Reminders

Reminders can be sent if there is a necessity to remind a user about any kind of things that need to be done or any other urgent events. The reminders are sent a few days before/after the due date of such events.

For example, the "My Tasks" reminder has to be sent to the user whom the task is assigned two days before the task due date.

When a reminder is created, the reminder metadata is converted to the pair of a time-dependent trigger and an email alert action. It means that the trigger with the email alert action is added to a database automatically and vice versa the trigger with a sole email alert action that is not reused elsewhere is viewed and edited as the reminder - on a single screen; but these trigger and action are also listed under workflow triggers and actions to allow fine-tuning.

To create a reminder or modify an existing one:

1. Click the Setup link in the top right corner of the window.

2. Select a table you need.

3. From the setup menu select E-mail Notifications > Configure e-mail reminders. The system will display the Reminders form.

If you want to edit the existing reminder, click the Edit button next to the necessary reminder entry. You can also copy the existing reminders or delete them clicking the corresponding buttons on the form.

Moreover, you can also enable or disable sending the reminders in the common list displayed on the form: select the checkbox next to a necessary record and click the Enable or Disable button. Use the Action check box for multiple selections.

To create a new reminder, click the New button at the top of the form. As a result, the New Reminder form will be displayed.

General Properties

In the General section of the form enter the reminder general data:

Name

Enter the name of the new reminder.

From

Specify from whom the e-mail should be sent.

• notify@teamdesk.net: The notification will be sent from the notify@teamdesk.net email address.
• Database Owner: A database owner’s name and e-mail will be indicated in the From field of the notification.
• Me: Your user name and e-mail will be indicated in the From field of the notification.
• The User: You can specify a user whose e-mail and name will be indicated in the From field. Furthermore, if there are more than 50 users in the database user list, you should enter some letters or words to find the user you need. By default, the first 50 names of users are listed in the dropdown.
• The address listed in the column: If there are columns of the E-mail type or User type in a table, you can specify the column name. As a result, the column value will be displayed in the From field of the notification.
• Specific e-mail address: You can type-in a specific e-mail address, and this e-mail address will be displayed in the From field.

To/Cc/Bcc

Select options defining to whom the notification should be sent. You can specify one or many options described below:

• All users with access: The notification will be sent to all users who have the access to the database.
• Me: The notification will be sent to your user e-mail. You entered this e-mail, when registered as a database user.
• The User: You can specify a user to whom the notification will be sent. Furthermore, if there are more than 50 users in the database user list, you should enter some letters or words to find the user you need. By default, the first 50 names of users are listed in the dropdown.
• All members of the role: You can choose a role and the notification will be sent to the users whom this role is assigned.
• The address listed in the column: If there are columns of the E-mail type or User type in a table, you can specify the column name. As a result, the notification will be sent to the e-mail value kept in this column.
• Specific e-mail address: You can type-in a specific e-mail address and the notification will be sent to it.

Recipients specified in the Cc and Bcc fields will receive copies of the messages sent to every recipient specified in the To field regardless of their access rights.

E-mail Contents

In the E-mail Contents section of the form enter the data concerning the e-mail contents:

Subject

Enter the subject of the new reminder. Furthermore, in this field you can use any column placeholder, just write a column name in square brackets [ ], for example [Column Name]. To simplify the placeholder writing, you may type first letters of the column name after the left square bracket sign [ in the notification Body and the columns starting with these letters will be displayed in the dropdown, then you can cut/paste this placeholder from the Body into the Subject field.

Body

In the Body field, enter the basic information of the reminder. The data is entered as plain text with support for markdown formatting.

If you need to include HTML content in your email body, wrap it with <div markup="off">...</div> tags.

Note that the body of the reminder may contain placeholders (for example, the name of the action: modifying/adding/deleting table records). To configure the body of the reminder, use the % sign to choose and insert the placeholders you need.
You are able to select the following placeholders:

• %AppName%: The name of this database
• %AppOwner%: The owner of this database
• %AppLink%: The link to the database
• %RecData%: The copy of a record form with data.
  If column values are changed, column names are highlighted in red.
  Moreover, the %RecData% placeholder comprises only accessible columns (fields), which are displayed on a View Record Form.
  If a notification is sent to a database user, only columns (fields) accessible and visible on form to this user will be displayed in the %RecData% placeholder of a notification sent to this user.
  In case a notification is sent to a person who is not a database user, columns(fields) accessible and visible on form to a database owner will be listed in the %RecData% placeholder.
• %RecChanges%: The list of the record changes. When a record is modified, the old and the new column values will be listed in the notification body.
• %RecLink%: The link to the record
• %RecId%: The record built-in Id
• %RecKey%: The record key column
• %Action%: The record action
• %Modifier%: The record modifier
• %Recipient%: The notification recipient. If a user (or a list of users) is chosen in the To field, a corresponding user name will be displayed in this placeholder. In case a specific email or a column of an E-mail Address type is chosen in the To field, the name of the database owner will be shown in this placeholder.

Also you can click [ to list all columns of a table and insert column variables you need. Moreover, you can type first letters of the column name after the [ sign and the columns starting with these letters will be displayed in the dropdown. If the current column value should be inserted into the notification body, just select the column name from the dropdown.

Access rights for the placeholders/columns in the message body are determined by access rights of the user specified in the To field. In case of arbitrary e-mail columns or an arbitrary e-mail address, the access rights of the database owner will be used.

Format

Select the desired output format for the email notification:

• HTML - The system will convert the body markup into HTML and send the message as HTML.
• Plain Text - The system will convert the body markup into plain text and send the message as Plain Text.

Attach Document

Select a generated document that should be automatically sent by email.

Attach File

In the dropdown, you can select a File Attachment column name. As a result, the file kept in this column will be attached to the E-mail notification.

Reminder Options

In the Reminder section of the form enter the data specifying when the reminder should be sent:

Date

Enter the date when the reminder should be sent.

Please note, if there is a formula-date column in a table, such a column can be selected in the Date dropdown only if the formula is "deterministic". – It means that it cannot use Today() or Now() functions.

Offset

Enter the period on expiry of which the reminder should be sent.

Filter

Specify conditions that should be met to send the notification:

• All records if changes should concern all records in the table;
• Only records that meet certain criteria if changes should concern only specific records in the table. Specify necessary conditions using the drop-down lists at the bottom of the Filter subsection;
• Custom formula if you want to specify a formula by which the table records will be filtered. More details about the formulas are described in Formula Language Reference.

Notification enabled

Select the checkbox to enable notifying.

Click the Save button to save the information entered in the form.

To check quickly the filter conditions specified in the reminder and review records that could be affected, go to the reminders list, click directly on the reminder name and use the View Records button displayed on the reminder form.

How to set a specific time to send a reminder

Let’s assume you have the "Due Date" column of the date type. The reminder should be sent two days before the Due Date at 9:30 am. So, you need to specify the time for the reminder sending.

In this case you should create an additional Formula-Timestamp column. This column can keep the following formula:

ToTimestamp([Due Date],ToTimeOfDay("09:30:00 am"))

After that you can choose this formula-timestamp column in the Date dropdown of the reminder settings.

As the result, a corresponding user will receive the reminder at 09:30:00 am or some minutes later according to the location and timezone settings chosen in the database properties.