Setting Up Notification Mailers (Oracle Workflow Administrator's Guide)

Oracle Workflow Administrator's Guide
Release 2.6.3
Part Number B10283-02


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Setting Up Notification Mailers

Currently, Oracle Workflow supports the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) for outbound messages and the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) for inbound messages. You must have an SMTP server and an IMAP server set up in order to send and receive Oracle Workflow notification e-mail messages from your Workflow server. Users can receive e-mail notifications using various e-mail clients, although notifications may be displayed differently in different clients, depending on the features each client supports.

Note: Oracle Workflow supports IMAP version 4 (IMAP4) compliant mail servers. Ensure that your mail server uses this IMAP version. For more information, see the JavaMail API Design Specification: http://java.sun.com/products/javamail/JavaMail-1.2.pdf

Note: If you have certain types of software installed, you may already have the necessary mail server functionality available. For example, products such as Oracle Email, Microsoft Exchange, or Lotus Notes include IMAP services. On UNIX, you can use the Sendmail program as your SMTP server.

Additionally, you can choose to use IMAP server software that is available for download from some sources. For example, the University of Washington offers the UW IMAP Server as a public service, and Carnegie Mellon University offers the Cyrus IMAP Server. You might choose this option if your enterprise uses UNIX Sendmail e-mail accounts, for instance. For more information, see: http://www.washington.edu/imap/, http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus/, and http://www.imap.org/.

Note: Third party software products are mentioned as examples only. Oracle makes no recommendation or endorsement of these third party software products.

If you are using the version of Oracle Workflow embedded in Oracle Applications, you should use the Oracle Workflow Manager component of Oracle Applications Manager (OAM) to configure and run notification mailers. For more information, please refer to the Oracle Applications Manager online help.

If you are using the standalone version of Oracle Workflow, you should use the standalone Oracle Workflow Manager component available through Oracle Enterprise Manager to configure and run notification mailers. For more information, please refer to the Oracle Enterprise Manager online help.

To set up a notification mailer, you must perform the following steps.

To Set Up a Notification Mailer

1. Set up an SMTP mail server to send outbound messages.

2. Set up an IMAP4 compliant mail server to receive inbound messages.

3. Set up an e-mail account for the notification mailer on your IMAP mail server, and set up three folders within that account: one to use as an inbox, one to store processed messages, and one to store discarded messages. The default values for these folders in the notification mailer configuration wizard are INBOX, PROCESS, and DISCARD. To avoid having to change these configuration parameters, name the folders within your account with these default names. Note that the values for the processed message folder and discarded message folder are case-sensitive, while the name of the inbox folder is not case-sensitive.

4. You can enter the following configuration parameters for the seeded Workflow Notification Mailer service component during installation. In Oracle Applications, you can use AutoConfig to enter these parameters. For more information about running AutoConfig, see MetaLink Note 165195.1 and AutoConfig, Oracle Applications AD Utilities Reference Guide. In the standalone version of Oracle Workflow, you can use the Workflow Configuration Assistant to enter these parameters. See: Oracle Workflow Server Installation Notes.

SMTP Server

IMAP Server

Inbox Username

Reply To E-mail Address

HTML Agent Name

In AutoConfig, the HTML Agent Name parameter defaults to the value you enter for the Applications Web Agent Parameter.

5. Ensure that the Business Event System status is set to Enabled in the Global Workflow Preferences page, and that the JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES and AQ_TM_PROCESSES database initialization parameters, which are required for the Business Event System, are set to appropriate values. The Business Event System status is set to Enabled by default, and usually you do not need to change this status. If notification processing is not being completed, however, you should check this preference value.

6. Before a service component can run, the container which manages it must first be started. The seeded Workflow Notification Mailer service component belongs to a container named Workflow Mailer Service in Oracle Applications or WFMLRSVC in standalone Oracle Workflow. The seeded agent listener service components that are also required for notification mailer processing belong to a container named Workflow Agent Listener Service in Oracle Applications or WFALSNRSVC in standalone Oracle Workflow. You should ensure that these two containers are running, using Oracle Applications Manager for the version of Oracle Workflow embedded in Oracle Applications, or Oracle Enterprise Manager for the standalone version of Oracle Workflow. If you create your own custom containers in OAM for custom service components, ensure that those containers are running as well.

7. When the Workflow Agent Listener Service or WFALSNRSVC container is running, it automatically starts the seeded agent listener service components for the standard WF_DEFERRED, WF_ERROR, and WF_NOTIFICATION_IN agents in the Business Event System, which are required for notification mailer processing. Ensure that these agent listeners are running.

8. Use the notification mailer configuration wizard to configure the notification mailer service component you want. If you entered configuration parameters for the seeded Workflow Notification Mailer during installation, you only need to enter the password for the e-mail inbox in order to complete the configuration for that mailer and begin running it. If you did not enter parameters for the seeded mailer during installation, then in order to complete the configuration for that mailer you need to enter only the IMAP server, SMTP server, e-mail inbox username, e-mail inbox password, reply to e-mail address, and HTML agent name. All other configuration parameters for the seeded Workflow Notification Mailer are initially set to default values and do not need to be changed, although you can optionally do so if you choose.

Note: In Oracle Applications, the Send Access Key parameter in the Message Generation page of the notification mailer configuration wizard is obsolete. Users must always log in before they can access the Oracle Applications Framework-based Notification Details page from the Notification Detail Link attachment in HTML-formatted notifications.

However, in the standalone version of Oracle Workflow, the Send Acces Key parameter still determines whether users must log in before accessing the Notification Details page from the Notification Detail Link attachment.

9. (Optional) By default, the seeded Workflow Notification Mailer has a Launch Summary Notifications event scheduled to send summary notifications once a day. You can optionally use the notification mailer configuration wizard to modify the start time and interval for this event's schedule, or to schedule the Launch Summary Notifications event at the interval you choose for any notification mailer service component. When this event is processed, a summary notification is sent to each role with a notification preference of SUMMARY, listing all the notifications that are currently open for that role.

10. (Optional) If you are using the version of Oracle Workflow embedded in Oracle Applications, you can optionally use the WF: Mailer Cancellation Email profile option to determine whether notification mailers send cancellation messages when previously sent notifications are canceled. Set this profile option to Enabled if you want to send cancellation messages, or to Disabled if you do not want to send cancellation messages. The WF: Mailer Cancellation Email profile option must be set at site level. The default value is Enabled. See: Overview of Setting User Profiles, Oracle Applications System Administrator's Guide.

11. (Optional) The seeded Workflow Notification Mailer uses the Automatic startup mode by default and will be started automatically when you complete its configuration. If you select the Manual startup mode for a notification mailer service component, use the Service Components page or the Component Details page in the Workflow Manager to start that notification mailer. You can also use these pages to manage any notification mailer service component.

See: Implementing Notification Mailers

See: Managing Notification Mailers

See: Outbound Notification Mailer Processing

See: Inbound Notification Mailer Processing

See: E-mail Notification Security

See: Modifying Your Message Templates


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