Form Notifications
- Christopher Rushing (Unlicensed)
Contents
Overview
One of the challenges in documenting compliance with a standard is keeping the process moving forward and everyone up to date on the progress of the effort. ITAM was designed with a powerful notification engine to handle that very need. Each form created in ITAM allows for form-specific email notifications and/or confirmations to be sent at various times during the process. You can use the default email format or customize several email notification parameters to adapt it to your organization’s needs.
For most notifications, if you don’t need to craft a custom message, you can just put in the email address to which you want a type of notification sent and ITAM will send that notification using our default format.
On this page of the guide we’ll cover Form Notifications, an aspect of Advanced Form Management that is vital for effective communication during the process of filling out a form. ITAM supports four (4) different types of notifications:
Notification of form submission (Send Notification Emails to My Inbox)
Confirmation to user after form submission (Send Confirmation Email to User)
Send submission data to alternate site (Send Form Data to Another Website)
Send user reminders and notifications (Send Administrative Notices and Reminder Notices to User)
Accessing Email Notifications
A form's email notification settings can be accessed via the notifications button/tab below the form in the Form Manager.
Regardless of the form with which you are working, the Notification options are the same and only applicable to that specific form which gives you a powerful feature to manage how information notification flows are controlled.
Notification Settings Interface
The notification settings interface is where you find the four (4) notification options. The first option is available to define an email notification to one or more interested parties, typically the form’s designer or administrator, that a submission has occurred. The second option is available to define an auto-responder type email notification to the user who completes and successfully submits the form. The third option allows sending the form data to any other custom URL. The fourth option is used to send administrative notices to users based on a schedule.
To enable any one or all of the options, select the check box adjacent to the notification option title.
Customizing the Basic Email Options
Most of the email configuration fields should be familiar to email users. Clicking and hovering over the green question mark icon adjacent to each option will display additional help. However, several specific features are described further below.
Customizing the Subject and Content
The Email Subject and the Email Content fields of the email notification options are fully customizable using text, HTML code and CSS. There is also the option to add template variables. These are accessed using the template variables link at the bottom of the fields. Template variables are used to include data from the form in the notification and appear as a field name surrounded by curly braces ( i.e. {field_name} ). Don’t worry, you don’t have to know the template variable field names for each field yourself, the template variable link will pop up a Template Variable Lookup tool that can be used to add the fields you need to your notification.
Send Notification Emails to My Inbox
Enable this option to send a receipt copy of the submission to the designated administrator or manager of the specific form, questionnaire, or module. Only the Email Address is required as the fields are initially configured to send a default message, however by using the More Options link at the bottom of the initial form displayed, you can expose additional options for further configuration.
A few special options you may select are:
Option | Description |
|---|---|
Send Module Data In Plain Text Email Format | This option includes a text version of the module's data submission in a prepared email message to all recipients listed. |
Send Module Data In PDF Email Attachment | This option includes a PDF version of the module's data submission in a prepared email message to all recipients listed. |
Send Module Report Data In Zip Email Attachment | This option attaches the module's template output as a Zip file attachment in a prepared email message to all recipients listed. |
Send Confirmation Email to User
If you want your users to receive a copy of their submission as a receipt copy when they submit a form, the “Send Confirmation Email to User” option is designed for just that requirement.
If the form in question has an email field type, it will be presented as an option to which the email can be sent.
If there are no email fields in the form you will be notified by the system that an email field is required and you will be unable to customize the notification type until you have that option in the form.
Similar to the Notification Emails for Administrative Users, there is a default email that can be sent with no additional configuration other than the Email Address, however additional configuration options are available that are accessed by the more options link in the bottom right of the form.
A few special options you may select are:
Option | Description |
|---|---|
Send Module Data In Plain Text Email Format | This option includes a text version of the module's data submission in a prepared email message to all recipients listed. |
Send Module Data In PDF Email Attachment | This option includes a PDF version of the module's data submission in a prepared email message to all recipients listed. |
Send Module Report Data In Zip Email Attachment | This option attaches the module's template output as a Zip file attachment in a prepared email message to all recipients listed. |
Send Form Data to Another Website
In some advanced cases, your organization may have another web-enabled tool which can receive and process the data from an ITAM form. The “Send Form Data to Another Website” option is where you can configure this type of integration. This is useful for integrating ITAM captured form data with other web applications such as Continuum GRC, MailChimp, Salesforce, Basecamp, etc.
The options available are listed in the following table:
Option | Description |
|---|---|
Website URL | Place the URL of your integration application here. |
HTTP Method | This gives you the choice between HTTP Get, HTTP Put, and HTTP Post (recommended) methods of integration. |
Use HTTP Authentication | If your integration application requires authentication then choose this option. |
HTTP User Name | If your integration application requires authentication then enter the account that will be used. |
HTTP Password | If your integration application requires authentication then enter the password that will be used. |
Use Custom HTTP Headers | If you need to send custom headers to your integration application then choose this option. |
HTTP Headers | A JSON object of all HTTP Headers you need to send. When first enabled, the field will display some existing headers as name-value pairs in JSON format. You can add your headers and values to the list. Make sure you separate each pair with a comma. |
Data Format | This option allows you to be very specific with the data elements you integrate with your external web application. |
Send Key-Value Pairs | These are predefined data elements. |
Send Raw Data | Enter any content you would like to send here. You can use any data format (e.g. JSON, XML, or raw text). Just make sure to set the proper 'Content-Type' HTTP header. |
Parameters | |
This option enables you to specifically identify those data elements you want to integrate with your external web application. | |
Name | You can type any parameter name you prefer here. |
Value | This parameter should be the template variable of the field you would like to send. Such as {element_1} or {element_2}, etc. You can also enter any static value you may have used. |
Send Administrative Notices and Reminder Notices to User
Completing a form in ITAM, especially compliance-related forms, often involves tracking down paperwork or Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to identify the correct data needed on a form. Sending reminders is one of the best ways to keep the effort top of mind and to keep the process moving forward. The “Send Administrative Notices and Reminder Notices to User” option is designed to allow you to nudge the user automatically until the form is completed.
Similar to sending a regular email message to another person or distribution group email address, the IT Audit Machine's powerful messaging system provides functionality to schedule these messages.
The options available are listed in the following table:
Option | Description |
|---|---|
Recipient | Select the entities to whom you are going to send notifications. |
Additional Recipients | Enter the additional recipient's or group's email addresses. Simply separate them with a semicolon or comma. |
Initial Message Subject | Include a meaningful subject line to your recipients just like you would a regular email message. This subject is used when the first email is sent out to an Entity for this form. |
Initial Message Body | Include a meaningful message to your recipients in the message body just like you would a regular email message. This email body is used when the first email is sent out to an Entity for this form. |
Reminder Message Subject | Include a meaningful subject line to your recipients just like you would a regular email message. This subject is used when reminder emails are sent out to an Entity for this form. |
Reminder Message Body | Include a meaningful message to your recipients in the message body just like you would a regular email message. This email body is used when reminder emails are sent out to an Entity for this form. |
Following Up Days After The Initial Notification | Enter the number of days the system will wait before sending out a follow-up notification. |
Notification Frequency | |
The Notification Frequency section allows you to determine the schedule your administrative notice will be sent. | |
One Time | The One Time option is used when you want to send an Administrative Notice to your recipients just once. You will select the date for the action to occur. |
Daily | The Daily option is used when you want to send an Administrative Notice to your recipients every day. |
Weekly | The Weekly option is used when you want to send an Administrative Notice to your recipients once a week. You will select the day of the week for the action to occur. |
Monthly | The Monthly option is used when you want to send an Administrative Notice to your recipients every month. You will select the date (day of the month) for the action to occur. |
Quarterly | The Quarterly option is used when you want to send an Administrative Notice to your recipients every quarter. You will select the start month and date (day of the month) for the action to occur. |
Annual | The Annual option is used when you want to send an Administrative Notice to your recipients just once a year. You will select the date (day of the month) and month for the action to occur. |
Include form URL | The form URL will be included in the Administrative Notice message. Please keep in mind that for information security purposes, a recipient will most likely be required to log into ITAM to open it up. |
As you can see, the Notifications included in ITAM provide a rich set of tools to keep your users and others informed and to facilitate the completion and processing of the data.
Next we’ll discuss Form Logic and how to respond dynamically to the data in a form to accomplish its goal with more precision and automation.
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