Admin Templates (3.x.x and earlier)

As of version 2.0, Obsidian supports customizable templates for all email notifications.

The email templates screens allow users to customize the content of notification emails by event category and even by specific jobs.

Templates management screens are reached via the Notifications tab and are visible to users with the Admin role.

Listing Templates

The main templates screen shows the current configured templates and their details. Obsidian comes with two default templates. Click on the template name to edit the template Add Template link in the navigation bar below the tabs to create a new one.

Adding or Editing a Template

When adding or editing a template, a unique name must be supplied, the template can be made active or inactive, and various template settings can be configured.

Note: The question mark icon next to form titles indicates inline help. Click on the icon to view help related to the current item.

For help with creating the email subject and body templates, see Email Templates.

Every template applies either to a specific notification category, or the All category, which is used when no other matching template exists. A single category can be selected for each template. These categories are the same as those used when configuring subscriptions.

For categories that are job-related, you may indicate the template is the default for that category by checking the Use as Default box. If this is not selected, you will be able to select specific jobs that the template applies to. Templates that are linked with specific jobs are always used instead of defaults when they exists.

For non-job related categories, an active template is always considered the default.

Note: When an active template is saved, other templates may be updated automatically. If the template is for a non-job category or it is marked as Use as Default, any other templates with the same category will be made inactive. If the template applies to specific jobs, any templates with the same category and job mappings will be updated to remove the overlapping applicable jobs.

Changes may be confirmed by clicking the Save button at the bottom of the form, or the one in the left navigation area.

Template Validation

While templates are validated upon saving, it is possible there are issues in the template that will not be discovered until runtime. If Obsidian encounters an error using a template you've configured, it will use an internal default template so that notifications are not lost. If this is happening in your installation, check your servlet container log files for details on the issue.

For errors that are detected while saving, Obsidian will prevent you with messaging to indicate the type of failure. Since it can be difficult to track down issues in templates, we recommend you save incremental changes while creating the template to catch errors early. If you encounter an error in the UI that is not clear, try removing portions of your template to find the issue, or check your servlet container log files to possibly find additional detail.

Deleting a Template

To delete a template, navigate to the Edit Template screen by clicking the template name in the main results table. Then, click the Delete button at the bottom of the screen and confirm the deletion when prompted.

Note: If no suitable templates exist, Obsidian will use internal defaults to create outgoing email notifications.