Disclaimer: Some content in this article outlines how to use functionalities that will be publicly released to all clients at the beginning of December 2024. If you see differences between this article and your platform, check back at that time. Learn more about the release cycle.
Introduction
The Notifications feature lets you configure automated messages that will be sent out when a specified event occurs in the platform. This article covers in detail how to configure and manage notifications on your platform.
Overview of notifications:
When you configure a notification, you have to set up:
- Event type: The type of platform event that triggers sending of the message. For example, User enrolled in a course.
- Recipients: The intended recipients of the message. These are defined in terms of their relationship to the event. For example, you might want to send a User enrolled in a course notification to the learner who has been enrolled, or to the Instructor of the affected course.
- Delivery channel: The method by which the message will be sent. For example, email, or in-platform notification.
- Message: The actual text of the message to be sent. You will generally want to tailor this to the chosen event type, as well as to the intended recipients.
- Timing: Depending on the type of event, you may have some options for scheduling when the message goes out. For example, immediately at the time of the event, or a certain number of days after the event.
- Trigger filters: You can optionally apply filters to narrow down the cases when the notification is sent. For example, you might want to create a User enrolled in a course notification that goes out only for a subset of courses, or only when a particular subset of users enroll in a course.
The article Notification events and conditions provides a full list of the platform events for which you can configure a notification. For each event type, it also shows you the recipient groups to whom you can direct the notification, and the possible scheduling options.
Prerequisites
Notifications app
The Notifications app must be activated on your platform, as described in the the Managing apps & features article. The app is listed in the Docebo additional features tab.
Permissions
Power Users must be assigned the relevant notification permissions to be able to view and manage notifications. And they will only have visibility on the notifications pertaining to their assigned resources (groups, branches, courses and learning plans).
View the notification list
Select Admin menu > Notifications > Manage to access the Notification management page. Here, the Notifications tab shows the list of already-configured notifications.
For each notification, you can see its Event type and icons representing the configured delivery channels, as well as its Status. Only Active notifications can be sent out. Some notifications have a Play (triangle) icon that can be used to manually trigger its sending. You can apply filters or use the search field to help you find a particular notification.
To see more details about a notification’s configuration, you need to either click its name or select ellipsis menu > Edit.
Tip: In this list, Power Users will only be able to see the notifications pertaining to their assigned resources. This means that any groups, branches or courses/learning plans set as trigger filters for a notification must also be assigned to the Power User as resource. Otherwise the notification will not be visible.
The Logs tab lets you check on which notifications have been recently sent out, either automatically or manually. Refer to the chapter, Check the notification logs.
Create a new notification
To create a new notification:
- Select Admin menu > Notifications > Manage and click the + icon in the top right corner.
- In the Create notification panel that opens, define the platform Event for which you want to configure this notification: first select the Event category (eg, Courses), and then select the specific Event type within that category (eg, ILT event starting).
- Give the notification a descriptive Name, that will help you easily identify it in the list and logs.
→ By default, this field is prefilled with the Event type, but remember that you may have multiple notifications for the same Event type (for example, targeting different recipients, or different subsets of courses). So it is useful to provide a distinctive name. - When you are ready, click Create and edit to continue the configuration.
Note that when you do this the selected event becomes read-only. You cannot later edit a notification to change its event, however all other aspects of its configuration can be subsequently changed. - Continue as described in the chapter Configure a notification.
Tip: You can also create a new notification starting from an existing one. To do this, from the main notification list, open the ellipsis menu alongside a notification and select Duplicate.
- The event type is copied from the original notification, and read-only.
- You can then set a Name and select what other parts of its configuration to copy: Timing, Trigger filters, Recipients, Delivery channels.
This is a convenient option, for example, if you want to make multiple copies of the same notification to send to different recipient groups.
Configure a notification
To begin configuring a new notification first complete the steps in the chapter Create a new notification.
To access the configuration page for an existing notification, select Admin menu > Notifications > Manage and click the notification’s Name.
On the configuration page for the notification, you will see three tabs: Properties, Recipients, and Trigger filters. Here you can configure all the settings of the notification, apart from its event which is read-only.
Proceed as follows:
- Recipients tab: Set to whom the notification is addressed. See the chapter Set the recipients of the notification.
- Properties tab > Composition: Here you can set one or more delivery channels and compose the text of the message that will be sent. See the chapter Compose the message
- Properties tab > Details and timing: Here if desired you can edit the Name of the notification. Remember that the notification event is read-only. Then in the Scheduler area configure the timing of when the notification is sent. See the chapter Schedule a notification.
- Triggers and filters tab: Here you can set which resources (user groups/branches, courses and learning plans) will trigger the notification. See the chapter Set trigger filters for a notification.
At any point you can always click Save changes to save your partial configuration.
Set the recipients of a notification
On the configuration page for a notification, select Recipients tab.
Here you can select what users "roles" will receive the notification, based on their relationship to the notification event. The options can include: Users, Power Users, Managers, Instructors, Superadmins.
For example, you can configure a Certification has expired notification addressed directly to the affected users, or addressed to the Managers of those users.
- The roles available for selection depend on the event type. The article Notification events and conditions details which recipients are allowed for each notification event. Some notification events may not require setting a recipient role.
- Note that you cannot select multiple recipient roles. To do this you will need to configure two separate notifications, with the same event type but with different recipients.
→ When doing so, remember that some recipient roles may overlap. For example, the same person might be both a Power User and Manager, and so would receive notifications addressed to both roles.
Selected target | Description |
Users | The users affected by the event receive the notification.
|
Power Users |
The Power Users whose assigned resources are affected by the event receive the notification.
Note: The Power User recipient role can be set only by a Superadmin. When Power Users configure notifications they cannot set this recipient role, and if it is already set they cannot change it. |
Managers | Managers whose team members are affected by the event receive the notification |
Instructors |
The instructors of courses affected by the event receive the notification. Note: This applies to users who are enrolled in an e-learning course with the Instructor enrollment level. → In the case of ILT courses, instructors are assigned to the course or session but not enrolled in it. Therefore, if you have a notification such as "ILT session starting" with Instructors as recipients, it will NOT be sent to the instructors unless they are also enrolled in the course/session as learners. |
Superadmins | All the Superadmins defined in the platform receive the notification |
Superadmin plus one other role | This option is available only for the notification Subscription plan has been purchased. It lets you set as recipients both the Superadmins plus any one of the other roles. |
Compose the notification message
On the configuration page for a notification, select Properties tab > Composition.
Under Composition you will see one or more headings, corresponding to the delivery channels enabled on your platform. These may include: Email, Platform notification, Slack, mobile push notification.
You must set up at least one delivery channel to be able to activate the notification.
Email notification
For an email notification, select Properties tab > Composition > Email. Then in the panel on the right select the check box Enable email as delivery channel.
In the Sender area, you will need to provide a sender name and email address.
Please note: The email address you enter for the sender, eg noreply@mydomain.com
must have been previously configured in Domain management. See the article configuring email sender domains.
Then continue as instructed in enter the message text
In-platform notification
Platform notifications are delivered to users within the Notifications area of the platform (bell icon on the header bar).
To configure this delivery channel, select Properties tab > Composition > Platform notification, and in the panel on the right, select the check box Enable platform notification as delivery channel.
Then continue as instructed in enter the message text
Slack notification
This option is available only when you have integrated your platform with Slack.
For a Slack notification, select Properties tab > Composition > Slack, and in the panel on the right select the check box Enable Slack as delivery channel.
Under Destination, you can choose whether to send the notification as a direct message to an individual, or to a Slack channel.
- If the notification is sent as a direct message, the user will receive the message from Slackbot (link opens in a new tab).
- If the notification is sent to a Slack channel, choose the channel from the dropdown menu that appears below the flagged option. You can only send notifications to public Slack channels (link opens in a new tab)
Then continue as instructed in enter the message text
Enter the message text
In the panel corresponding to the enabled delivery method (Email, Platform notification, or Slack) you will find a Message area in which you can compose the content of your notification, in one or more languages.
Default language
First of all, enter the Subject and Body of your message in the default language of the platform.
→ For some notification events, you may find these fields prefilled with a template text that you can customize.
Formatting
The text in the message Body can also be formatted:
- Using the toolbar buttons for in-platform and email notifications. In addition to the standard text formatting options you can insert links, images and tables. You can also enter the source-code mode to edit the html of the message directly.
- For slack notifications there is no toolbar, but you can use markdown (opens in a new tab) to format the text.
Shortcodes
You can incorporate into your message the shortcodes listed at the bottom of the page.
- These are tags such as
{{course_name}}
or{{first_name}}
that will be replaced with the relevant data–from the notification event and recipient–when the notification is sent out. - The available shortcodes depend on the chosen notification event, and you can only use the ones that are listed.
- Click on a shortcode chip to insert it into the current cursor position in the message subject or body.
For more information see the article Shortcodes in notifications.
Other languages
If you want to enter translations of the notification message in other languages, enable the Translate fields option. Then, from the Languages drop-down list select the desired language and compose and format the message Subject and Body text in that language.
→ Repeat these steps until you have composed the notification message for all the required languages.
Notifications composed in multiple languages will be delivered to recipients based on their individual language preferences.
Attachments
In Attachments area at the bottom, you can include a calendar attachment in the notification. This option is available only for certain event types (those relating to ILT sessions and courses) and only for the email or Slack delivery channels.
Mobile push notification
Mobile push notifications are delivered to users of the Go.learn mobile app or of the branded mobile app, provided they have enabled this on their device.
Please note that the mobile push delivery channel is available only for a subset of event types. You will see the Mobile push notification option only for the following, supported event types:
Course: User approval, User approved into ILT session, User enrolled in ILT session, User enrolled in a course, ILT session starting, Learner completed a course, ILT event starting, ILT session changed, ILT session deleted, Learner has yet to complete a course, Assignment has been evaluated, Instructor evaluated test question, New ILT session created, User was declined from an ILT session
Learning plans: User has been enrolled in a learning plan, Learner has completed a learning plan, Learning plan enrollment expiring, New content in learning plan, User was unenrolled from a learning plan
Users: User email address must be verified, User has been created (by administrator), User has been created (confirmed registration)
Certification: Certification has been issued, Certification has expired
To configure the mobile push delivery channel, select Properties tab > Composition > Mobile push notification, and in the panel on the right select the check box Enable mobile push notification as delivery channel.
Now you can enter a Title (maximum 50 characters) and a plain text Message (maximum 150 characters).
- You can include shortcodes only in the message text. Please consider that the text must remain within 150 characters even after the shortcodes are replaced by their values. Otherwise any excess text will be trimmed in the notification that users receive.
The App URL section at the bottom shows the mobile app link that the notification will open. This field is read-only and is automatically filled based on the event type.
As for the other notification channels, you can enable the Translated fields option to enter the mobile push notification message in other languages.
Schedule a notification
On the configuration page for a notification, select Properties tab > Details and timing. In the Scheduler area you will see the available timing options for your chosen notification event.
- The timing options for each event type are listed in the article Notification events and conditions.
Depending on the event type, there may be only one fixed scheduling option, or you may be offered a choice between two or more of the following: At the time of the event, Before the event, After the event, Manually, and Every.
For many of the scheduling options you can set the exact Time of day when you want the notification to be sent, and also specify the relevant Time zone.
Tip: The time must be entered in hh:mm am/pm format. For example 08:15 am
.
At the time of the event
The notification will be sent to recipients as soon as the triggering action has been completed in the platform. For example, in the case of the User bought a course event, with this setting the notification will be sent out as soon as the user completes the purchase.
Please note: In some cases, the "at the time" notification may be delayed somewhat with respect to the event. For example, the system monitors checklists for updates every three hours, so that a checklist notification could be delayed up to three hours from the actual event.
Before the event
This option is available for events due to occur at a known time. The notification will be sent to recipients a certain amount of time before the event, e.g. before a webinar or ILT session begins.
- You can set how many hours, days, weeks or months in advance the notification will be sent.
- If you set days, weeks or months you can also schedule the time of day when you want the notification to be sent, and specify the relevant time zone.
Hours before the event:
The scheduler will send the notification the specified number of hours before the event, also taking minutes into account. For example, suppose an ILT session is due to begin at 10:25am:
- If you set the notification for two hours before the event it will be sent at 8.25am.
Tip: The scheduler checks for events at the start of every hour, and so will not work as expected if you:
- Create the notification within the hour when it should be sent. For the above example, if you create the notification at 8:05am it will not be sent (at 8am, the system has already checked for events in the time span between 10-11am)
- Change the event time during the hour when the original notification was due to go out. For the above example, you would need to change the ILT session time before 8am.
Days before the event
For days before the event, each day at the scheduled time the system will look for events occurring within a 24-hour time span that is the specified number of days away.
- For example, if you set 2 days before the event the time span is between 48 and 72 hours in the future.
- The lower limit is inclusive and the upper limit is exclusive. So in this example:
48hrs =< time to the event < 72hrs
- The hours to the event are counted from the time you set for sending the notification.
Tip: The “days before the event” that you set may not correspond to calendar days.
Suppose an ILT session is starting on Wednesday at 7am, and you configured a notification for 1 day before the event, to be sent at 8am. One day before the event means between 24 and 48 hours away: 24hrs =< time to the event < 48hrs
→ On Monday at 8am the event is 47 hours away, so the notification will be sent. Even though Monday is two calendar days before the event.
→ If the notification time was instead set for 7am, then the notification would go out on Tuesday (one calendar day before the event.
Generally speaking, the “days before the event” to correspond to calendar days, if the notification time is earlier than (or equal to) the event time. Otherwise, the notification will be sent one “extra” calendar day in advance.
Weeks before the event
For weeks before the event, the logic is the same as for days before, with number of days = number of weeks * 7.
For example, for one week before the event, every day at the scheduled time the system will look for events in the 24-hour time span between 7 days (168 hrs) and 8 days (182 hrs) in the future.
Tip: The notification will not necessarily be sent on the same day of the week as the event. For example if the event is on Wednesday at 10am and you set a notification for 1 week before at 9am, then the notification will be sent on the preceding Wednesday. But if you set the notification for 11am, it will be sent one day sooner, on the Tuesday.
Months before the event
For months before the event, every day at the scheduled time the system will look for events in a 24-hour time span that is the specified number of months in the future.
Example: There is a notification scheduled for one month before the event, at 9am. Every day at the scheduled time the system looks at the current date (eg March 2nd, 9am) and increments the month by one (eg April 2nd, 9am): Then it looks for events in the 24-hour time span between April 2nd, 9am and April 3rd, 8:59:59am.
Please note: On March 31st, to increment the month by one the system will take April 30th (ie the last day of that month), and so will look for events in the same time span that it considered on March 30th. So in case of events occurring in the final days of the month, the notification may be sent out on two consecutive days.
After the event
The notification will be sent to recipients a certain amount of time after the event or action is completed, e.g. after a learner has completed a course.
You can set how many hours, days, weeks or months after the event the notification will be sent. If you set days, weeks or months you can also set the time of day (and time zone) when you want it to be sent.
Hours after the event
If you use the hours option the notification will be delayed for the exact number of hours that you specify from the event, taking also minutes into account.
Days after the event
Note that, for days after the event, the delay is computed as follows:
- Move forward the specified number of days (24-hour periods) from the date and time of the event.
- Then send the notification out at the first next occurrence of the scheduled time you set in the time field.
Tip: If the notification time is earlier than the event time, the notification will go out one day later than you expect. For example, suppose an event occurs on Monday at 3pm and you configure a notification for 4 days after the event at 10am:
- 4 days after the event is Friday at 3pm
- but the next occurrence of the scheduled time is Saturday at 10am, and this is when the notification is sent.
→ An exception to the logic described in this section is the Learner has yet to complete a course notification, which computes the delay based on “human days”. So from the date of the event it moves forward the specified number of days, and on that day sends out the notification at the scheduled time.
Weeks after the event
The option weeks after the event follows a similar logic to days after the event. From the date and time of the event, the scheduler moves forward by a delay = (number of weeks) * (7days/week) * (24 hrs/day). And then sends the notification at the first next occurrence of the scheduled time.
Tip: The notification will not necessarily be sent on the same day of the week as the event. For example if the event is on Monday at 11am and you set a notification for 1 week after at 9am, then the notification will be sent on the Tuesday of the following week. This extra day occurs if the notification time is earlier than the time of the event.
Months after the event
In the case of months after the event, the scheduler moves forward the specified number of months and then sends the notification at the first next occurrence of the scheduled time.
For example:
- For an event on 3 June at 8am, four months after the event is 3 October at 8am.
- However, for an event on 31 March, one month after the event is 30 April (if the month is shorter, the scheduler anyway takes the last day)
As mentioned for days and weeks after the event, the notification will go out an “extra” day later if the notification time is earlier than the event time.
Manually
Some notifications can be set to be sent Manually. This means they are never sent automatically by the scheduler. They can instead be manually triggered by clicking the “play” icon in the notification list.
Every
This is an option available for digest notifications, and allows the notification to be sent on a repetitive basis: hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly.
For more information see the chapter on Digest notifications.
Notes about scheduling notifications
- It is not possible to resend scheduled notifications.
- Scheduled notifications are sent periodically and are not triggered at the time of the event. These notifications leverage a job that is executed on a scheduled basis (the frequency is dependent on the notification’s configuration).
Set trigger filters for a notification
Trigger filters allow you to specify for which users and for which content the notification should go out.
→ For example, you might want to send a Learner has completed a course notification only when learners of a specific branch complete a course. Or you might want to send it only for certain courses.
Check the trigger filters
On the configuration page for a notification, select the Trigger filters tab. Here you can check any already-configured trigger filters, using the vertical navigation under Trigger type.
Users:
This part shows the user groups and/or user branches that can trigger this notification. If multiple groups or branches are set the logic between them is OR, meaning it is enough for a user to belong to at least one of them.
→ When no groups or branches are set: For a notification configured by a Superadmin, it means that all users can trigger the notification. But for a notification configured by Power User, it means that no users can trigger the notification.
Courses and learning plans:
This part shows the content that can trigger this notification.
→ When no courses or learning plans are set: For a notification configured by a Superadmin, it means that all content can trigger the notification. But for a notification configured by Power User, it means that no content can trigger the notification.
Add a trigger filter
To add a trigger filter click the + icon in the top right corner. In the Add trigger filters panel select the type of trigger filter to apply (Groups, Branches, or Courses and learning plans) and click Next. Then make the selection according to the resource type you have selected.
- Groups: Select the check box alongside the user groups that should trigger the notification.
- Branches: Select the check box alongside each of the user branches that should trigger the notification. Click the check box again to include/exclude descendants.
- Courses and learning plans: Select the check box alongside each course or learning plan that should trigger the notification.
If you are a Power User you will only be able to see here the groups, branches, or courses and learning plans that are assigned to you as resource.
Trigger filters and visibility
When a Superadmin creates a notification:
- It applies by default to all users and to all courses and learning plans.
- This means that, if no trigger filters are applied, the notification will go out for all occurrences of the chosen event.
- Trigger filters can be applied to restrict the notification to a particular set of users, or to a subset of the learning content, or both.
- The notification can be activated even if no trigger filters are applied
When a Power User creates a notification:
- It applies by default to no users and to no courses or learning plans. This means that, in this initial state, the notification would not go out for any occurrence of the chosen event.
- Trigger filters can be applied to specify for which users and for which courses and learning plans the notification should be sent.
- At least one trigger filter must be applied to be able to activate the notification in this case.
A Power User will have visibility of a notification only if they are assigned all the resources set as trigger filters for it. For details about this see the article on Power User permissions for notifications. A Power User will lose visibility of a notification, even one they created themselves, if someone else edits it to add trigger filters not assigned to the Power User.
Activate a notification
On the Notification list page, the Status column shows whether each notification is activated or deactivated.
To activate (or deactivate) a notification, click the <notification name> to open its configuration page, then use the button in the bottom right hand side to switch the status between Active and Inactive.
Note: To be able to activate a notification, it must have at least one delivery channel set.
In addition, Power Users must set at least one trigger filter to be able to activate a notification, because no trigger filters means “no users and no content”. However Superadmins can activate a notification even with no trigger filters applied, because in their case this means “all users and all content”.
Editing notifications
- It is strongly recommended to deactivate a notification before you edit its configuration.
- Every notification’s modification will trigger a scheduled job deletion and recreation.
Digest notifications
Digest notifications group multiple notifications about the same type of event into one larger notification. For example, instead of receiving seven separate notifications about courses that are not yet completed, the user will receive one notification with a list of the courses that they have yet to complete.
The available digest notifications are listed in the Notification events and conditions article.
Digest notifications are configured similarly to other notifications. When you compose the message body, the shortcode for items being listed in the digest must be placed between {{#items}} and {{/items}} tags. For example, for the Digest: User enrolled in a course:
Hello {{first_name}}, You have been enrolled in the following courses: {{#items}} {{course_name}} on {{subscribed_at}}. This course expires on {{expire_at}} and can be accessed here: {{course_link}} {{/items}} Enjoy! |
Please note: The courses in the digest will be listed in order of course creation.
Manually and Every options
When you schedule the notification sending, depending on the type of digest, the available options may be Every and/or Manually.
With the Manually option, the digest notification can be sent out manually, and will not be scheduled automatically.
In the case of Every you can set an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly frequency for when the digest is sent out. The digest will contain items pertaining to that time frame. For example, Digest: User enrolled in a course set with a weekly frequency will contain enrollments of the past week, set with a monthly frequency will contain enrollments of the past month, etc.
- Every hour: The digest will be sent once an hour.
- Every day: The digest will be sent once a day. You can specify the time of day and time zone.
- Every week: The digest will be sent once a week. You can set the day of the week (eg, Wednesday) and the time of day and time zone.
- Every month: The digest will be sent once a month. You can set the day of the month (eg, the 10th), and the time of day and time zone
Note that if you set the 31st, on months with fewer days the notification will still be sent on the last day of the month.
Extra settings tab
Only for the Digest: Course has expired notification, there is an Extra settings tab where you can specify what courses to include in the digest notification. Please note that the frequency for sending the digest is still that set in the Properties tab, with the Every option.
You can choose to include:
- Courses expiring between this notification and the next scheduled one: For example, if the digest is sent every week, it will list all the courses expiring in the week between the current digest and the next.
- Courses expiring within a time frame after the notification is sent: The digest will list the courses expiring within the specified number of days. (eg with 3 the digest will list all the courses expiring in 1, 2 or 3 days)
- Courses expiring an exact number of days after the notification is sent:The digest will list the courses whose expiration is an exact number of days aways (eg with 3 the digest will list all courses that expire in exactly 3 days).
Check the notification logs
From the main notification management page, the Logs tab lets you check all the notifications that have been sent out. By default when you open this tab it shows you the current page. But you can set a filter to view a different date range:
- The date range you set cannot exceed 14 days, and it cannot be more than 3 months in the past.
Tips for notifications
- 4-byte Unicode characters: 4-byte Unicode characters are not supported by the platform when creating or editing a notification.
- Long notifications: Notifications have a character limit of 65535 characters. Any notification that is generated that exceeds this limitation will not be displayed correctly. Please note that this character limit is a limit of the number of characters received by the notification system. As such, content which is not displayed, such as HTML code and converted shortcodes, are also counted towards this limitation.
- Resend the welcome notification: If you want to resend the welcome notification, first of all check that you have an active notification configured for the event "User has been created (by administrator)". Then select Admin menu > E-learning > Users. On the Users main page, select all the relevant users, click the Choose action button at the bottom of the page and select Send activation notification.
- Enrolling users into unpublished courses: When enrolling users into courses that are not yet published, decide on whether to send notifications for those enrollments ahead of time and be sure to turn off any notifications for enrollment prior to enrolling users. Once done with enrollment, you can re-activate the notifications. This can occur when you need to enroll users into unpublished courses to keep an enrollment history.
- ICS files: ICS files, opened with Outlook, will open in a new calendar and not in the default calendar.