Manage Project Notifications

Features

This feature allows Site Administrators to determine if and how project users will receive email notifications related to the WIDS application.

• Enable email notifications by project type (Site, Organization, Program, or Course) and by Action (specific changes made to a project).  
• Determine the default users who will receive notifications on projects.  You can set notifications by user name or by project role.
• Determine how notifications will be sent.  You can customize notifications so that when users save a change to a project, they’ll see a Send Notification window with the default email message and the list of recipients.  

You can change notification properties to allow for:

• Blind notifications - the user who makes a project change will not see an email Notification Window. The notification will be sent “blindly” to the email recipients(s) you selected as a site administrator.
• User Adds Recipients – the user who makes a project change can add recipients to your list of default recipients.
• User Modifies Message – the user can edit all parts of the default email subject and email message.

Sample Uses

• Notify Site Administrators when someone creates a new project or the status of a project changes.
• Notify Deans when an Organization Assessment Plan has changed.
• Notify Program Instructors when a new course is added to a program.
• Notify Course Developers when a course has been approved.
• Notify specific individuals for selected changes on the system.
• And more!

Enabling Project Notifications

1. Navigate to the Site and select the Manage Projects tab. Select Manage Project Notifications from the left menu.
2. WIDS ships with most notifications disabled. If no one has enabled notifications (or you decide against sending notifications) for a particular project type or action, Enable Notification will be unchecked.
3. Put the page in Edit mode, and check Enable Notification.

Managing How WIDS will send Notifications

WIDS lets you customize how the system will send notifications.  If you want users to see the Notification message before it is sent, leave Send Blind Notification unchecked. When notifications are sent blindly, the user who is making changes may have no idea that emails are being sent about the project changes. Selecting blind notifications also means that users will not have other options available, such as adding recipients or customizing the email message.

Managing Recipients

Selecting recipients by name

To select a recipient by name, click the radio button Select from user search. Enter the users first and/or last name and click the Search button.  Mark the checkbox to the left of the recipient’s name and click Add Recipient(s).  The name of the recipient will appear in the list of default recipients.

Selecting recipients by role

To select recipients by role, click the radio button Select by role(s). WIDS displays a list of project roles. Check the box to the left of each role you want to receive notifications. Click the Add Recipient(s) button.  The roles you added will appear in the list of default recipients.

Allow users to select recipients

You can allow users to add to the list of default recipients by marking this checkbox.

When users change a project they’ll see options to add email recipients by name or by role in the notification window

Customizing the Notification Message

WIDS ships with a default message subject and message body. The terms shown in brackets are text substitution tokens which will be replaced with real-time data information in the email message. 

You can edit the default subject and body.  For the body, you can use the text tools for formatting.

If you select Allow User to Modify Message, the user will have the ability to edit the default subject and body in the Notification Window.

Text Substitution Tokens

WIDS makes use of several text substitution tokens for notifications. To see the list click the  symbol in the message template window.