Message step

The Message step generates a free-flow text message from a dynamic or static set of input parameters. Documents that are sent to a Message step are transformed, and the documents that come out have the format of the message.

Some possible uses for messages are to:

• Create highly customized alerts

• Send confirmation messages

• Produce a new document to send through the process

Custom messages can be a mix of static and dynamic content. Dynamic content is populated using parameters, which can represent values such as data from a document field, the current system date/time, a static value, the results of a database query, or a number of other values. You can use multiple parameters when creating a message. The placeholder number corresponds to the order of the parameters defined at the bottom of the screen.

A Message step needs to be followed by a step that will do something with the contents of the message. For example, if the Message step contains information that needs to be delivered to recipients via email, you could add a Mail Connector step after the Message step.

Adding a message step to a process

1. In the General tab, enter the Display Name to describe the step If you do not enter the name, “Message” appears on the step.

2. Select the Combine documents into a single message option if a document has been split in the process, to combine the multiple resulting messages into a single message before further processing It is a good practice to use this option when sending email alerts to reduce the number of emails sent (and received).

3. Enter the message in the Message field The free-flow text message that will be generated. To specify variables, use the following syntax to create a placeholder, starting at 1: {<parameter_number>} — for example, {1}.

   info

   In messages, the single quote (') is a special character. The following points regarding single quotes apply only to the message text that you enter. Single quotes are not stripped if they are coming in as part of the data.

   • A single quote by itself is stripped from the message. For example, the message text today's date is rendered as todays date.

   • Two consecutive single quotes are rendered as a single quote. For example, the message text today''s date is rendered as today's date.

   • An open single quote without a closing single quote escapes the rest of the message. For example, if the variable {1} is the time using a Date Mask of hh, and the variable {2} is the date, an example of the rendering of the message text {1} o'clock {2} would be 12 o'clock {2}.

   • JSON content in messages must be escaped by wrapping it with single quotes, thereby distinguishing it from a variable.

   The Date Mask in a variable of type Date and Time cannot have an open single quote without a closing single quote.

   • If the Date Mask contains a single quote before some text and a single quote after the text, the single quotes are treated as escape characters. They cause the text between the single quotes to appear in the message. Consider a Date and Time variable using a Date Mask of yyyy.MM.dd G 'at' HH:mm:ss z. An example of the rendering of the variable is 2012.12.18 AD at 15:08:56 PDT (with the word at appearing in the message).
   • You can use a combination of single quotes and two consecutive single quotes to get the results you need. Consider a Date and Time variable using a Date Mask of hh 'o'clock' a, zzzz. An example of the rendering of the variable is 1 o'clock PM, Pacific Daylight Time.

4. Enter one or more values in the Variables to insert into placeholders defined in the message text. Refer to Parameter Values for more information.

   note

   The maximum character limit for Parameter data passed as a variable is 5 MB.

5. In the Notes tab,

   • Enter the title of the note in the Title field
   • Enter the note in the Note field

6. Click OK