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Document management

Configuring alerts

Alerts are email notifications that are set up by Administrators about certain events and actions for a Document. Authors can enable alerts for their Templates and these alerts will be automatically applied to all Documents, created from these Templates. Users can then subscribe to alerts for Documents to receive email notifications when alert has been triggered.

Creating new alerts

To create a new alert:
  1. Go to
    Admin
     >
    Alerts
    .
  2. Define the parameters of the alert:
    1. Title
       - name of the newly created alert (mandatory parameter). It is recommended to give the alerts meaningful names so that it is easier to understand what the alert is for.
    2. Description
       - use this parameter to explain the purpose of the alert.
    Title
     and
    Description
     of an alert is displayed for all users with sufficient access rights to view a template and/ or a document that use this alert.
Triggers
The alert trigger defines a condition, upon which the system will send an email notification. Notifications can be sent immediately or with a configured delay.
To define the trigger rule for an alert:
  1. In the
    Trigger
     section select a variable or metadata field by clicking on the more options icon More options icon..
  2. Choose the operator for the condition by selecting the second dropdown menu.
  3. Enter the value that defines the condition, which when true, will send out email notifications.
If you need to add multiple trigger conditions, click
+
 to add another row. Select the operator to combine two trigger rules:
  • AND
     - all conditions must be true for this alert to be triggered
  • OR
    -
    at least one condition must be true for this alert to be triggered
Where there are multiple conditions, you can group them to determine the order in which they are applied. For example, to get an email notification about new documents with high priority, we can configure the trigger as follows:
  1. The Document status is either Incomplete or Requires Approval.
  2. The value of a template variable Priority is set by the User to
    High
    .
To configure this trigger, we need two groups of conditions defining the Status and the Priority value, where Status is Incomplete, the template variable Priority is High and where Status is Requires Approval and the template variable Priority is High. Defining this in the Trigger rule, we would:
  1. Add a row with “Status”
    +
     “=”
    +
     “Incomplete”.
  2. Add a second row with “Priority”
    +
     “=”
    +
     “High”.
  3. Add a third row with “Status”
    +
     “=” + “Requires Approval”.
  4. Add a fourth row with “Priority”
    +
     “=”
    +
     “High”.
  5. Select the checkbox for the first and second rows.
  6. Click
    Group
     to group the first 2 conditions together.
  7. Select the checkbox for the third and fourth rows.
  8. Click
    Group
     to group the second 2 conditions together.
  9. Select “Or” in the last dropdown menu of the first group.
Example of trigger rule for an alert.
Contract Express evaluates the trigger for documents created using templates that have this alert enabled every time someone changes the document. You can define whether Contract Express should send an email notification every time the Document has been changed and still meets the alert trigger condition, or only the first time the alert is triggered. Check
Send alert every time it meets the criteria above
 to send email notification every time the Document changes and still meets the alert trigger condition.
Send-out rules
Alert notifications can either be sent immediately when the Document is changed in a way to meet the criteria defined in the trigger condition or sent after a specified period.
To configure the rules for sending out email notifications for an alert:
  1. If you want the system to send an email notification straight after the trigger condition has been met: in the
    Send-out Rule
     section, choose
    Send immediately
    .
  2. If you want the system to send an email notification with a delay: in the
    Send-out Rule
     section choose the
    Send with delay
     option, and configure the delay below:
    1. Set the duration of the delay. Input a number of units (days/ months/ years) or select a variable or metadata field by clicking on the
      …
       icon in the
      Number
       column.
    2. Select the units (days/ months/ years) in which the delay is calculated in the
      Units
       column.
    3. Define in the
      Before/After
       dropdown whether you want the system to send the notification before or after the Date variable.
    4. Select
      Date variable
       in the corresponding column – this date is used as a basis for calculation of the delay. Click the
      …
       icon and select a template variable or metadata field.
    note
    You may use the metadata field
    Trigger date
     to calculate a delay based on the date when alert has been triggered. At that, the notification can only be sent after the trigger date, i.e. if you have chosen
    Trigger date
    , you can only choose
    After
     in the
    Before/After
     column.
You can configure multiple notifications for an alert. For example, if you want the system to send the notifications twice, 7 days before the “Expiration date” (template variable) and 3 days before the “Expiration date”, you should configure the send-out rule as follows:
Example of Send-out rule for an alert.
Using CEML Editor to calculate Date Variable
If there is no appropriate date variable for calculation of the send date, you can calculate it using CEML Expression Builder.
CEML
 (Contract Express Mark-up Language) is a distinct set of functions and variables using which, one can easily create expressions to evaluate the time of delivery of the alert. These are the same variables and functions, which are used during the template authoring process.
To create a CEML Expression:
  1. Launch CEML Expression Builder by clicking button in the
    Date Variable
    column in the
    Send-out Rule
     section.
  2. Insert needed CEML function by clicking
    Insert function
     and choosing the function from the dropdown list. You can nest functions (use one function as an argument of another function), if needed.
  3. Insert template variables, if needed, by clicking
    Insert variable
     and choosing the template and the variable from the dropdown lists.
note
Make sure that the CEML Expression you have created returns a value of date type. To do that, check in the specification that CEML function you use returns date.
For example, if there is no template variable that indicates contract expiration date, but you have a variable “SigningDate” that indicates the signing date, you can calculate expiration date for 1-year contract using “YearsAfter” function.
Example of CEML Expression for send-out rule.
You can find the description of CEML functions in the Contract Express Author Help, available from the “Getting Started” button in the Contract Express ribbon in Word (you will need Contract Express Author installed).
Contract Express Author supports an extensive list of functions. CEML Editor in Contract Express supports a selected set of functions focused on date calculation, that is:
Function Category
Function
Description
Arithmetic
*
arithmetic multiplication
+
arithmetic addition
-
arithmetic subtraction
/
arithmetic division of a first number by a second number
//
arithmetic division of a first whole number by a second whole number rounded down to the nearest whole number
Abs
the non-negative or absolute value for the given number
Larger
the larger of the two numbers
Mod
the remainder after the first number is divided by the second number
Power
the first number raised to the power of the second number
Sign
determines if a number is positive, negative or zero
Smaller
the smaller of two numbers
Sqrt
the square root of a number
Round
round a number up/down to the nearest decimal place
RoundDown
round a number down to the nearest decimal place
RoundUp
round a number up to the nearest decimal place
Truncate
truncate a number to a decimal place
Data Type
DataType
the datatype of a value
Date Functions
Date
construct a date value from year, month and day components
ISODate
convert a text value in ISO format to a date value
Today
today's date
Day
the day component of a date value
Days360
the number of days between two dates assuming 360 days in a year
DaysAfter
the date which is a number of days after a date
DaysBefore
the date which is a number of days before a date
DaysBetween
the number of days between two dates
NearestWeekdayAfter
the date of the nearest weekday after a date
NearestWeekdayBefore
the date of the nearest weekday before a date
Weekday
the weekday number of a date
EndOfMonth
the last day of the month as a number
Month
the month component of a date value
MonthsAfter
the date which is a number of months after a date
MonthsBefore
the date which is a number of months before a date
MonthsBetween
the number of months between two dates
Year
the year component of a date value
YearsAfter
the date which is a number of years after a date
YearsBefore
the date which is a number of years before a date
YearsBetween
the number of years between two dates
Logic
Is
test that a value equals another value
IsAtLeast
test that a value is more than or equal to another value
IsAtMost
test that a value is less than or equal to another value
IsLessThan
test that a value is less than another value
IsMoreThan
test that a value is more than another value
IsNot
test that a value is not equal to another value
Not
boolean negation
Or
boolean disjunction
And
boolean conjunction
If
if a boolean then return a value else return another value
Notification settings
To configure the notification settings for an alert:
  1. Scroll down to the
    Notification
     section of the alert details page.
  2. Specify
    Recipients
    , if needed.
    1. All users creating a document from the template associated with the alert will be automatically subscribed to this alert. If you want to subscribe someone specifically, you can add them as a
      Recipient
      .
      Recipient details.
    2. Recipient can be defined as a User, Group or Variable. When the variable option is used, the recipient will be derived from a computable variable which contains questionnaire inputs. This computable is defined in the same way as variables used as approvers. For more information, see Author Help article “Allow users to select an approver during the questionnaire”.
    3. To make the recipient conditional upon a rule that is based on questionnaire inputs, add recipient as a Data driven recipient. In this section you need to specify the rule which will be tested to decide if the recipients added below the rule are valid for the specific contract. Note that you can only use Yes/No variables to define the rule.
      note
      You can only use Yes/No variables to define the rule and the person you set as a recipient or data-driven recipient will get the notifications generated by the alert regardless of whether the document has been shared with them.
  3. Add the
    Subject
     for the email.
    1. You can use values of template variables or metadata parameters in your Subject. To insert them, click
      Add variable
       and choose the needed parameter.
    2. If you have not specified the Subject, the system will use the default subject that is displayed as a placeholder in the Subject field.
  4. Add the
    Body
     for the email.
    1. You can use values of template variables or metadata parameters in your Body. To insert them, click
      Add variable
       and choose the needed parameter.
    2. If you have not specified the Subject, the system will use the default subject that is displayed as a placeholder in the Body field.

Alert usage

Administrators can view the list of templates that use an alert in the
Used in Templates
 column on the list of alerts, or in the
Used in Templates
 section of the alert details page.

This article applies to:

  • PRODUCT: Contract Express