Message content creation
Message content is managed centrally and is independent of workflows. There is a clear distinction between the fixed part of a notification that is always the same when a particular notification is generated and the variable part of a notification that may be different each time a particular notification is generated.
To clarify this distinction between the fixed
and variable parts of a notification, consider this example. Suppose
you want to generate a notification that looks like this:
Michael Smith requested a snack cart in room W319 at 03/19/2014 10:30 AM.
The fixed part of this notification would probably be:
________ requested a _______ in ______ at __________.
The variable part of the message would be the pieces of text that get put in the blanks. In the case of the preceding example, these would be: Michael Smith, snack cart, room W319, and 03/19/2014 10:30 AM.
Three kinds of records play different roles in the notification process:
- Notification Content records are templates for notifications and specify the fixed portion of a notification's content. You use Notification Content records to predefine the content of notification messages. Notification Content records are described in Notification content records.
- Notification Helper records supply the variable part of a notification's content and also may be used to associate a specific record with a notification. Notification Helper records are described in Notification helper records.
- triPeople records specify the recipients of notifications. Associations from a Notification Helper record to triPeople records specify to whom the generated notifications are sent. triPeople records are described in triPeople records.