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WORKFLOWS: Workflow Notifications

Tiffany Winters
Modified on: Thu, Jun 1, 2023 at 5:31 PM

Table of Contents

Overview
Workflow Notification Settings
Workflow Notification Breakdown 
“Edit Workflow” Notifications
Edit Email Templates
Using the WYSIWYG Editor
Restoring to Default
Viewing Notifications
Workflow Public Notifications (Events Only)
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Overview

  • Workflow notifications function the same way in all Coursedog products. 

  • Workflow participants typically receive an email after the workflow arrives at their step; however, admins and users both have some control over when or if emails are received. 

  • The email will default to whatever admins have set up under Workflow Notifications.

  • Within individual workflows you have the option to further customize those emails to add more information regarding that specific workflow or workflow step.

  • This ultimately means there are three places where you can customize workflow notifications: Workflow Notification Settings (these are the default templates), Edit Workflow (workflow-specific notifications), and Edit Email Templates (step-specific notifications). 

Workflow Notification Settings

Overview

  • All workflows will be automatically populated with default notifications. 

  • You can customize those defaults and control whether or not a notification is sent at Product > Settings > Workflow Notifications.

Notification Settings

Cadence Options

  • Admins can control whether or not an email notification is sent for each workflow event.

  • There are three options: “Always Immediate”, “On”, and “Off”. 

  • How the options work depends on whether or not the end user has configured their Daily Digest.

  • You can learn more about end user notification preferences here. 

  • See the below table for optional settings and outcomes. 


Notification Setting

Daily Digest Setting

Outcome

Always Immediate

n/a

Sends immediately regardless of the user’s Daily Digest setting.

On

Not Set

Sends immediately.

On

Enabled

Sends in the Daily Digest.

Off

n/a

Does not send at all.


Additional Option

Admins have an additional option to control who views the “Request Edited” notification. When the toggle is set to “yes”, the notification will only be sent to users who are participants on prior and current steps.

Workflow Notification Breakdown 

  • Most of the default email templates you can set up in Workflow Notification Settings can be further customized for individual workflows.

  • The only Workflow Notification that cannot be further customized within a workflow is “Request Suspended.” That means that the default email found under “Workflow Notifications” will be sent any time a request is suspended.

  • The below table breaks down each default notification type according to who receives it ("email recipients"), what triggers it, and where within individual workflows you can further customize it. 

  • An “Approver” is a workflow participant who can vote; a “viewer” is a workflow participant who cannot vote. 

  • When a user edits a request, two potential emails are sent out: “Request Edited” and “Removed From Workflow”.


Notification Name

Email Recipient(s)

Trigger

Workflow-
Specific Location

At Your Step

Approvers & viewers 

Any standard or custom decision that moves the proposal to a step EXCEPT for the standard Send Back or Route Back decision.

“Edit Email Templates” (All steps except “Approved”)

Request Created

Author

Sent when the request is created

“Edit Workflow”

Request Approved

Author

Sent when the request is approved

 “Edit Email Templates” (Approved Step)

Request Edited

All participants still associated with the request or proposal who existed before the changes and have not been removed from the workflow

Sent when a request/proposal is edited regardless of whether or not the workflow is reset


“Edit Workflow”

Request Rejected

Author

Sent when the request is completely rejected entirely

“Edit Workflow”

Step Rejected

Approvers/Viewers

Sent when there are enough votes to reject a workflow step in three scenarios:

1. Current step is rejected and the request is moved to the previous step.

2. Current step is rejected and the request is moved to the Author step.


3. One of the steps in parallel dynamic steps is rejected, but other steps are pending. 

“Edit Email Templates” (All steps except for “Author” and “Approved”)

Request Sent Back

Approvers & viewers of the step where the proposal is returned to 

Sent when a proposal is routed back to this step using “route back” functionality 

“Edit Email Templates” (All steps except for “Author” and “Approved”)

Removed from Workflow

Any participant who is removed from a workflow by an edit to the request/proposal

Sent when a request is edited; the workflow is reset; and the new path of the proposal no longer includes the approver’s step

“Edit Workflow”

Request Suspended

Author

Sent when request is suspended

n/a



“Edit Workflow” Notifications

SCHEDULING & EVENTS: Settings > Workflows > (Select Workflow) > “Edit Workflow”

CURRICULUM & CATALOG: Workflows > (Select Workflow) > “Edit Workflow”

 

  • You can edit four workflow notifications in the “Edit Workflow” modal: Request Created, Request Edited, Request Rejected, and Removed from Workflow. 

  • These emails will all populate with the default of the same name set up in Workflow Notification Settings (see table above); however, each one can be customized for individual workflows here under “Edit Workflow”.

Edit Email Templates

Paths | Overview | Most Steps | Author Step | Approved Step

Paths

  1. SCHEDULING & EVENTS: Settings > Workflows > (Select Workflow) > (Select “Edit” Next to Step) > Edit Email Templates

  2. CURRICULUM & CATALOG: Workflows > (Select Workflow) > “Edit Workflow” > (Select “Edit” Next to Step) > Edit Email Templates

 

Overview

  • All of the notifications within “edit email templates” are editable at the step level, meaning changes you make to the email for one step will not be reflected in other steps. 

  • Notifications associated with the first (“Author”) and last (“Approved”) steps go to the author only. 

 

Most Steps

  • All steps except for the “Author” and “Approved” steps allow you to customize six different workflow notifications: At Your Step (Approvers), At Your Step (Viewers), Request Sent Back (Approvers), Request Sent Back (Viewers), Step Rejected, and Deadline Reminder.

  • All of the emails available in “edit email templates” are pre-populated with a default set up under Workflow Notification Settings, with the exception of “Deadline Reminder”.

  • The “Deadline Reminder” notification is pre-populated with the “At Your Step (Approvers)” default. If you indicate “This step has a deadline”, this email will be sent X days before that deadline (depending on what you selected under “Send reminder # days before deadline”).

 

Author Step

  • The email template within the “Author Step” is pre-populated with the “At Your Step (Approver)” default template set up under Workflow Notification Settings.

  • The email template on the "Author" step is intended for when a workflow is sent back to the author. This is NOT the request-created email.

 

Approved Step

The email template within the “Approved Step” is pre-populated with the “Request Approved” default template set up under Workflow Notification Settings.

 

Using the WYSIWYG Editor

Overview | WYSIWYG Options | Dynamic Email Variables

Overview

  • Whether you’re editing the default templates under “Workflow Notifications” or customizing notifications for an individual workflow or step, the WYSIWYG editor offers the same basic functionality. 

  • Make sure you select “Save” after editing; otherwise, your changes will be lost.

  • In addition to the options you can see within the WYSIWYG editor, many standard keyboard shortcuts work as well. Learn more here. 

 

WYSIWYG Options

  1. Edit the Email Subject 

  2. Insert an Image – Useful if you’d like to add departmental or institutional branding.

  3. Add a Horizontal Line – Useful if you’d like to separate different sections of the email.

  4. Undo a Change – Select this if you’d like to undo an edit.

  5. Redo a Change – Select this if you undid a change you’d like to reinstate. 

  6. Insert Different Variables – You can insert many different variables, including workflow decision comments and number of days before the deadline. See “Dynamic Email Variables” below for more details.

  7. Edit Email Body – Click into the email body to make edits. 

  8. Stylize – Select any text to access additional options, including the ability to add bold, italics, hypertext, and more. 

Dynamic Email Variables

Reference the below table for a detailed description of each of the variables you can insert into a workflow notification.

 

Variable Name

Description

Recipient Full Name

Full Name of the email recipient.

Recipient First Name

First Name of the email recipient.

Recipient Last Name

Last Name of the email recipient.

Request Author Full Name

The full name of the request author.

Request Author First Name

First name of the request author.

Request Author Last Name

Last name of the request author.

Request Title

This is the title of the request, which is generally what appears under “Name” in bold when viewing the requests/proposals dashboard; see below for how the Request Title is determined by product. 

  • Curriculum Management

    • Program proposals use Program title

    • Course proposals use Course Prefix + Code

  • Catalog – Request title defaults to the name of the page the request pertains to.

  • Scheduling – Request title defaults to the Course Code - Section Number.

  • Events – Request title defaults to the Event Name.

Request URL

Complete request URL including school-based URL to access the request.

Request Type

The type of request, which varies by product. 

  • Scheduling – Section Change, Rule Exception, or Schedule Validation

  • Events – New Event or Edit Event

  • Curriculum – New Course, Edit Course, Delete Course, New Program, Edit Program, or Delete Program

  • Catalog – New Catalog Page, Edit Catalog Page, or Delete Catalog Page

Workflow Decision Comments

Fetches and inserts the first workflow decision comment into the email.

Current Workflow Step Name

The name of the current workflow step (e.g. Registrar Review). 

Prior Workflow Step Decision

Allows the email recipient to see how participants voted on the previous step (e.g. If it was approved, then this variable would populate with “Approved").

Current Workflow Step Age

Captures the number of days the workflow has been at the current step (relevant only to deadline notification).

Number of Days before Deadline

Indicates the number of days before the ability to act on this step ends. 

Deadline Action

Indicates what will happen if the deadline arrives and no action has been taken by step participants. 

Restoring to Default

Default Templates / Workflow Notification Settings | Workflow Specific | Workflow-Specific at the Step

  • When a user is editing an email – whether it is the default under “Workflow Notification Settings” or within a workflow – they are able to restore each email template to its default value by clicking on “Restore Defaults”.

  • The “restore defaults” option looks a little different depending on where you are; see screenshots below.

 

Default Templates / Workflow Notification Settings

PATH: Product > Settings > Workflow Notifications

 

Workflow Specific 

PATH: Open Workflow > Edit Workflow > Select Any Notification

 

Workflow-Specific at the Step

PATH: Open Workflow > Click “Edit” Next to Any Step > Edit Email Templates

 

Viewing Notifications

  • In addition to the workflow notification emails noted above, users will also be alerted that a request is with them via their Requests Dashboard as well as in the notification center visible in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. 

  • All notifications in the notification center, including alerts regarding workflows, will be deleted 90 days after they first appear. 

Workflow Public Notifications (Events Only)

There is a set of notifications that is unique to Events – or more specifically, event requests submitted through an institution’s public site. You can learn more about those notifications here. 

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