Ektron 9.00

Sending Notifications to a Community

Notifications help you build a tighter, more robust community. They drive users to your site by notifying them of a recent event, then directing them to the affected page.

Ektron's notification system creates and transmits a notification messageconsists of text and a triggering activity. When the activity occurs, the message is sent to eligible recipients. to recipienta colleague, or a member of a community group to which a person belongs, that gets a notification message.s through various agenta provider (such as email, SMS, and activity streams) that transmit messages.s, based on Ektron activitiesevents within Ektron's Community Feature, such as adding content, joining a community group, and submitting a micro-message. The activities may be performed by a community group, membership user, or an Ektron user. For example, a membership user wants to notify colleagues whenever a documented is uploaded to the profile page. When this occurs, an Ektron event is triggered, which causes a notification agent to send an email to the person's colleagues.

Overview of the notification system for developers and administrators
  1. A user performs an activity in Ektron.
  2. Ektron raises a corresponding event.
  3. The activity’s data is written to the Activity table in the database.
  4. Activity information is sent to the activity queue.
  5. Ektron verifies that the notification system is enabled.
  6. The notification service gets a list of users who signed up to be notified about that activity when performed by that user. That list also includes the agents that send the message (for example, email or SMSShort Message Service (SMS); used for texting.).
  7. The notification service gets the message associated with the activity, formats it, and sends it to the appropriate Notification agents.
  8. Notification agents send the message to users compiled in Step 6.

Users can decide:

  • which activities should send a Notification to their colleagues or community groups
  • which Notifications they want to receive from colleagues and community groups
Conditions for notification messages

Conditions for Notification Messages

  • Notifications must be turned on in Workarea > Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Settings.
  • A message for the activity must be enabled in Workarea > Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Messages. (By default, a message is enabled for each activity.)
  • A user who wants to receive notifications must enable each type of Notification for each agent in the profile’s Activities tab.

    NOTE: A user's profile Activities tab has a Community Groups subtab, which lets the user set notification preferences for all community groups. To refine preferences further, a user can access the profile of any community group and click Edit Group Notification Preferences to set preferences for that particular group.

  • The user performing the action must allow the Notification to be generated by enabling it on the profile’s Activities tab.
  • To receive notifications for another user’s activities, you must be colleague of the user.

  • To receive notifications for another user’s activities, a community group’s activities, you must be a group member.

    NOTE: The above points regarding message recipients are general. For specific details about which recipients receive notification messages, see Notification Message Recipients

  • The Notification system respects Ektron’s content permissions. As a result, content-related Notifications are only sent to users with at least read-only permission for the content. See Also: Managing Folder and Content Permissions

    For example, Julia adds content to an Ektron folder for which her colleague, Tyler, does not have permission. Tyler is not notified when content is added, even though he signed up to be notified about colleagues’ activities.

    However Kristin, another colleague who has permission to edit the folder’s content and who signed up to be notified about colleagues’ activities, does receive Notification of that event.

    Similarly, private content is only viewable by authorized Ektron users or membership users with at least Read-Only permissions for its folder.

Triggering a notification message

Triggering a Notification Message

The following list shows the standard activities that can trigger a notification message, and the Activities sub-tab on which they can be enabled or disabled.

C—Colleague Action (available of Colleagues sub-tab)

G—Community Group Action (available on Groups sub-tab)

U—User Action to Notify Others about (available on My Activities sub-tab)

  • Add Colleague (C, U)—user adds a colleague
  • Add/Edit Group Content (G, U)—user uploads content to community group Workspace
  • Add/Edit User Workspace Content (C, U)—user uploads content to a profile
  • Add Site Content (C, U)—user adds content to Ektron
  • Add/Update Site Calendar Event (C, U)—event is added or changed on site Calendar
  • Add/Update User Calendar Event (C, U)—event is added or changed on user Web Calendar
  • Add/Update Group Calendar Event (G, U)—event is added or changed on Web Calendar
  • Add User Workspace Content (C, U)—user uploads content to a profile
  • Blog Comment (C, U)—user comments on a blog post
  • Blog Post (C, U)—user posts to a blog
  • Community Group Forum Post (G, U)—user posts to forum
  • Community Group Forum Reply (G, U)—user replies to forum post
  • Content Messageboard Post (C, U)—user posts to a message board associated with content
  • Create Community Group (C, U)—user creates a community group
  • Edit Content (C, U)—user edits content
  • Forum Post (C, U)—user posts to a Forum
  • Forum Reply—user replies to a Forum post
  • Group Blog Comment (G, U)—user comments on a community group’s blog post
  • Group Blog Post (G, U)—user posts to community group blog
  • Group Messageboard Post (G, U)—user posts to a community group message board
  • Join Community Group (C, U)—user joins community group
  • Micro-message (C, U)—user posts micro-message
  • User Messageboard Post (C, U)—user posts to a message board associated with a user
Notification message recipients

Notification Message Recipients

The following table connects Notification message activities with users who receive the notification.

Prerequisites

  • users performing the activity must have the Publish check box checked for the activity in their profile
  • users being notified must have the Activity Stream, SMS, or email box checked for that activity in their profile

Activity that Triggers Message

Users who receive notification

Add Colleague—user adds a colleague
  • colleagues of user who adds
  • added colleague

Add Group Content—user uploads content to community group Workspace

 Community group members

Add/Edit User Workspace Content—user uploads content to the user profile

Depends on folder’s share setting, which can be

  • Public—all colleagues
  • Colleagues—all colleagues
  • Selected colleagues See Also: Server Control Reference
  • Private—no email

Add Site Content— user adds content to Ektron

 User's colleagues
Add/Update Site Calendar Event—event is added or changed on site Web calendar User's colleagues
Add/Update User Calendar Event—event is added or changed on site Web calendar User's colleagues
Add/Update Group Calendar Event—event is added or changed on site Web calendar Community group members

Blog Post—user posts to the user's blog

 User's colleagues

Content Messageboard Post—user posts to a message board associated with content

 Users who have permission to view the content

Create Community Group—user creates a community group

 Colleagues of user who creates group
Edit Content—user edits content User's colleagues
Edit Group Content—user edits community group content Community group members

Forum Post—user posts to a Forum
  • Posting user's colleagues
  • Forum owner and owner's colleagues

Forum Reply—user replies to a Forum post

Posting user's colleagues

Group Blog Comment—user comments on a community group’s blog post

Community group members

Group Blog Post—user posts to community group blog

Community group members

Group Messageboard Post—user posts to a community group message board

 Community group members

Join Community Group—user joins community group
  • Community group members
  • Colleagues of user who joined
Micro-message—user posts micro-message User's colleagues

User Messageboard Post—user posts to a message board associated with a user
  • colleagues of user who posts
  • message board owner and the owner's colleagues

User or Community Blog Comment—user comments on a blog post

Posting user's colleagues
Setting up notifications

Setting Up Notifications

This section shows how to set up email notification to alert a user when someone uploads a document to the Workspace.

Setting up Ektron to send notifications

Setting up Ektron to Send Notifications

An Ektron Administrator performs these steps.

NOTE: For this example to work, Ektron must be set up to send emails. See Installing Ektron.

  1. Navigate to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Settings.
  2. Verify that Notifications can be published. If not:
    1. Click Edit.
    2. Click the Publish Notifications check box.
    3. Click Save.
      —Image—

  3. Make sure the email agent is enabled by navigating to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Agents.
    1. If the Ektron Email agent does not appear in the list of agents, click Add Agent.
    2. Select EktronEmail from the Name drop-down.
    3. Click the Enabled check box.
    4. Click Save.
      —Image—

  4. Ektron provides a standard Notification message that is sent when you add content to your Workspace. The message’s name is User Workspace Content Added. Optionally edit the message.
    1. Navigate to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Messages.
    2. Click User Workspace Content Added.
    3. Click Edit.
    4. Update the email’s subject in the Subject text box.
    5. Edit the message in the text editor using a combination of Tokens and text:
      The document @Content.Title@ was added to @SubjectUser.UserName@’s Workspace.
    6. If you want SMS type messages, create a shorter version of the message in the Plain Text text box.
  5. If you want to enable SMS messages, do the following:
    • Configure the SMS Agent in the web.config file. See Setting Up SMS
    • Inform users receive SMS messages to perform the verification step on a cell phone.
    • Inform users to check the SMS column on the notifications page for Activities by Colleagues.
  6. Click Save.

From now on, an email is sent whenever you upload a document to your Workspace to colleagues who signed up to receive them.

Enabling notification publishing

Enabling Notification Publishing

You must enable the Add User Workspace Content activity in your profile so that whenever you add content to your Workspace, a notification is sent.

  1. Log into the site.
  2. Navigate to your profile page.
  3. Click EditProfile.
  4. Click the Activities tab.
  5. Click the My Activities sub tab.
    —Image—

  6. Click the Add User Workspace Content check box.
  7. Click Save.
Receiving notifications

Receiving Notifications

You must enable the receipt of notifications that are sent whenever colleagues upload an item to their Workspace.

  1. Log into the site.
  2. Navigate to your profile page.
  3. Click EditProfile.
  4. Click the Activities tab.
  5. Click the Colleagues sub tab.
    —Image—

  6. Click the Add User Workspace Content check box in the Email column.

    NOTE: If you want to receive SMS messages, also check the box in the SMS column.

  7. Click Save.
Receiving SMS messages on your cell phone

Receiving SMS Messages on Your Cell Phone

NOTE: The following procedure requires that your website has the template SMSAgentSettings.aspx. If it does not, you may copy it from the Ektron Developer starter site, or the Ektron eIntranet site.

  1. Go to the website page: http://<host>/SMSAgentSettings.aspx.
  2. Enter a phone number and carrier.
  3. Click Save. Within a few minutes, you will receive a verification code on your phone.
  4. Enter the code into the Verification Code field.
  5. Click Verify. The page shows that the account is verified. You can begin receiving SMS notification messages on your phone.
Setting default notification preferences

Setting Default Notification Preferences

Ektron provides a default set of Notifications that apply to all newly-created users. After a user is created, the use can change the preferences by editing the profile, selecting the Activities tab, and checking or unchecking activities and agents. Similarly, a community group member can access any community group profile and click Edit Group Notification Preferences to set the group's preferences. You can apply 3 types of default settings via screens on the Workarea Settings tab.

  • Colleagues—Activities involving colleagues that the logged-in user wants to be notified about
  • Community Groups—Activities involving community groups that the logged-in user wants to be notified about

    NOTE: The Community Groups subtab sets notification preferences for all community groups. To refine preferences further, a user can access the profile of any community group and click Edit Group Notification Preferences to set preferences for that particular group.

  • My Activities—Activities involving the logged-in user to display to colleagues and community group.

    NOTE: The Activities tab appears only after the user is registered and if the Workarea > Settings > Community Management >Notifications > Settings > Publish Notification setting is checked.

—Image—

NOTE: Activities are checked for the Activity Stream agent by default. No activities are checked for the other agents by default.

  1. Log in to the Workarea as an administrator.
  2. Navigate to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > System Default Preferences > Colleagues.
  3. Click Edit.
  4. Place a check mark next to each a default notification.
    Colleagues

    Community Groups

    My Activities

  5. Click Save.
Raising a custom activity

Raising a Custom Activity

Ektron's Notification system lets you create and raise your own activity types. Custom activity types can generate notifications, just like standard activity types.

  1. In the Workarea, go to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Activity Types.
  2. Click Add Activity Type. The Add Activity Type screen appears.
    —Image—

  3. Enter a unique name.
  4. Select an Action Scope.
    • User—an activity raised by users; their colleagues are notified
    • CommunityGroup—an activity raised by a community group user; group members are notified
  5. Save the screen. The following image shows a sample custom activity on the View All Activity Types screen.
    —Image—

  6. Interested users go to their User Profile screen’s Activities tab where they indicate if they want be notified when the custom activity occurs, and if they want to notify others.
    —Image—

  7. To raise a custom activity, call the Ektron.Cms.Framework.Activity.Activity.Publish method. The method takes an ActivityData class. You supply the following:
    • the Id of the Activity Type you want to raise (1001 in this example)
    • the user causing the activity
    • a message

      NOTE: Custom activity types cannot use Community Management messages as the standard Ektron activities do.

      Here is an example of that method.

      Activity activityApi = new Activity();
ActivityUserInfo user = new ActivityUserInfo();
user.Id = activityApi.UserId;
ActivityData activityData = new ActivityData();
activityData.ActionUser = user;
activityData.ActivityTypeId = 1001;
activityData.Message = "John Doe just rated Ektron a buy!";
activityData.LanguageId = 1033;
activityApi.Publish(activityData);

      When publish is called, the notification service notifies users who signed up to be notified of this activity.

Working with notification agents

Working with Notification Agents

A notification agenta provider (such as email, SMS, and activity streams) that transmit messages. is a component that sends notification messages. Each Agent is responsible for sending notifications to users when Ektron activity occurs. How that notification is sent is up to the Notification Agent itself. When a Notification Agent is created and registered, users can begin setting up notification preferences that use it.

Ektron has predefined Notification agents, including email, SMS, and Activity Stream agents.

  • SMS Notifications are sent to a cell phone or another device that receives SMS messages. See Also: Setting Up SMS
  • Activity stream Notifications are posted via the ActivityStream server controla server control uses API language to interact with the CMS and Framework UI to display the output. A server control can be dragged and dropped onto a Web form and then modified.. See Also: ActivityStream
  • email Notifications are delivered to appropriate recipients inboxes. See Also: Setting Up Email to Communicate Community Activities

You can customize these providers or create your own using the extendable Notification agent architecture.

Enabling or disabling an agent

Enabling or Disabling an Agent

NOTE: Ektron’s predefined agents are enabled by default.

  1. Log in to the Workarea as an administrator.
  2. Navigate to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Agents.
  3. Click the name of an agent.
  4. Click Edit.
  5. Check (or uncheck) the Enabled check box.
  6. Click Save.
Creating a custom agent

Creating a Custom Agent

Ektron comes with several standard Notification Agents, including email, SMS, and Activity Stream. You can customize these agents or create your own using the extendable Notification Agent provider architecture. This section explains how to extend the object model to build a customized Notification Agent.

Each type of Notification Agent accepts configuration parameters. For example, email and SMS require an SMTP server, username, and password. These parameters can be specified in the web.config file, and read when the Agent is initialized the first time.

Each agent may also require storing settings for each user receiving notifications. For example, the SMS agent requires the user’s cell phone number and carrier, which it stores as an SMS email address. To save these properties, each Notification Agent has an associated NotificatAgentSettingsData class. This class defines any properties needed to be supplied by the user. Ektron provides APIs for storing and retrieving this information, but the developer must create an interface for users to supply the information. The SMSAgentSettings.aspx page, supplied with the Developer and Intranet starter sites, provides a good example.

Implementing your own notification agent provider

Implementing Your Own Notification Agent Provider

Object Model

The NotificationAgent is the abstract base class you must extend to implement your own notification agent. Details on the class, available properties, and methods you are required to implement are below.

  • virtual void Initialize(string name, Amenable config);

    The initialize method comes from the ProviderBase base class. It supplies all name value pairs specified in the Providers web.config section.

    If custom settings need to be provided to your agent, add them to your provider’s web.config key, and they will be provided to you at runtime in the Initialize method. If you have no custom settings, this class does not need to be overridden.

  • abstract NotificationAgentSettingsData GetAgentSettings();

    This method should return a new instance of the NotificationAgentSettingsData class associated with your Agent.

  • abstract void Send(NotificationMessageData message);

    This method should send the actual notification. It will be called by the notification engine for each user that needs to be notified.

    The NotificationMessageData has all the information you need for sending the notification, including

    • the message itself
    • the user to be notified
    • the NotificationAgentSettingsData for the user to be notified.

    If your agent has a custom NotificationAgentSettingsData, you need to cast the supplied NotificationAgentSettingsData to the appropriate type so that you can access the appropriate properties.

Adding a custom agent

Adding a Custom Agent

  1. Insert the provider between the Notification agent’s providers tags in the siteroot/web.config file.
    —Sample code—
    <notificationAgent>
  <providers>
    <add name="CustomAgent1" 
      type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications.Providers.CustomAgent1, 
      Ektron.Cms.Providers" setting1="" setting2=""/>
    <add name="EktronEmail" 
      type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications.Agents.EktronEmailAgent, 
      Ektron.Cms.BusinessObjects" useSystemSettings="false" 
      smtpServer="amh010" smtpPort="25" userName="" password="" 
      fromEmail="admin@example.com"/>
    <add name="SMSAgent" 
      type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications.Agents.SMSAgent, 
      Ektron.Cms.BusinessObjects" smtpServer="amh010" smtpPort="25" 
      fromEmail="SMSAgent@example.com" validationRequired="true"/>
    <add name="ActivityFeed" 
      type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications.Agents.ActivityFeedAgent, 
      Ektron.Cms.BusinessObjects" validationRequired="false"/>
  </providers>
    </notificationAgent>

    After you add an agent to web.config, it appears in the list of available agents in the Workarea.

    —Image—

  2. Log into the Workarea as an administrator.
  3. Navigate to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Agents.
  4. Click Add.
  5. Select the custom agent from the Name drop-down box.

    NOTE: If you do not see the custom agent in the Name drop-down, check theweb.config file to verify it is listed between the <notificationAgent> tags.

  6. Place a check mark in the Enabled check box.
  7. Click Save.
Removing an agent

Removing an Agent

When you no longer need an agent, you can remove it. This can be a 2 step process, depending on the level of removal you are trying to achieve. First, remove the agent from the list of agents in the Workarea. At this time, you can easily return the agent to the list. In the second step, you remove the agent from the web.config file.

  1. Log in to the Workarea as an administrator.
  2. Navigate to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Agents.
  3. Click the title of the agent.
  4. Click Delete ().
  5. In the Delete Agent dialog box, click OK. The page refreshes, and the agent is removed from the agents list.

    NOTE: To completely remove the agent from Ektron, follow these additional steps.

  6. Open the site root folder’s web.config file.
  7. Between the <notificationagent>’s <providers> tags, remove the agent. The following example shows agents that might appear in the web.config file. 
    <notificationAgent>
  <providers>
    <add name="CustomAgent1" type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications...
    <add name="EktronEmail" type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications...
    <add name="SMSAgent" type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications...
    <add name="ActivityFeed" type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications...
  </providers>
</notificationAgent>
Managing notification messages

Managing Notification Messages

Messages are used by the notification system to communicate site activities. You can view each activity’s default message from the Workarea > Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Messages screen.

—Image—

You can create an HTML-based and a plain text message for each activity. Typically, HTML messages are sent as email or to the ActivityStream server control, while plain text is used in SMS style messages. Messages typically combine text and tokens. See Also: Working with Tokens

Creating a message

Creating a Message

  1. Log into the Workarea as an administrator.
  2. Navigate to Settings > Community Management > Notifications > Messages.
  3. If you are using the Multi-Site feature, select the site with which this message will be associated.
  4. Click Add Message. The Add Notification Message screen appears.
  5. Complete the fields as described below.
    • Title—Enter a name for the message.
    • Type—Select the type of message you want to create. Choices are:
      • User—message sent when user activity occurs
      • Community Group—message sent when group activity occurs
    • The activity is specified at the Sub Type field.
    • Sub Type—Select the activity which triggers the sending of this message. See Also: Choosing a Message Type.
    • Tokens—A list of available tokens for the selected Sub Type appears. To easily insert a token into a message, highlight a token, then copy and paste it into the message. For a list of tokens and their sub types with, see Working with Tokens. To learn about how to make tokens into hyperlinks, see Making a Token into a Hyperlink.

      WARNING! A message is limited to 3000 characters after its tokens are converted to text. After 3000, any remaining characters are removed.

    • Default—Click this check box if you want the message to be the default one that is sent. See Also: Choosing a Message Type
    • Subject—Enter a subject to be used if the message is sent as email.
    • Text—Enter the text and tokens that comprise the message. The editor lets you format the text.
    • Use this editor for HTML, email, and activity stream messages. See Also: Making a Token into a Hyperlink
    • Plain Text—Enter the text and tokens that comprise the message you want to send. Use this field for SMS type messages and messages to be sent as plain text. (If you already composed the message in the editor above, you can select that text, then copy and paste it into the Plain Text field.)

      NOTE: Most SMS systems impose a 160 character limit on messages. If you create a plain text message greater than 160 characters, Ektron divides it into several, smaller messages.

  6. Click Save. The message now appears in the list of Notification messages. If it is the default and an activity occurs on your website that matches the type and sub type, the message is sent.
Choosing a message type

Choosing a Message Type

User and Community Group messages contains several sub types of messages. The sub type is the activity that triggers the message. For example, to edit the message that notifies colleagues when you upload a document to your Workspace, select User from the Type drop-down and AddWorkspaceItem from the Sub Type drop-down.

—Image—

When you create a new message, you assign it to a type and sub type, such as User Activity > Blog Post. Only the default message is active for any combination of type and subtype. So, while creating a new message, you must make it the default (via the Add Notification Message screen’s Default check box) if you want it to be sent. When you do, if another message was the default for that type and sub type, it is no longer used. For a list of Sub types, see Triggering a Notification Message.

Removing a message

Removing a Message

  1. Log into the Workarea as an administrator.
  2. Navigate to Settings > Community Management > Notification > Messages.
  3. Click the title of the message you want to delete.
  4. Click Delete ().
  5. Click OK on the confirmation message. The message is removed.
Managing notifications in a multi-site environment

Managing Notifications in a Multi-Site Environment

In a multi-site environment, notifications stay within the site where the activity happened. For example, if there are 2 sites—an Intranet and Social Club site—when a user from the Intranet site performs an activity that generates a message, it does not trigger notifications on the Social Club site. Exception: A user’s colleagues receive notifications regardless of the site from which the message originated.

When a message type is created, it becomes the default message and is used by all sites. You can assign new messages of the same type to each site in your environment.

To view the messages assigned to each site, go to the View All Notification Messages screen, click the Site drop-down, and select the site.

—Image—

When you create notification messages in a Multi-Site environment, you specify the site associated with message. This lets you create customized messages for each site. For example, you want a “Status Update” message targeted one way for an Intranet site and another way for your Social Club site. To accomplish this, create a 2 messages. The message for the Intranet site might state:

@SubjectUser.username@ has an updated status on Intranet with the following: 
  @MicroMessage.Message@.

While your Social Club site might have a message that states:

@SubjectUser.username@ has an updated status on the
Social Club with the following: @MicroMessage.Message@
Using SSL with notifications

Using SSL with Notifications

If your site uses SSLSecure Sockets Layer (https), you need to update the link in the Ektron notification service configuration file with that information. The file is at: your-server\Program Files\Ektron\EktronNotificationService\Ektron.Notification.Service.exe.config.

Change the following tags.

<siteNotification>
  <sites>
    <add name="769723537"
      url="https://your server" 
      connectionString="server=your server;
      database=Intranet2;
      Trusted_Connection=true;
      User ID=;Password=;" />
  </sites>
</siteNotification>

You must restart the Ektron Notification Service to enable these changes.

Using eSync with notifications

Using eSync with Notifications

When using eSync with Notifications, new agents are not synchronized. This means that you must manually add new agents to each server in your configuration.

When the agent exists on all servers in your configuration, eSync keeps them updated. For example, assume a membership user logs into the production server and updates the profile’s Activities tab by changing the activities a custom agent will perform. eSync will sync those changes with the staging server.

Setting up SMS

Setting Up SMS

SMSShort Message Service (SMS); used for texting. sends community notification messages from the Ektron website to wireless devices such as a cell phone or PDAPersonal Data Assistant. To accomplish this, you must configure several items.

  • web.config—Add SMS Agent information.
  • Cell phone—Verify your Cell Phone with your website.
  • SMS Notification Agent—Configure the SMS Agent in the Workarea.
  • Messages you send to the community—Set your activities to publish by SMS in your community profile.
  • Messages you receive from the community—Set activities to receive by SMS in your community profile.
Setting up web.config for SMS

Setting up web.config for SMS

  1. Find web.config in your website root directory.
  2. Make a copy of it for safe keeping.
  3. Find the SMSAgent tag.
  4. Enter the proper value for smtpServer for the server that sends emails in your company. For example:
    smtpServer="EKMAIL291.intra.mycompany.com"
  5. Replace the value of fromEmail with the email from whom the notices are sent. For example:
    fromEmail = "noreply@mycompany.com"
  6. Save the file. The completed code looks like this.
    <add name="SMSAgent" 
  type="Ektron.Cms.Notifications.Providers.SMSAgent,
  Ektron.Cms.Providers" smtpServer="EKMAIL291.intra.mycompany.com" |
  smtpPort="25" fromEmail="noreply@mycompany.com" validationRequired="true" />
Verifying your cell phone for SMS messages

Verifying Your Cell Phone for SMS Messages

To verify that you have made a proper connection to your cell phone, you must send a verification message from the Ektron website to your phone. To verify your phone, do the following steps.

NOTE: The following procedure requires that your website has the template SMSAgentSettings.aspx. If it does not, you may copy it from the Ektron Developer starter site, or the Ektron eIntranet site.

  1. In a browser, enter the following address: http://<hostname>/SMSAgentSettings.aspx. A screen appears that looks similar to the following:
    —Image—

  2. Enter your cell phone area code and phone number.
  3. Select your provider.
  4. Click Save. In a few minutes, your phone receives a message with a validation code.
  5. Enter that code into the Verification Code field.
  6. Click Verify. If the proper code is entered, the follow screen appears, showing that the SMS account is verified. If not, check the other configuration settings and try again.
    —Image—

    NOTE: When the phone number is verified, the Account Verified checkmark appears. This will not change unless you change the cell phone number or provider.

Working with tokens

Working with Tokens

A tokenan Ektron-defined variable that surrounded by at signs (@). For example, @SubjectUser.FirstName@. This variable gets translated in message notifications. is an Ektron-defined variables surrounded by at signs (@). When a message is generated, tokens retrieve information about Ektron users, groups, and objects. For example, the following message:

@SubjectUser.FirstName@ added a new document, ‘@Content.title@’, to the profile page.

might look like this:

“Paul added a new document, ‘How to Write Code’, to the profile page.”

In this example, @SubjectUser.FirstName@ is the first name of the user performing the action. @Content.title@ is the title of the object that was uploaded.

A message can include several token types.

  • SubjectUser tokens—represent the user who performs the activity
  • DirectObjectUser tokens—represent the user to which the activity is happening
  • Content tokens—represent the content that was a part of the activity
  • CommunityGroup tokens—represent the community group that was involved in the activity
  • Blog tokens—represent the blog use in the activity
  • webEvent tokens—represents the Web Calendar used in the activity
  • MicroMessage tokens—represent micromessages used in the activity
Making a token in to a hyperlink

Making a Token into a Hyperlink

A message tokenan Ektron-defined variable that surrounded by at signs (@). For example, @SubjectUser.FirstName@. This variable gets translated in message notifications. represent Ektron users, groups, or content. It can become a link that, when clicked, brings the user to content, a user’s profile, or community group’s profile.

—Image—

To make a token into a clickable link:

  1. Create the message as described in Creating a Message.
  2. While editing the message text, highlight a token and click Hyperlink Manager (). The hyperlink dialog box appears.
  3. In the URL field, enter the path to the page that displays the content, user, or community group.
    —Image—

    Make sure you include the QueryString parameter used to identify the object. The parameter should point to an ID token. For example, a message notifies your colleagues whenever you add a new colleague. The message might be:

    @SubjectUser.UserName@ and @DirectObjectUser.UserName@ are now colleagues.

    When creating a link for @SubjectUser.UserName@, insert the path to the user’s profile page into the URL field. It might look like this:

    http://localhost/Intranet/UserProfile.aspx?id=@subjectUser.Id@

    Note, the QueryString parameter (?id=) points to a token that represents the logged-in user’s ID, @subjectUser.Id@. See Also: Working with Tokens

    For @DirectObjectUser.UserName@, enter the same path and change the dynamic parameter token to ?id=@DirectObjectUser.Id@.

    When hyperlinking content, use its QuickLink token in the path defined in the URL field. For example, a message that sends a Notification when a user adds content might look like:

    @SubjectUser.username@ added new content, @Content.Title@.
  4. Click OK.
Message Tokens: User and Content-Based

Message Tokens: User and Content-Based

Add Calendar Event and Update Calendar Event

  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
  • @WebEvent.EndTime@
  • @WebEvent.Id@
  • @WebEvent.Quicklink@
  • @WebEvent.StartTime@
  • @WebEvent.Title@

AddColleague

  • @DirectObjectUser.FirstName@
  • @DirectObjectUser.Id@
  • @DirectObjectUser.LastName@
  • @DirectObjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @DirectObjectUser.UserName@
  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl@,
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

AddContent

  • @Content.Icon@
  • @Content.Id@
  • @Content.Quicklink@
  • @Content.Title@
  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteURL@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

AddWorkspaceItem

  • @Content.Icon@
  • @Content.Id@
  • @Content.Quicklink@
  • @Content.Title@
  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteURL@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

BlogComment

  • @BlogComment.Id@
  • @BlogComment.Message@
  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

BlogPost

  • @Content.Icon@
  • @Content.Id@
  • @Content.Quicklink@
  • @Content.Title@
  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

CreateCommunityGroup

  • @CommunityGroup.Id@
  • @CommunityGroup.Name@
  • @CommunityGroup.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

ContentMessageBoardPost

  • @Content.Icon@
  • @Content.Id@
  • @Content.Quicklink@
  • @Content.Title@
  • @MessageBoard.Message
  • @MessageBoard.ObjectId@
  • @MessageBoard.ObjectType@
  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate
  • @System.SiteUrl@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

EditContent

  • @Content.Icon@
  • @Content.Id@
  • @Content.Quicklink@
  • @Content.Title@
  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

EditWorkspaceItem

  • @Content.Icon@
  • @Content.Id@
  • @Content.Title@
  • @Content.Quicklink@
  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

ForumReply

  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
  • @Topic.Id@, @Topic.Title@
  • @Topic.Quicklink@
  • @TopicReply.Id@

ForumPost

  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
  • @Topic.Id@, @Topic.Title@
  • @Topic.Quicklink@
  • @TopicReply.Id@

JoinCommunityGroup

  • @CommunityGroup.Id@
  • @CommunityGroup.Name@
  • @CommunityGroup.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

MicroMessage

  • @MicroMessage.Id@
  • @MicroMessage.Message@
  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

UserMessageboardPost

  • @DirectObjectUser.Id@
  • @DirectObjectUser.FirstName@
  • @DirectObjectUser.LastName@
  • @DirectObjectUser.UserName@
  • @MessageBoard.Message@
  • @MessageBoard.ObjectId@
  • @MessageBoard.ObjectType@
  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
Message Tokens: Community Group-Based

Message Tokens: Community Group-Based

Add Calendar Event and Update Calendar Event

  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl@,
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@
  • @WebEvent.EndTime@
  • @WebEvent.Id@
  • @WebEvent.Quicklink@
  • @WebEvent.StartTime@
  • @WebEvent.Title@

AddWorkspaceItem

  • @CommunityGroup.Id@
  • @CommunityGroup.Name@
  • @Content.Icon@
  • @Content.Title@
  • @Content.Id@
  • @Content.Quicklink@
  • @DirectObjectUser.FirstName@
  • @DirectObjectUser.Id@
  • @DirectObjectUser.LastName@
  • @DirectObjectUser.UserName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteURL@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

BlogComment

  • @BlogComment.Id@
  • @BlogComment.Message@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@

BlogPost

  • @Content.Id@
  • @Content.Quicklink@
  • @Content.Title@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@

CreateCommunityGroup

  • @CommunityGroup.Id@
  • @CommunityGroup.Name@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@

GroupMessageBoardPost

  • @CommunityGroup.Id@
  • @CommunityGroup.Name@
  • @CommunityGroup.TemplateAlias@
  • @MessageBoard.Message@
  • @MessageBoard.ObjectId@
  • @MessageBoard.ObjectType@
  • @SubjectUser.DisplayName@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.TemplateAlias@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@

JoinCommunityGroup

  • @CommunityGroup.Id@
  • @CommunityGroup.Name@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@

UserMessageboardPost

  • @DirectObjectUser.FirstName@
  • @DirectObjectUser.Id@
  • @DirectObjectUser.LastName@
  • @DirectObjectUser.UserName@
  • @MessageBoard.Message@
  • @MessageBoard.ObjectId@
  • @MessageBoard.ObjectType@
  • @SubjectUser.FirstName@
  • @SubjectUser.Id@
  • @SubjectUser.LastName@
  • @SubjectUser.UserName@
Message Tokens: Email Reply Message

Message Tokens: Email Reply Message

Email Message Reply

  • @System.GroupProfileTemplate@
  • @System.SiteUrl@
  • @System.UserProfileTemplate@