JD Edwards Notifications are available now with Tools 9.2.2 and Applications 9.0, 9.1 and 9.2. They serve as a way to keep your users in touch with your business and ERP whether they’re at a desk or on the go. You’ll be able to detect important events or conditions based on JD Edwards business data or external systems and send custom messages and application links to subscribers. Users can be alerted about instances when inventory is low, shipments are arriving, or equipment is down.
An Overview of Notifications
There are currently 35 Notifications delivered in JD Edwards for users to implement in their organizations. The delivered Notifications can either be used out-of-the-box or be configured to better meet the specific needs of a user.
AJ Schifano, Product Manager, and Darryl Shakespeare, Senior Director of Product Management, from Oracle spoke at INFOCUS 18 about JD Edwards Notifications. The presentation covered a wide variety of topics like designing, subscribing, assigning, configuring and delivering the different types of Notifications.
Types of Notifications
Notifications can be used to alert users about exceptions, required action, general information, proactive measures, or simple reminders. An example of an exception could be an accountant being notified about journal entries that are out of balance. Action is required when an order for an important customer is put on hold, so a manager can be notified so they can quickly fix it. If inventory levels are starting to get low and approach defined limits, a proactive Notification can be sent out to an Inventory Manager. More general Notifications can be sent out with information regarding the shipment of a customer’s order or a reminder to approve expense reports. Notifications help keep users on top of their work and stay connected with the data in JD Edwards.
In addition, Notifications are either Simple, Watchlist-based, or Orchestration-based. Think of a Simple Notification like a simple email message. It can include text substitution from inputs or links to an application, but there is nothing inherent to trigger it other than an external REST call or Scheduler. A Watchlist-based Notification is triggered by the content within a Watchlist. An external REST call or Scheduler pings the Watchlist and returns information. With a Watchlist-based Notification, a subscriber has more options for suppressing the receipt. Finally, an Orchestration-based Notification is triggered by the execution of any Orchestration. All outputs of the Orchestration are available to the Notifications for rules evaluation and text substitution. A Notification can embed an Orchestration, and an Orchestration can also embed a Notification.
Designing a Notification
Notifications are typically designed by a business analyst because they are the one who knows the issues within a business and what users need to know in order to take proper action. There are four easy steps to designing a Notification:
- Define a Watchlist or an Orchestration to evaluate the Notification criteria.
- Define inputs to allow subscribers to personalize the Notification.
- Attach the Notification to a periodic schedule.
- Share the Notification as a User Defined Object (UDO).
Subscribing to and Assigning Notifications
An end user can subscribe to a Notification by choosing from a list of available Notifications, selecting the delivery method they want to receive the message through, and providing input to personalize the Notification to meet their needs. With Tools 9.2.2.4 and Applications 9.1 or 9.2, Notifications can also be assigned to users by roles. For example, a manager could push out a Notification to members of their specific team to keep everyone in the loop. The Assigner has the choice of whether or not they want to let users override inputs or opt out of a Notification that is assigned to them.
Delivering Notifications
Notifications can be delivered through the bell within the JD Edwards User Interface, a browser pop-up, an email or an SMS text message. Messages that come through one of these mediums can include hot links to JD Edwards applications that will spring users into action and take them directly where they need to go. Form interconnect values are also available, so you can pass data from inputs or previous Orchestration steps as the form launches.
Run as Subscriber
If you choose to run a Notification with the “Run as Subscriber” option turned on, you are telling it to loop through the Notification and run it through the credentials of each individual subscriber. It is a powerful option, but it takes more work from the Notification, which ultimately means it takes longer to execute. Instead of a Notification only running once, the Notification runs “n” times under the credentials of each subscriber. The most time-consuming piece is the HTML login and logout. Overall, it is more efficient to have “Run as Subscriber” turned off, but there are instances where it may make sense for an organization.
Learn More
To learn more about Notifications and see demonstrations of setting up a Notification, running a Notification with Run as Subscriber turned on, and a sneak peak of the Message Center—a roadmap item, check out the full presentation below.
For more resources and information about Notifications, check out these additional articles from Quest: “A Breakdown of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Notifications” or “Following Your Business with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Notifications.”
Want even more resources like this, all in one place? Discover everything available at COLLABORATE 19, the Technology and Applications Forum for the Oracle Community, April 7-11, 2019, in San Antonio. Learn more, and follow #C19TX on Twitter to stay up-to-date on all things COLLABORATE 19!