Next Topic

Previous Topic

Book Contents

Message Templates

Service Desk > Configure > Message Templates

The Message Templates page defines reusable, standard messages you can send as emails or display as messages in the Inbox of other users. These message templates can be selected when you specify a Send Email step or Send Message step within any service desk procedure.

Note: Service Desk installs pre-defined message templates. These pre-defined message templates are used by one or more pre-configured service desks and procedures installed using the Setup page. You can change their contents and your changes will be preserved. But if you rename or delete these pre-defined message templates they will be re-created during the next maintenance cycle of the VSA.

Procedure Variables

Message templates can resolve procedure variables in the subject or body of a message, if the procedure variable is bracketed using [= and =] notation. The variable must be previously defined as a global variable using Service Desk > Procedure Variables or be defined within a Get a Variable step prior to the Send Email or Send Message step.

Note: See Working with Variables for an overview of variables in service desk procedures.

Object Variables

Message templates can resolve object variables in the subject or body of a message, if the object variable is bracketed using [$ and $] notation. They can also be included in Add Notes steps in service desk procedures or in Note Templates. Object variables include:

  • [$AllNotes$] - Displays the entire history of all hidden and non-hidden notes.
  • [$AllPublicNotes$] - Displays the entire history of non-hidden notes.
  • [$ArchiveFlag$]
  • [$Assignee$]
  • [$AssigneeEmailAddress$]
  • [$Category$]
  • [$Changes$] - Displays a summary of changes as plain text, including any newly added note.
  • [$ChangesAsHtml$] - Displays a summary of changes in HTML, including any newly added note.
  • [$ClosedDateTime$]
  • [$CreateDateTime$]
  • [$Description$]
  • [$EditingUserName$] - The user who just edited the ticket.
  • [$EscalationDateTime$]
  • [$EscalationLevel$]
  • [$FullMachineName$] - The fully qualified machine name and group. Equivalent to using [$Machine$].[$MachineGroup$]. Typically used with the Schedule Procedure step in a procedure to run an agent procedure.
  • [$GoalDateTime$]
  • [$LastEditDateTime$]
  • [$Machine$]
  • [$MachineGroup$]
  • [$Manager$] - The supervisor of a staff member associated with a ticket.

    Note: This is not the same as the manager of the department the staff member belongs to.

  • [$Organization$]
  • [$Owner$]
  • [$OwnerEmailAddress$]
  • [$PolicyName$]
  • [$Pool$]
  • [$PreviousStage$]
  • [$Priority$]
  • [$ReadFlag$] - If true, no user has viewed the ticket yet. If false, at least one user has viewed the ticket.
  • [$RelatedTicketsAsBulletList$] - Returns a bulleted list of related tickets.
  • [$RelatedTicketsAsString$] - Returns a comma separated list of ticket IDs with their summary descriptions.
  • [$Resolution$] - Displays the value of the Resolution field in the Fields tab of the ticket.
  • [$ResolutionDateTime$]
  • [$ResolutionText$] - The descriptive text entered with a resolution code.
  • [$ServiceDesk$]
  • [$Severity$]
  • [$SourceType$]- The alarm source type. Applies to tickets generated from an alarm.
    • 0 - Counter
    • 1 - Service
    • 2 - Process
    • 3 - SNMP
    • 4 - Alert
    • 5 - System Check
    • 6 - KES
    • 7 - Log Parser
  • [$Stage$]
  • [$StageStartDateTime$]
  • [$Status$]
  • [$Staff$] - Displays the contact's name.
  • [$StaffEmail$] - Displays the contact’s email value.
  • [$SubmitterEmailAddress$]
  • [$SubmitterName$]
  • [$SubmitterType$]
  • [$Summary$]
  • [$TicketId$]
  • [$TicketURL$] - Provides a link to the ticket in an email or message.

General

Click New to display the Add Message Template window, or click a row in the middle panel, then click Edit to display the Change Message Template window. Enter the following attributes:

  • ID - The name of the message template.
  • Description - A brief description of this ID.

Note: Any value you enter in the following four fields can be overridden by a value in the corresponding fields of a Send Message or Send Email step in a procedure.

  • Subject - The subject of the message template.
  • To - The recipients of the message template. Multiple recipients are delimited by commas or semicolons.

    Note: Any user name included in the To field of a message template is automatically converted into that user's corresponding email address. For example, if the user jsmith has a corresponding email address of jsmith@acme.com, then the same message template—with jsmith in the To field—can be used by a Send Message step to send a message to jsmith and also used by a Send Email step to send an email to jsmith@acme.com. Email addresses for each user are maintained using System > Users.

  • From - The sender of the message template. The From address of an outbound email is specified using the following order of precedence:
    1. If there is a From address in the Send Email step of a procedure, then that address is used.
    2. Else the Send Email step uses the From address provided by a linked Service Desk > Message Template, if the link exists and a From address is specified.
    3. Else the Send Email step uses the Reply Email Address of the Service Desk > Incoming Email Settings > email reader linked to the service desk. This link between the email reader and the service desk is set using the Service Desk > Definitions > Properties > General > Standard Field Defaults > Email field.
    4. Else the Default Sender Email address set in System > Outbound Email is used.
  • Body - Enter the body text of the message template. Use the following toolbar buttons to add special formatting to the text:

    Word 75% / HTML 100%

    • Word 60% / HTML 100% - Hyperlink selected text. You may need to reset links copied and pasted from another source.
    • Word 75% / HTML 100% - Copy selected text from Microsoft Word and paste into text pane.
    • Word 75% / HTML 100% - Insert a table.
    • Word 75% / HTML 100% - Insert a horizontal line as a percentage of the width, or set a fixed width in pixels.
    • Word 75% / HTML 100% - Indent text.
    • Word 75% / HTML 100% - Outdent text.
    • Word 75% / HTML 100% - Set selected text to subscript.
    • Word 75% / HTML 100% - Set selected text to superscript.
    • Word 75% / HTML 100% - Remove formatting of selected text.
    • Word 75% / HTML 100% - Insert special characters and symbols.

    Note: You can not add an attachment to a message template.