Customize an email notification for an SAP workflow task

Open the workflow site in SharePoint Designer

You can customize an email task notification. The notification message is part of the workflow definition. To modify the notification message, open the workflow site in Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010.

1. From the Windows Start menu, click to launch SharePoint Designer 2010, and then click Open Site.

2. In the Site URL box of the Open Site dialog box, enter the URL for the workflow that you want to work with. This opens the Site Information page for the workflow.

3. In the Navigation panel, click Workflows to open a page where you can manage workflow settings.

4. In the Workflows panel, locate the List Workflow section and the name of the task type for the notification message. For example, the following illustration shows this page for the TestTask task type.
   

   

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Access the settings for the notification message

Duet Enterprise sends a notification message for each individual task. To change the message, you have to change the way the workflow handles each single task.

To change the message for each task:

1. Double-click the name of the task type.to open the page for the workflow that allows you to view and manage settings.

2. On the Workflow Settings page, click Edit Workflow to open the workflow editor.

3. In the editor pane, locate Step 1, and then click Approval.

4. In the Approval page, click Change the behavior of a single task to open the Task Behaviors page.

   

5. On the Task Behaviors page, in the When a Task is Pending pane, click Current Task:Assigned To.

   In the following illustration, the actions direct Duet Enterprise to log the task in the workflow history list, and then send an email task notification to the user who is assigned the task.

   

Specify recipients of the task notification

By default, Duet Enterprise uses a dynamic form of email address for the task notification message, a variable called Current Task: Assigned to. When it sends the task notification, Duet Enterprise looks up the correct person or SAP role, and then sends the notification to that address.

To modify the recipient address:

1. In the To: line of the Define email message window, click the Address Book button.

2. In the Select Users dialog box, enter a name in the Type a Name or E-mail Address box or select a recipient from the available list, and then click Add>>.

1. To remove a name from the recipient list, in the Selected Users: box, select the name of the recipient that you want to remove, and then click Remove<<.

2. When you finish selecting users, click OK to return to the Define email message window.

Change static text in the message

You can include static information in the message: every time the workflow creates an instance of the email task notification, this text will be the same.

To include static information:

• In the Define email message window, position the cursor where you want the text to appear. Then, type the information directly in the message body or subject line.

Add a hyperlink to the message

You can include a static hyperlink— that is, one that always links to the same address or location — in the body of your workflow task notification message. To add a hyperlink, use the HTML anchor tag (<a> and </a>) with the href attribute, and specify the target address as the value of the href attribute.

For example, you can add a link to a task detail by using the following text and hyperlink.

You can find <a href="http://MyWorkflowURL.com/">detailed information </a> about this task in SharePoint. 

In the resulting message, the text between the anchor tags appears as a hyperlink to the specified address.

Add dynamic content to the message

It is often helpful to use dynamically changing information in a task notification. For example, you might want to include comments from other people in the workflow, or the client ID so the user can be certain about a specific reference. Typically, when you add dynamic content, you use the value of a field in the current item (the current task in the workflow).

To add dynamic content to an email task notification:

1. In the Define email message dialog box, click Add or Change Lookup to open the Lookup for String dialog box.

   

   In SharePoint Designer 2010, a lookup is a feature that retrieves data from a data source at the workflow run time. The workflow can then use the data to perform some other workflow action.

2. In the Data Source drop down list, select the data source for the dynamic information that you want to add to the notification. Frequently, workflows use dynamic content from a Current Item data source, or a Workflow Variables and Parameters data source. If you do not know which data source to select, contact your workflow administrator.

3. In the Field from source drop-down, select the field that you want to use.

   The options that appear in the Field from source list depend on which Data Source you selected, and depend on whether the workflow site designer created any Extended business properties for the workflow.

   The following list provides additional information about pre-defined fields in the Current Item data source and in the Workflow Variables and Parameters data source. To see more information about fields from these data sources, expand one or more of the items on this list.

   Fields for Data Source = Current Item.

   The Current Item data source refers to the current task in the workflow. Choosing this option enables you to select a value from that task. For example, the Current Item data source includes fields such as Approval Status, Check-in Comment, and other values that provide information about a specific active task in the workflow. In addition, the list of valid fields for Current Item will include all properties configured as Extended business properties.

   The Current Item data source has too many fields to list here. However, the following list shows some of the most common fields.

   • Approval Status

   • Approver Comments

   • Check-In Comments

   • Client ID

   • Created By

   • ID

   • Name

   • Path

   • Template Link

   • URL Path

   Fields for Data Source = Workflow Variables and Parameters

   The following table shows the values that you can use from the Field from source drop down list when you select Workflow Variables and Parameters.

   Field name	Description
   Variable: Comments	This variable contains comments, if any, from the SAP task originator.
   Variable: DueDateForAllTasks	This variable contains the completion deadline for all tasks in the workflow.
   Variable: MailSubject	This variable contains the subject line for the task notification email.
   Variable: NotificationMessage	This variable contains a notification message from the SAP task originator.
   Variable: StartDeadline	This variable contains the date by which all tasks must start.
   Variable: TaskPriority	This variable contains the priority for the task.
   Variable: TaskTypeName	This variable contains the type name for the task.
   Variable:WFInitiatorUser	This variable contains the name of the workflow initiator.

   .

4. Click OK to accept the lookup value and return to the Define E-mail Message dialog box.

5. Click OK to accept changes to the email task notification.