Introduction

This article provides information about the transition to the new notification service, including:

• Answers to frequently asked questions
• Notable differences compared to legacy notifications
• Considerations pertaining to porting of pre-existing notifications

For the main documentation of the new notification service see the knowledge base articles: 

Configuring notifications
Shortcodes in notifications
Notification events and conditions

For information about the rollout schedule see the community post: New Notification Service Rollout: Gradual Release Plan | Community. 

Porting of existing notifications

With the migration to the new notification engine, existing notifications will be carried over automatically, so that in most cases you do not need to take any manual actions. But consult the rest of this article for some points that you might want to check.

Shortcode syntax

Previously, the shortcodes that you inserted into the message body were delimited by square brackets, for example [course_link]. 

In the new notifications, all shortcodes are instead delimited by double curly braces, for example: {{course_link}}.

When your platform is migrated to the new notification service, the shortcodes in your existing notifications will be automatically converted to the new syntax. So you do not need to manually adjust anything.

Base URL for links in notifications

With the transition to the new notification service, the system automatically inserts into notification links the correct base URL for each recipient. This means that:

• Each person receiving a message containing a shortcode such as {{course_link}} will get a link that targets their specific extended enterprise client. 
• There is no need to configure separate versions of a notification for each extended enterprise client. 
• The base URL of a notification is no longer affected by its type of scheduling, or by who edits or saves the notification.

For more information see the article Shortcodes in notifications >  Shortcode links and extended enterprise domains. 

Calendar attachment shortcode

With the migration to the new notification engine,  the [calendar_attachment] shortcode is replaced by a selector in the user interface that allows you to add an attachment. As a result you will need to manually adjust the body of the notifications that use this shortcode.

Porting of notification schedules

In the new notification service, the Scheduler supports time frames within the following allowed ranges: 

Hours:  1→72 
Days:   1→365
Weeks:  1→52 
Months: 1→24 

Legacy scheduled notifications with time frames outside these ranges will be ported applying the following conversion rule:

Convert the value to the next unit of measurement until a permitted value is reached. For example:

73 hours → 4 days
371 days → 53 weeks → 13 months

The Time is always set to 00:00 (corresponding to 12am) according to the defined timezone.

Any notifications with a time frame that exceeds 24 months (for example 200 weeks) will not be migrated. 

Accordingly, after migration of your pre-existing notifications you may want to adjust the time frame obtained as a result of the conversion and set a different time of day when the notification is sent out.