HTML-Formatted E-mail
If the performer of a notification has a notification preference of HTML mail (MAILHTML), the notification is flagged as such in the Workflow Notification table. When the Notification Mailer polls the Notification table and identifies that flag, it generates an HTML-formatted e-mail notification from the information in the table and sends it to the performer role. The performer role should use an e-mail reader that can interpret and display HTML content within a message body.
Note: If your e-mail reader cannot interpret HTML formatting in a message body, you should set your notification preference to plain text mail with HTML Attachments (MAILATTH).
The Notification Mailer uses the HTML Body defined for the message in the Message Body property page to generate the HTML e-mail. If no HTML Body is defined, it uses the Text Body to generate the HTML mail. The Notification Mailer token replaces all message attributes referenced in the message body with HTML-formatted values. For example:
- PL/SQL document attributes are token replaced with HTML text or plain text between <pre>...</pre> HTML tags.
- Document Management document attributes are token replaced with HTML anchor. When you select such an anchor, your e-mail reader takes you to the target document management integration screen to display the referenced document. See: To Access a DM Document Sent by a Notification
- URL attributes are token replaced with HTML anchors. When you select such an anchor, your e-mail reader takes you to the target URL page.
Note: Message attributes that have Attach Content checked in their Attributes property page, are appended as HTML-formatted attachments to their parent message. For example:
- If the message attribute is a URL attribute or a PL/SQL document attribute, the full URL content or fully generated PL/SQL document is fetched and attached to the message. The Notification Mailer does not have any special handling of image, video, or audio URL content.
- If the message attribute is a Document Management document attribute, a URL anchor to the document management integration screen is attached. You need to select the anchor to display the login page of the document management integration screen. Once you log in, the screen displays the referenced document.
An HTML-formatted notification always includes at least one attachment. The attachment is called Notification Detail Link. When you select this attachment, your e-mail reader opens a browser window that displays your notification in the Notification Details web page. You can respond directly to your notification from this web page, bypassing the need to process your response through the Notification Mailer.
Note: The file name of the Notification Detail Link attachment is determined by the text value for the WF_URL_NOTIFICATION resource token, or by the token name if no text value is defined. The default file name is "Notification Detail Link.html". If you want to specify a different file name for this attachment, you must first create a .msg source file specifying the new file name as the text value for the WF_URL_NOTIFICATION resource token. Then use the Workflow Resource Generator program to generate a new Oracle Workflow resource file (wf<language>.res) from the source file and to upload the new seed data from the source file to the database table WF_RESOURCES. See: To Run the Workflow Resource Generator and Setting the WF_RESOURCES Environment Variable.
Alternatively, you can respond to your HTML-formatted notification by clicking on a link that represents the response in the HTML message body. The response link generates a plain text e-mail response that includes a response template modified with the predefined response value that you select. See: To Respond to an HTML E-mail Notification.
