How Do I Create a Notification Step?

Overview

• How do I create a new workflow?

• What steps can be added to a Workflow?

• What is a Notification Step? How do I create one?

• What is Step Label?

• How do I choose who should be notified?

• How do I compose the Notification email?

• Other Available Settings

How do I create a new workflow?

In Kuali Build, creating a new Form in your App will automatically launch a new Workflow. 

What steps can be added to a Workflow?

• Approval - approval or rejection of a course, program, form, etc. Approvals typically pause all other steps in a workflow until a decision has beed made.
• Acknowledge - allows a user or role to acknowledge a form's submission. Unlike an approval, an acknowledgement does not pause the workflow until the submission has been reviewed. The workflow process will continue on with any subsequent steps.
• Notification - a configurable email sent to a selected user
• Branch - proposal routing based off conditions from the form
• Integration - allows you to select from a list of pre-configured integrations if any were created during implementation. 

What is a Notification Step? How Do I create one?

When a Notification Step is created, the selected user(s) will receive an email notifying them of the approval or rejection of the form. A Notification is simply used to inform.

In this step a standard Notification email can be composed, and it can even include variables from the form that was filled out.

Hint: If something is denied no notification will be sent back to the submitter. A notification step needs to be created to inform the user of the decision on the form.

• Click on the Notification step from the top left side of the Workflow screen.
• Drag and drop the step in the desired location. 
• Determine the settings for the step in the configuration panel that pops up on the right side of the screen.
• Your workflow step will save automatically by Kuali Build. No need to click a Save button.

Notification Step Settings

What is Step Label?

By default the Notification Step you just created is called "Notification." This typically isn't a problem with a basic workflow configuration, but for more complex workflows it can get pretty confusing to have multiple steps named "Notification." 

The Step Label allows you to customize the name of this particular step so it more accurately represents this part of the process. The Custom Workflow Step Label is "Student Notification" in this example.

 

How do I choose who should be notified?

Once you have created a Notification step, the Notification panel will open on the right-hand side of the screen. From there, you can choose from a list of individuals to be notified about the approval or rejection of the form. Each option is discussed below.

Person(s) in a role of a group, or the group's hierarchy, on the form 

This will allow you to choose a person(s) in a specific role from any group that was mentioned on your form.

Once this option is selected an additional field will load below that will ask you to specify the field on the form that lists the group.

You will then be prompted to select the role from that particular group that should be notified of the decision on the form. In this case, role could refer to 1 person (e.g. Department Chair), or it could refer to a previously created role (or small group) that includes multiple people (e.g. Curriculum Committee). 

Person(s) in a role of any specific group

This will allow you to choose a person(s) in a specific role from any of the groups that were pre-populated in Kuali Build during your implementation.

Once this option is selected an additional field will load below that will ask you to specify the role and the group.

In this case role could refer to 1 person (e.g. Department Chair), or it could refer to a previously created role (or small group) that includes multiple people (e.g. Curriculum Committee). 

A person specified on the form

This will allow you to choose a person listed in a field on the form. 

Once this option is selected an additional field will load below that will ask you to specify the field on the form where that person is listed. Additionally, you can select the submitter of the form by choosing "Submitter (meta.submittedBy)" from the drop down.

Please note, the Created By and Submitted By options are currently the same person.  The ability for another user to submit doesn't yet exist in the application (other than via API).  We recommend using the Created By option if you want to insert the user that created the form.

An email specified on the form 

This will allow you to choose an email field on the form and have a Notification email routed to that address.

Please note, the Created By and Submitted By options are currently the same person.  The ability for another user to submit doesn't yet exist in the application (other than via API).  We recommend using the Created By option if you want to insert the user that created the form.

Any specific person 

This will allow you to choose any person from any of the groups that were pre-populated in Kuali Build during your implementation.

Once this option is selected you will be asked to specify the user.

Any specific email

This will allow you to send a workflow notification to a specific email address without needing to reference it in the form.

Once this option is selected you will be asked to enter the specific email. 

How do I compose the Notification email?

• The Email Subject field allows you to customize the subject line of the notification email that will be sent to your users.
  • The Add Variable button allows you to populate and personalize the subject line with information from the form. In this example the subject line alerts the student submitter that their request to change to a new program has been approved. “New Program” in the subject line will be replaced with what the student selected in the New Program field during form submission.
    
• The Email Body field allows you to compose your standard Notification with basic formatting. 
  • The Add Variable button allows you to populate and personalize the email with information from the form. In the example below the "Student" and "New Program placeholders will be populated with the student's name and requested program. You can also add the submitter’s name as a variable by choosing "Submitter - Display Name" from the form field drop down.
• Note: The Rich Text and Signature gadgets are not supported variables in custom notifications. Kuali Build intentionally does this to prevent your custom notifications from looking like spam emails to your end users.

Other Available Settings

• Attach PDF of the Completed Document: Enabling this setting will allow you to include a PDF copy of the completed form in a Notification email. If you wish for the workflow status and associated comments to be included in the PDF sent via the Notification email, be sure to enable the setting Include workflow status in PDF. (Note: In order to include a copy of the PDF in a notification step, you must enable the Form Setting "Allow the exporting of documents in this app." See What Form Settings are Available? for more information.).