
`OLDPROPERTY_<ID>`	The old value of the specified property of the object. (Replace `<ID>` in the placeholder with the ID of the property definition.)
`OBJTYPE_<ID>`	Values of all the properties that can refer to the specified object type. (Replace `<ID>` in the placeholder with the ID of the object type.)

Save your changes to the template file.
Use Windows Task Manager to restart the MFServer service.
This makes sure M-Files Server detects your newly introduced changes to the notification templates.

Results

Your notifications are now personalized.