Configuration and Maintenance Guide for MeetingPlace 7.1
Customizing E-Mail Notifications
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Table Of Contents

Customizing E-Mail Notifications for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

About E-Mail Notification Templates and Language Property Files

How the Mail System Works

Example of Editing an E-Mail Notification Template and a Language Property File

Notification Items

How to Customize E-Mail Notifications

Editing Templates for E-Mail Notifications

Editing Language Property Files

Downloading a Language Property File

Uploading a Language Property File


Customizing E-Mail Notifications for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace

Release 7.1
Revised: April 3, 2011 8:31 pm

•About E-Mail Notification Templates and Language Property Files

•How to Customize E-Mail Notifications

About E-Mail Notification Templates and Language Property Files

E-mail notification templates specify which information to include in the e-mail notifications. The templates also determine the order and formatting used to present the specified information.

Although e-mail notification templates are editable, they are designed to be language-independent by containing tags instead of actual e-mail message content. Each tag is translated by the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace mail system into the text defined in editable language property files. A unique language property file is available for each language you install and enable on the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace server.

Topics in this section include:

•How the Mail System Works

•Example of Editing an E-Mail Notification Template and a Language Property File

•Notification Items

How the Mail System Works

The Cisco Unified MeetingPlace mail system uses the following process to send e-mail notifications to users:

1. The mail system selects the appropriate template, depending on the type of e-mail notification that is required. The templates are listed in Table 2.

2. The mail system identifies the tags in the template:

a. Plain text in the template is left as plain text in the e-mail notification.

b. A dollar sign ($) indicates the beginning of a tag that is replaced by the definition in the language property file. For example: 

$notify_to_join_meeting

c. A space or the end of a line indicates the end of a tag.

3. The mail system checks which language property file to use, depending on the Language configured in the user profile of the e-mail recipient.

4. The mail system creates the e-mail notification by translating the tags in the template to the matching tag definitions in the language property file:

d. An equal (=) sign indicates the beginning of a tag definition. For example: 

notify_to_join_meeting = To join the meeting

e. The end of a line indicates the end of a tag definition.

f. For each match, the mail system replaces the tag with the content defined in the language property file.

g. If there is no match, the tag is included in the e-mail notification, including the dollar sign ($).

h. Tag definitions may contain tags that are defined by other system components, such as the system scheduler. For example: 

notify_details=The meeting details are:

notify_id=ID: $cisco_MTGID

The scheduler component typically defines tags that appear on the scheduling page of the end-user web interface, such as the name of the meeting owner, meeting subject, and start time.

5. The mail system sends the completed e-mail notification to the SMTP server.

Related Topics

•How to Customize E-Mail Notifications

•About E-Mail Notification Templates and Language Property Files

Example of Editing an E-Mail Notification Template and a Language Property File

This example shows how to do the following:

1. Add a new tag, called $custom_greeting, to an e-mail notification template.

2. Define the tag in a language property file.

Note If you enable multiple languages on your system, you must define new tags in all language property files.

The following sample shows the placement of the new tag at the beginning of an e-mail notification template: 

$custom_greeting

$notify_meeting_subject $notify_meeting_name

$notify_date_time $notify_when

$notify_dur $notify_duration

$notify_frequency $notify_recur_pattern

The following sample shows the definition of the new tag in the U.S. English language property file: 

##############################################

##   English (USA) language property file   ##

##############################################


## ALL TEMPLATES

notify_title=Cisco Unified MeetingPlace meeting notification

$custom_greeting=Good day. You have been invited to the following meeting:

notify_details=The meeting details are: 

notify_mtg_id=Meeting ID:

notify_meeting_id=$cisco_MTGID

notify_id=ID: $cisco_MTGID

Related Topics

•About E-Mail Notification Templates and Language Property Files

•How to Customize E-Mail Notifications

Notification Items

The following table provides a list of notification items and tags that are commonly used by Cisco Unified MeetingPlace for Outlook and SMTP notifications.

Notification Item
Notification Tag

Meeting ID

$cisco_MTGID

Click-to-attend link

$cisco_CtaUrl

Dial-in number

$cisco_DialIn

Meeting name

$cisco_TextName

Password

$cisco_Password

Meeting type

$cisco_MeetingType

Meeting template

$cisco_MeetingTemplate

Scheduler

$cisco_SchedulerFirstName

$cisco_SchedulerLastName

Current meeting date

$cisco_Month

$cisco_Day

$cisco_Year

Previous meeting date

$cisco_Orig_Month

$cisco_Orig_Day

$cisco_Orig_Year

Current meeting time

$cisco_Hour

$cisco_Min

$cisco_AMPM

$cisco_TimeZone

Previous meeting time

$cisco_Orig_Hour

$cisco_Orig_Min

$cisco_Orig_AMPM

$cisco_TimeZone

Scheduler phone

$cisco_SchedulerTelephone

Scheduler e-mail

$cisco_SchedulerEmail

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace phone number

$cisco_DID_Telephone

Alternate phone number 1

$cisco_Alt_Telephone

Label for alternate phone number 1

$cisco_Alt_Telephone_Label1

Alternate phone number 2

$cisco_Alt_Telephone2

Label for alternate phone number 2

$cisco_Alt_Telephone_Label2

Alternate phone number 3

$cisco_Alt_Telephone3

Label for alternate phone number 3

$cisco_Alt_Telephone_Label3

Duration

$cisco_DurHours

$cisco_DurMins

Recurrence pattern

$cisco_ReOccuringConference


How to Customize E-Mail Notifications

•Editing Templates for E-Mail Notifications

•Editing Language Property Files

•Downloading a Language Property File

•Uploading a Language Property File

Editing Templates for E-Mail Notifications

Before You Begin

•If you plan to modify any language property files while editing e-mail notification templates, we recommend that you first save a copy of the existing language property files, in case you want to return to the previous versions. See the "Downloading a Language Property File" section.

•Tags are case-sensitive.

•As you edit the email notification template, keep track of whether you add any tags that begin with "$cisco_", because these changes will not take effect until after a system restart.

•See the "Example of Editing an E-Mail Notification Template and a Language Property File" section.

Restrictions

•You cannot customize e-mail notification templates for a single user. Template changes affect all system-generated e-mail notifications.

•E-mail notification graphics cannot be modified or replaced. Also, new graphics cannot be added to e-mail notifications.

•The HTML editor has the following restrictions:

–Only Internet Explorer enables you to view and edit the HTML output. All supported browsers enable you to view and edit the HTML source.

–Only Internet Explorer provides the HTML-formatting toolbar.

–In the HTML-formatting toolbar, the Background Color button can be used only to modify the background color of text. To instead modify the background color of table cells or the entire page, use an external HTML editor, or manually edit the HTML source by clicking the View HTML Source button (<>).

•The HTML templates display only the size and location of each graphic. The actual graphics cannot be previewed through the Administration Center and are displayed only in actual e-mail notifications.

•HTML-formatted Microsoft Outlook calendar notifications will not include any graphics.

•If you upgrade your system from an earlier release, the system overwrites all custom e-mail notification templates and replaces them with the standard e-mail notification templates for the later release.

Nevertheless, during the upgrade process, the system copies all of the previous notification templates to a backup directory: /opt/cisco/meetingplace/var.<version> /mail/res/email_templates, where <version> identifies the earlier Cisco Unified MeetingPlace release, for example, 7.1.0.66.

Procedure

Step 1 Log in to the Administration Center.

Step 2 Select System Configuration > E-Mail Notifications > E-Mail Notification Templates.

Step 3 Using Table 1, decide whether to use the basic editing page or the advanced editing page to edit the e-mail notification master templates.

Table 1 Basic and Advanced Master Template Editing Functionality 

Editing Functionality
Basic
Advanced

Template selection

Yes

Yes

Format selection between HTML and text

Yes

Yes

Language selection

—

Yes

HTML editor1

Yes

Yes

Language property file editor

—

Yes

Preview

Yes

Yes

1 See the Restrictions for the HTML editor.


Step 4 Select Edit Templates (Basic) or Edit Templates (Advanced).

Step 5 Using Table 2, select which template you want to modify.

Table 2 E-Mail Notification Templates 

Template
Description

EmailBlast

Sends one or all user groups an e-mail message from the system administrator. Typically used to inform users of maintenance tasks that may affect their ability to use Cisco Unified MeetingPlace. See Sending E-Mail Blasts from Cisco Unified MeetingPlace.

NotifyCancel

SMTPNotifyCancel

Notifies the meeting owner and invitees that a single-occurrence meeting was cancelled, or that one occurrence of a recurring meeting was cancelled.

NotifyCancelAll

SMTPNotifyCancelAll

Notifies the meeting owner and invitees that all occurrences of a recurring meeting were cancelled.

NotifyReSchedule

SMTPNotifyReSchedule

Notifies the meeting owner and invitees that the meeting was rescheduled.

NotifySchedule

SMTPNotifySchedule

Notifies the meeting owner and invitees of a new scheduled meeting.

NotifyScheduleRes

Notifies invitees about a reservationless meeting.

Restriction: Only Microsoft Outlook notifications use this template.


The templates whose names begin with SMTP are used only in e-mail notifications that are sent to an SMTP server. The SMTP e-mail notifications include more meeting details than the others, which are used by integrated clients (such as Microsoft Outlook) that display some of the meeting details (such as the start time and duration) elsewhere in the client user interface.

For templates that have both SMTP and non-SMTP versions, you must modify both versions to keep them consistent with each other. Otherwise, users may receive different information about the same meeting, depending on the E-mail type and format setting in each user profile.

Step 6 Select which format (HTML or text) you want to modify.

You must modify both the HTML and plain text formats to keep them consistent with each other. Otherwise, users may receive different information about the same meeting, depending on the E-mail type and format setting in each user profile.

Step 7 Modify the template. See the following topics:

•Editing Area of the Edit Templates (Basic) Page, page 43

•Editing Areas of the Edit Templates (Advanced) Page, page 42

Step 8 To preview the template, select Preview.

Step 9 Close the preview window when finished.

Step 10 To save your template changes, select Save.

Step 11 Repeat Step 6 through Step 10 for the other (HTML or text) template format.

Step 12 If you added any tags that begin with "$cisco_", you need to restart the system to make those changes take effect:

Note A system restart terminates all existing call connections. Proceed only during a scheduled maintenance period or during a period of extremely low usage.

a. Sign in to the CLI of the Application Server.

b. Enter mpx_sys restart.

Related Topics

•About E-Mail Notification Templates and Language Property Files

•How to Customize E-Mail Notifications

•Configuring E-Mail Notification Retries in the Configuring E-Mail Notifications for Cisco Unified MeetingPlace module

•Integration Note for Installing and Configuring IBM Lotus Notes with Cisco Unified MeetingPlace http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/ps5664/ps5669/prod_installation_guides_list.html

Editing Language Property Files

Language property files define the text translations of tags used in e-mail notification templates.

Before You Begin

•If you plan to edit a language property file through the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Administration Center, we recommend that you first save a copy of the existing language property file, in case you want to return to the previous version. See the "Downloading a Language Property File" section.

•Tags are case-sensitive.

•See the "Example of Editing an E-Mail Notification Template and a Language Property File" section.

Restrictions

You cannot customize language property files or e-mail notification templates for a single user. These changes affect all system-generated e-mail notifications.

Procedure

Step 1 Log in to the Administration Center.

Step 2 Select System Configuration > E-Mail Notifications > E-Mail Notification Templates > Edit Language Property Files.

Step 3 Choose the language property file to edit.

Step 4 Modify the language property file.

Step 5 Select Save.

Related Topics

•About E-Mail Notification Templates and Language Property Files

What To Do Next

Because the same tags are used in multiple templates, you should preview all templates after editing a language property file. See the "Editing Templates for E-Mail Notifications" section.

Downloading a Language Property File

This task is useful for saving a copy of a working language property file before you edit it, in case you decide to revert to the previous version. You can also download a language property file to your PC, modify it using a text editor such as WordPad, and then upload the language property file to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace.

Procedure

Step 1 Log in to the Administration Center.

Step 2 Select System Configuration > E-Mail Notifications > E-Mail Notification Templates > Download Language Property File.

Step 3 Choose the language property file to download.

Step 4 Select Download.

Step 5 Select Open or Save.

If you are prompted with an Open With dialog box, choose a text editor, such as WordPad.

Related Topics

•About E-Mail Notification Templates and Language Property Files

•Uploading a Language Property File

Uploading a Language Property File

Performing this task is useful if you edit the language property file and decide to revert to a previously downloaded language property file. You can also upload a language property file that you modified on your PC.

Before You Begin

•Uploaded language property files must have the exact same case-sensitive filename as an existing language property file on the system. For example, the U.S. English language property file name is Templates_en_US.properties.

•To see the valid filename of a language property file, complete Step 1 through Step 4 in the "Downloading a Language Property File" section. The filename appears in the File Download window.

Procedure

Step 1 Log in to the Administration Center.

Step 2 Select System Configuration > E-Mail Notifications > E-Mail Notification Templates > Upload Language Property File.

Step 3 Select the language.

Step 4 Select Browse, find the language property file, and select Open.

Step 5 Select Upload.

Related Topics

•About E-Mail Notification Templates and Language Property Files

•Downloading a Language Property File

•Example of Editing an E-Mail Notification Template and a Language Property File