"To Respond to an HTML E-mail Notification (Oracle Workflow User's Guide)

Oracle Workflow User's Guide
Release 2.6.3
Part Number B10285-02


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To Respond to an HTML E-mail Notification

1. Your HTML-formatted e-mail notification includes information that is helpful for you to respond to the notification. Depending on the notification, the information may appear as links to other sources or as attachments.

Attention: If your notification preference is 'HTML Mail with attachments', an HTML-formatted e-mail notification always includes one standard attachment. The attachment is called Notification Detail Link and it provides a direct link to your notification in the Notification Details web page.

Note that your Web browser must support JavaScript and Frames to open this attachment. When you open the Notification Detail Link attachment, it automatically attempts to establish a web session with your web server. In doing so, it authenticates your access, verifies that your notification is still open, and displays a message if the notification is already closed.

In Oracle Applications, you must always log in before you can access the Oracle Applications Framework-based Notification Details web page. In the standalone version of Oracle Workflow, if your workflow administrator has configured the notification mailer that sent this notification to require a login when you select the Notification Detail Link, and you are not already logged in, you will be prompted to log in before you can access the Notification Details web page. Otherwise, in the standalone version of Oracle Workflow, you can access the Notification Details page for this notification directly, but you cannot access any other Oracle Workflow pages unless you are logged in.

You can respond directly to your notification from the Notification Details page, bypassing the need to process your response through a notification mailer. If you decide to respond from the Notification Details page, skip the remaining steps. See: To View the Details of a Notification or To View the Details of a Notification (for Oracle Applications).

If your notification preference is 'HTML mail', then your HTML-formatted e-mail notification does not include this standard attachment. However, if custom attachments have been defined for this individual notification in its workflow process, those attachments will still be included.

2. When you are done reviewing all the information for the notification, click on one of the response links shown at the end of the notification.

Note: If your workflow administrator has configured the notification mailer that sent this message to use the standard Workflow Open Mail for Outlook Express message template, or if this notification is defined to use that template, then a link called "Click here to respond" will appear in place of the links for individual responses. The "Click here to respond" link provides access to your notification in the Notification Details web page.

Note that your Web browser must support JavaScript and Frames to open this link. When you choose the "Click here to respond" link, it automatically attempts to establish a web session with your web server. In doing so, it authenticates your access, verifies that your notification is still open, and displays a message if the notification is already closed. If you are disconnected from your network, however, you will not be able to use the link.

Once you have accessed the Notification Details page, you can respond directly to your notification from this page. In this case, you should skip the remaining steps.

3. Each response link automatically generates a plain text e-mail reply. The reply contains the correct Reply To: e-mail address as well as a response template in the message body. The response template consists of the required notification ID and access key that identify the notification you are responding to and a response prompt edited with your selected response.

Warning: Do not include any HTML-formatting in the e-mail response.

4. Depending on the notification, the auto-generated e-mail response template may also prompt you for other information in addition to your selected response. Supply responses by editing the response value text between the quotes (' ') following each response prompt.

Note: Response templates generated from a response link in an HTML-formatted e-mail notification provide single quotes to enclose your response values, rather than the double quotes provided in plain text response templates. This use of single quotes accommodates e-mail applications that cannot process double quotes in the <A HREF="mailto:"> tag for the link but can accept single quotes.

Depending on how your mail application displays these characters, the two single quote characters (' ')following a response prompt may visually resemble one double quote character ("). Ensure that you insert your response between the the two quotes, rather than after them.

When you are using the two single quotes to delimit your response, you can validly use a double quote character within your response value. For example, a response to a Comment prompt could be entered as follows:

                 Comment: 'The "Equipment" proposal is approved.'

However, you cannot validly use another single quote character within your response value in the default format. If you want to use the single quote character (') as an apostrophe within your response value, you can optionally enter your response in one of the following alternate formats. You can use different formats for different responses within the same response message.

You can enter a backslash (\) as an escape character before the apostrophe. For example, a response to a Comment prompt could be entered as follows.

                 Comment: 'This proposal isn\'t acceptable.'

You can delete the two single quotes and enclose your response between two double quotes (" ") instead to delimit the response value. For example:

                 Comment: "This proposal isn't acceptable."

You can delete the two single quotes and enclose your response between a left bracket and a right bracket ([ ]) instead to delimit the response value. For example:

                 Comment: [This proposal isn't acceptable.]

5. When you are satisfied with your response, use the Send command of the mail application to send your reply.

Note: If you send an invalid response, the Notification System sends you an "invalid response" message. If you respond to a notification that has been canceled, you get a message informing you that the notification was canceled. Similarly, if you respond to a notification that was already previously responded to, you get a message informing you that the notification is closed.

6. In addition to the response links, an HTML-formatted notification can also include a Request Information link. Choose this link if you want to request more information about the notification from another user before you respond to the notification.

The Request Information link automatically generates a plain text e-mail reply. The reply contains the correct Reply To: e-mail address as well as a request template in the message body. The request template contains the required notification ID and access key that identify the notification you are responding to. It also contains a prompt for you to enter the user from whom you want to request information, along with a list of users who have previously participated in the workflow process, and a prompt for you to enter the question you want to ask that user. When you are satisfied with your request, use the Send command of the mail application to send your reply.

Attention: Your workflow may include special logic to restrict requesting more information on notifications. If so, the Request Information link is not displayed in the e-mail notification. See: #HIDE_MOREINFO Attribute, Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide.

7. If another user sent you this notification with a request for more information, the notification displays the user who made the request, the history of any previous requests for more information about this notification and responses to those requests, and the details of the current request. Click the response link and enter the information you want to provide between the quotes (' ') following the response prompt. When you are satisfied with your response, use the Send command of the mail application to send your reply.

8. If this notification requires a password-based electronic signature in your response, you cannot respond to the notification through e-mail. In this case the notification informs you that a password-based signature is required and directs you to access the online version of the notification instead. Navigate to the Notification Details web page to submit your response. See: To View the Details of a Notification.

Note: Password-based electronic signatures are currently supported only for the version of Oracle Workflow embedded in Oracle Applications.

To Respond to an HTML E-mail Notification

See Also