How can I customize the out of the box email approval notifications?

Todd O · ‎02-02-2016

I have a customer change request table (e.g., change_request_todd) that extends change request. I then have a workflow that has an Approval - User activity. When this Approval - User activity is called, it is using the out of the box email notification called Approval request, which uses email template called itil.approve.role. Instead of using this out of the box email template, I would like to make a copy of that and customize it for my own purpose. I need to know how to do this.

I would also like to understand (and probably need to know) the flow of how things are getting triggered. Here is how I think it's happening.

My workflow Approval - User activity will insert a row into sysapproval_approver.
When a row gets entered into this table, a business rule is triggered.
I believe the out of box rule that gets triggered is called Approval Events and the table it watches for is Approval [sysapproval_approver].
Within this business rule is an advanced script (which I pasted below for reference).
In looking at the script below, I'm guessing that it ends executing this statement...
1. gs.eventQueue(event, current, gs.getUserID(), gs.getUserName());
2. ...Where event = request.approval.inserted
That event then triggers an email notification rule I described in my first paragraph (called Approval request, which uses email template called itil.approve.role).
Then, the email goes out using the current record of sysapproval_approver.

Again, my problem is how to I change this process so that I can make a copy of itil.approve.role email template and have workflow Approver - User activity trigger my custom email template instead of out of the box version? Which if the process steps above need to be modified to accomplish this. Thank you!!!!!!!!!

Todd

Ref: Out of box Advance script in the Approval Events business rule

function checkRequest() {
     var task = current.sysapproval.sys_class_name;
     return (task == 'sc_request');
}
function checkSCTask() {
     var task = current.sysapproval.sys_class_name;
     return (task == 'sc_task');
}
function checkProject() {
     var task = current.sysapproval.sys_class_name;
     return (task == 'pm_project');
}
var isRequest = checkRequest();
var isSCTask = checkSCTask();
var isPMTask = checkPMTask();
if (current.state.changes() && current.state=='cancelled') {
     var event = "approval.cancelled";
     if (isRequest)
           event = "request.approval.cancelled";
     else if (isSCTask)
           event = "sc_task.approval.cancelled";
     else if (isPMTask)
           event = "pm_project.approval.cancelled"; 
     gs.eventQueue(event, current, gs.getUserID(), gs.getUserName());
}
if (current.state.changes() && current.state=='requested') {
     var event = "approval.inserted";
     if (isRequest)
           event = "request.approval.inserted";
     else if (isSCTask)
           event = "sc_task.approval.inserted";
     else if (isPMTask)
           event = "pm_project.approval.inserted";
     gs.eventQueue(event, current, gs.getUserID(), gs.getUserName());
     updateTask(current, current.approver.getDisplayValue() + " requested to approve task");
}
if (current.state.changes() && current.state=='rejected') {
     var event = "approval.rejected";
     if (isRequest)
           event = "request.approval.rejected";
     else if (isSCTask)
           event = "sc_task.approval.rejected";
     else if (isPMTask)
           event = "pm_project.approval.rejected";
   
     gs.eventQueue(event, current, current.state, previous.state);
     updateTask(current, current.approver.getDisplayValue() + " rejected the task.", current.comments);
     notifyMyFriends(current);
}
if (current.state.changes() && current.state=='approved') {
     updateTask(current, current.approver.getDisplayValue() + " approved the task.", current.comments);
}
function notifyMyFriends(me) {
     var friends = new GlideRecord('sysapproval_approver');
     friends.addQuery('sysapproval', me.sysapproval);
     friends.query();
     while(friends.next()) {
           if (friends.approver.toString() != me.approver.toString()) {
                 gs.eventQueue("approval.rejected.by.other", me, friends.approver);
           }
     }
}
function updateTask(me, journal, comments) {
     // if this is for a group approval, don't log this user action since the Group Approval Activity will handle the logging
     if (!current.group.nil())
           return;
     
     // only log the user approval activity for workflows when specifically turned on
     // otherwise, we spam the approval history log when it is almost never desired to track via the approval history journal field
     var isWorkflow = !current.wf_activity.nil();
     if (isWorkflow && (gs.getProperty("glide.workflow.user_approval_history") != "true"))
           return;
     
     if (comments)
           journal += " Comments: " + comments;
     var task = new GlideRecord('task');
     if (task.get(me.sysapproval)) {
           if (isWorkflow)
                 task.setWorkflow(false);
                 
           task.approval_history.setJournalEntry(journal);
           task.update();

Pradeep Sharma · ‎02-02-2016

Hi Todd,

You can modify the "Approval request" OOTB notification condition so that it doesn't trigger for your custom table.

Go to the condition field and click on show related field->Now Click on Approval for->Task fields->Now select the field task type

Hence the condition will be Approval for.task type is not "your table name".

Then you can mimic the same notification and create the one with your own template which will have the condition to trigger only for your custom table only.

I hope this helps

View solution in original post

Pradeep Sharma · ‎02-02-2016