Notifications

OpsChain can be configured to send notifications via email and Slack. Notifications can be sent in response to any event relating to changes, workflow runs, properties and settings. Additional notification events may be added in the future as new features are added to OpsChain.

Configuring channels

You can configure notification channels in the notification settings section of the administration configuration tab.

Default channels

You can configure as many channels as necessary. However, only one channel can be marked as the default channel for each notification type.

To change the default channel for a notification type, untick and save the current default channel's default checkbox and then tick the checkbox for the new default channel.

Email channel

Select add email channel from the new channel dropdown to add an email channel. Use the dialog to configure and save the server settings, marking the server as the default email channel if you wish to use this server as the primary outbound server for user email notifications. Once saved, you can test the settings to confirm they can be used to send email by editing the channel and using the send test message feature in the edit channel dialog.

Slack channel

Select add Slack channel from the new channel dropdown to add a Slack channel. Use the dialog to configure and save the Slack bot settings, marking the server as the default Slack channel if you wish to use this server as the primary outbound server for user Slack notifications. Once saved, you can test the settings to confirm they can be used to send messages by editing the channel and using the send test message feature in the edit channel dialog.

Creating a Slack bot

To create a Slack bot in your organisation's Slack workspace, follow the instructions provided here.

User preferences

From the user menu in the top right corner, select the notification preferences option to view and edit your notification preferences. Here you can use the checkboxes to select which channel(s) should be used to notify you when requesting notifications.

note

If no default channel is configured, OpsChain will default to sending emails when asked to notify you.

Email

If your LDAP entry contains an email address it will be displayed in the email field and will not be modifiable. If no LDAP email is configured, the field will be empty and will allow you to configure an email address to receive notifications.

note

A default email channel must be configured in the administration notification settings before you can receive email notifications.

Slack

To receive Slack messages you will need to supply your Slack member ID. To obtain it, view your Slack profile and then select Copy member ID from the three dot menu.

note

A default Slack channel must be configured in the administration notification settings before you can receive Slack notifications.

Subscribing to events

Changes

When creating

When running a change, users can choose to receive notifications on specific events that occur during its execution. For example, you may want to receive a notification when the change completes, or if it fails. To do this, navigate to the notify tab in the run change dialog and select the events to be notified about. Once you have specified the relevant events, use the notify me checkbox to enable notifications to be sent to you or use the users and groups lists to specify the users and/or LDAP groups to send the notifications to.

For a specific action

When viewing the actions for an asset, OpsChain includes a notifications tab where you can request to be notified when changes for each action raise specific events. For example, you may which to know any time a shutdown action is run in production, or a build fails in development. Select the relevant events for the actions you wish to be notified about and OpsChain will send you notifications when these events occur.

For a project, environment or asset

When viewing a project, environment or asset, OpsChain includes a bell icon on the right hand side of the header that opens the notifications dialog. On the change tab you can specify the relevant events to be notified about for any change that runs within that project, environment or asset. For example, you may want to receive a notification for any change that fails in production, or any change that starts in a specific asset. When viewing this dialog for a project, an optional checkbox will be displayed allowing you to apply the setting to all environments and assets within that project. Similarly, when viewing the dialog for an environment, an optional checkbox will be displayed allowing you to apply the setting to all assets within that environment.

Workflows

When creating

When running a workflow, users can choose to receive notifications on specific events that occur during its execution. For example, you may want to receive a notification if the workflow fails or if it is cancelled. To do this, navigate to the notify tab in the run workflow dialog and select the events to be notified about. Once you have specified the relevant events, use the notify me checkbox to enable notifications to be sent to you or use the users and groups lists to specify the users and/or LDAP groups to send the notifications to.

For a specific workflow

When viewing the workflows for a project, OpsChain includes a notifications tab where you can request to be notified when workflow runs for each workflow raise specific events. For example, you may which to know any time the patch_assets workflow is run in development, or when the backup workflow fails in production. Select the relevant events for the workflows you wish to be notified about and OpsChain will send you notifications when these events occur.

For a project

When viewing a project, OpsChain includes a bell icon on the right hand side of the header that opens the notifications dialog. On the workflow runs tab you can specify the relevant events to be notified about for any workflow that runs within that project. For example, you may want to receive a notification for any workflow that fails in production.

Properties & settings

When viewing a project, environment or asset, OpsChain includes a bell icon on the right hand side of the header that opens the notifications dialog. The properties and _settings tabs allow you to enable notifications any time these are updated for the project, environment or asset. When viewing this dialog for a project, an optional checkbox will be displayed allowing you to apply the setting to all environments and assets within that project. Similarly, when viewing the dialog for an environment, an optional checkbox will be displayed allowing you to apply the setting to all assets within that environment.

Managing user notifications

From the user menu in the top right corner, select the manage all notifications option to view and edit all the events you have configured to receive notifications for. Notifications are grouped by the project, environment or asset they are associated with and provide the following columns of information:

Column Name	Description
Change events	These are the events described in the for a project, environment or asset section above.
Action events	These are the events described in the for a specific action section above.
Workflow run events	These are the events described in the for a project section above.
Workflow events	These are the events described in the for a specific workflow section above.
Properties events	These are the events described in the properties & settings section above.
Settings events	These are the events described in the properties & settings section above.

editing notifications from the manage notifications page

• The change events, workflow run events, properties events and settings events can be modified by clicking the edit icon to the left of the row. This will open the notifications dialog for the relevant project, environment or asset.
• The action events and workflow events can be modified by clicking the entry in the column for the specific action or workflow you wish to modify the notifications for.