Send Notification Messages

Channels define a mechanism to communicate notification triggers to external systems. The Email agent is used for sending messages when the Email delivery channel is selected.

However, if you want to send messages to an external system (for example, client system), then you must define the details of the client system (such as Host, Port number, URL, Connection method, and so on) using the Delivery Channels page. For example, let us create a delivery channel, external sys 1 as follows:

1. Click Channels.
   The Delivery Channels page displays.
2. Click the Plus icon on the left pane.
3. Enter external sys 1 in the Name field.
4. Select the required option from the Status drop-down list.
   Note: If notification scenarios contain at least one message step that uses an internal delivery channel (e-mail or voice) then that channel is accessible in the list of channels. A user with appropriate permissions can select Active or Inactive to resume or stop the message delivery for any external or internal channel. For example, you can block a channel using the Inactive option in Test instances to disallow test messages to reach real customers. Messages that are not delivered due to inactivated delivery channel get the status 'obsolete' with the description, EXTERNAL_NOTIFICATION_ARE_DISABLED. Note that the 'set property' messages don't have a delivery channel and cannot be handled this way.
5. Enter agent.com in the Host field and 8080 in the Port number field.
   Note: Enter one of these values (20, 21, 22, 25, 80, 290, 389, 443, 587, 873, 2401, 3668, 4011, 4142, 5308, 5666, 5900, 5901, 6666, 6460, 7800, 8080 8443, 14861 and 20106) in the Port field.
6. Enter the URL Path of the server (optional).
7. Enter the name and password of the user for authorization purpose.
8. Select the Allow basic access authentication check box if you want to implement HTTP basic authentication while integrating with external systems.
   When you select the check box, the outbound methods (such as send_message, drop_message, get_message_status methods) send the standard HTTP header "Authorization" with base64-encoded user credentials (standard basic access authentication). Also, the <user> SOAP structure is sent in the body of the request. The client application can either use the standard HTTP header "Authorization" or the <user> SOAP structure to send user credentials in the request.

   Note: When the check box is not selected, the standard HTTP header is not used in the request and the client application can use the <user> SOAP structure for authentication. For more information, see the Integrating with Outbound API Guide.
9. Select a connection from the Connection drop-down list to denote the encryption protocol type.
   Note: By default, Not Encrypted option is selected. If you select default encryption or any other encryption type, then complete the necessary fields in the Advanced Settings section.
10. Click Add.
    The channel displays in the Delivery Channel drop-down list in the Add scenario step and Modify scenario step dialog boxes. The delivery channel, external sys 1 also displays on the left pane on the Delivery Channels page. The channel details are displayed in:

    • Green if there are no warnings and the channel is active

    • Gray if there are no warnings and channel is inactive

    • Red if there are warnings, or count of message scenarios is greater than 0 and the channel is inactive

    Active and Inactive are also displayed on active and inactive channels respectively.