Communication Rules Breakdown with an Intro to Templates

 

We do not allow customers to create and update communications rules or templates, as there are sometimes necessary configurations such as event definitions and light coding often requiring fine tuning from the finely qualified Fexa team members. We do however would to offer a full understanding of how the communication rule features works, as well as provide a light intro to templates in and how they work hand in hand often with Communication Rules. 

 

What is a Communication Rule in Fexa?

The Communication Rules feature allows the Fexa team to set up automated emails or SMS notifications based on rules or events within the system on behalf of our customers based on various needs while using the platform. These communications can be triggered by a plethora of variables such as object categories, classes, dates, and even workflow statuses.

For example, Communication Rules can be set up to provide an email notification when a work order is created and then assigned to a vendor. The vendor could be set as the recipient, and then when the assignment status moves to accepted, the rule triggers an email to the vendor carrying all the work order details needed to complete the job . 

 

Users with Read permissions for communications will be able to follow the left navigational menu to Communication > Communication Rules to view a full list of all the currently created rules. 

 

Take a look at this example of a "New Work Order Created" Communication Rule:

Communication Rule Details Tab

 

1. Name for the Communication Rule
2. Data Source – Data source selected for the rule - It is important to select the correct data source and to remember any templates associated will need to be in the same data source.  
3. Communication Schedule – The schedule is used if the comm rule should try to trigger on a schedule such as daily, weekly, monthly, etc, when certain filter criteria has been met.  The schedule/filter option (similar to schedule and filters on the reporting tool) is used INSTEAD of the Event/definitions option for triggering a communication rule. 

 

 

4.  Parse Files From Replies – When set to true, any files within the reply will be parsed as attachments

5. Include Documents – When set to true, opens a field to select what document types can be included in the email.

6. Email Body – A field to type the email body. HTML and Css is honored here.

7. Subject – The subject of the email. Fexa Tags can be incorporated in the subject to fetch data from the system like work order numbers, vendor company name, etc. 

8. Use Template for Email Body – This toggle field allows the option to use a pre-existing Template as the Email Body. When set to True (6) Email Body will be disabled and Email Body Template will be available.

9. Email Body Template – A dropdown of template names to choose from. Only templates with same datasource as the communication rule will be available. 

10. Logs the date and time when the rule was created and when it was last updated.

 

Recipients Tab

 

The Recipients Tab stores the list of recipients added to the communication rule. These will be the explicit and relative addresses who will receive the communications. These can only be updated by the Fexa team members. 

1. Recipient Types – Explicit or Related. Explicit is the actual email address of the recipient in the Recipient Field. Related will show a dropdown menu of related type options. These are selectable based on the relation to a particular group.

 

Attachments Tab

Attachments can be added to communication rules. These can be added from existing templates or from uploaded files from a computer. If users would like attachments added to comm rules, they would need to provide these to the Fexa team and allow a staff member to do this for them. 

 

1. Attachment Name will be the name for the attachment.
2. Choose between “Use Template” or “Use File Upload”. Use Template allows you to select the template from the Attachment Template to generate the documents. Use File Upload lets you browse and upload into Fexa. 
3. Send as PDF? - When set to True, the attachment will be sent in a PDF format.
4. File Type – File Types chosen from dropdown
5. Click the Save button once done. A hamburger menu will be available definitions management.

Events Tab

The Events Tab is where definitions can be created to set up rules on when the notification will trigger. Fexa team members will set the event definitions in the Attachment Tab. An Event needs to be created first to add definitions to the rule.

1. Name of the Event
2. Set to Active for any definition created for this event to be enabled.
3. One Time – When set to true, the event will only trigger once.
4. Min. Day Apart – When One Time is toggled, you can set how many days apart the event will trigger.
5. Clicking Submit will add the event to the grid. A hamburger button is now available to add Definitions.

Adding Event Definitions

Clicking the Manage Definition opens a window that lets you create a definition.

 

History Tab

The History Tab logs the occurrence of the event. This shows when the communication rule ran, how it was triggered, the total number of occurrence, how many was successful, how many was not successful, and the number of Pending.

 

Communication History Tab on Work Orders 

 

This will allow users to see which rules were triggered and who receive the communications

 

 

Templates

Templates is a feature within the Fexa system that allows the building of documents or email body through HTML. Templates is only available to Fexa Helpdesk Support staff and Engineers, so building one needs to be requested via the helpdesk.

In the Communication Rule creation screen you can select the template to use as the email body. It is always recommended to use a Template when the email body has section where data is constantly changing depending on the recipient. The template will be set up to fetch the data and display the data to the email body.