Status Notifications

Owned by Ryan Clifton
Last updated: Jun 19, 2023
4 min read

Introduction

JEMH Status Notifications allow email-only users to receive some periodic notification of what their open issues are.  The selection of issues to be used in notifications is made through a computed JQL query, based on an initial user customizable filter, Status Notifications will dynamically aggregate available Profile definitions, to provide sets of Labels to look for, and for Custom Fields with values.  TEXT and User Picker type custom fields are supported.  As a safety check, all defined Catchemail and jemhAddresseeRegexps are also aggregated, as those addresses should not be notified.

First Look

Access the Status Notifications from the JEMH Navigation Bar:

As Status Notifications require a Profile to run, if you don't have any created yet you'll get the following error, so get at least one profile setup, according to the Configure JEMH for a Helpdesk environment from scratch, then you'll be able to proceed:

Once there are Profiles found containing custom fields for non-JIRA users, the default configuration is largely usable, but does require the selection of a valid user, which will be running the JQL to locate the issues, so naturally will need to have those privileges.  Until a valid user is entered, the automatic execution of the related JQL, and display of results will be disabled:

Edit the configuration to set such a user:

Now, the configuration is looking happier:

About the Status Notification Configuration

Schedule

The Schedule controls whether automated notifications are sent out, options are:

  • off

  • daily

  • weekly

  • monthly

History Window

The Status Notifications inform the remote parties about current (open) and recently resolved issues they have raised or are involved with.   The configuration parameter History Window defines how far back resolved issues should be included for.  This allows a balance to be struck between how often the notifications are sent, and how far back resolved issues should remain listed.

Use Email Custom Fields

This means TEXT type custom fields will be used where found.

Use JIRA User Custom Fields

This means User Picker custom fields will be used where found.

Custom JQL

This is a user configurable JQL filter expression, it can be used for custom limitation over what is to be within scope for notifications.

Allowlisted Projects

This field is a convenience field of comma separated Project KEYS that will be used to specifically limit scope of notifications to nominated Projects.

Status Notification Template Set

JEMH TemplateSet support for Status Notification Templates exists, so custom content can be added.  See Use Template Sets (Custom Templates)

Context User

The Context user is the security context under which the JQL query for issues will run, so should have appropriate permissions to included projects.  It should not be an administrative account, or have access to sensitive projects.

Notification Format

TEXT or HTML are options.  Each has advantages/disadvantages, especially if customizing.

Resolved Statuses

This field contains comma separated statuses that identify an issue as being 'resolved/closed'.

Allowlist Addressee Regexps

A comma separated list of addressees (regexps) who will receive notifications, e.g. for scoping of specific users or domains.

Blocklist Addressee Regexps

A comma separated list of addressees (regexps) who will not receive notifications, e.g. for scoping of specific users or domains.

Computed JQL

Under this is now are the computed JQL Query and the results, it shows the aggregated list of TEXT and User Picker custom fields, and excluded addresses that are the combination of catchemail and jemhAddresseeRegexps.

For reference the only issue within the TEST project is shown below, you can see the Sender email address custom field containing an email address.

Testing notifications

There is a form allowing testing for users identified by the Profile field:

  • Email > SENDER PROCESSING: NON JIRA-USER > Assign non jira-users Email to Text CustomField#

If your profile defines the same custom field for both SENDER Processing (initiating) and PARTICIPANTS, then JEMH will issue status notifications to everyone involved.

If an addressee is found, the result is sent:

Email Content

The generated HTML email content contains Add Comment links, this link pops up a reply window that contains the related issue key, allowing the comment to be associated with the right issue:

Unsubscribing

Rudimentary unsubscribe support is also added, the Unsubscribe link also pops up a message subject that JEMH will interpret and manage via the Notification Summary Action Filter.