Notifications

• 1: Variables used in Notifications
• 2: SMTP/E-Mail Notifications
• 3: Webhooks

1 - Variables used in Notifications

All notification connections provide a number of write-only “target” parameters that can be used as the destination in a Protocol Converter rule. The string value passed to the parameter can be inserted into the notification body by using the $VALUE variable inside the body text.

The full list of variables that can be used inside the body is:

• $PARAMETER - the ID of the target parameter used to trigger the notification
• $VALUE - the value passed to the target parameter
• $TIMESTAMP - the current date and time in ISO 8601 format (YYYYMMDDTHH:MM:SS)

If the parameter is updated through a Protocol Converter rule, the following additional variables can be used:

• $DESCRIPTION - the description of trule
• $SOURCECONNECTION - the ID of the source connection that triggered trule
• $SOURCEPARAMETER - the ID of the source parameter that triggered rule
• $SOURCEVALUE - the value of the source parameter that triggered the rule

The description can contain any of the other variables (other than $DESCRIPITION itself). so when you e.g. enter

The new value is $VALUE.

as the description text of a Protocol Converter rule, the value will be filled in automatically.

2 - SMTP/E-Mail Notifications

This virtual connection types provides up to 64 targets for sending e-mail notifications via SMTP.

Prerequisites

You need a working SMTP server to use e-mail notifications. BTConnect supports all SMTP servers, with or without SSL or STARTTLS encryption and/or authentication.

Configuration

On the General tab, enter the details of your SMTP server, which includes:

• Hostname or IP address
• Port
• Encryption mode (none, SSL, STARTTLS)
• Username and password
• The From (sender) address to be used for all e-mails; it can include a real name part when entered in the Name <mail@example.com> format.

On the Template tab, you can optionally enter default recipient(s), subject and body used in outgoing e-mails. These are used in all targets that have no individual configuration.

You can use variables for the received value etc. in the subject and body text.

On the Targets tab, you can adjust the settings for each of the available targets, overriding the receipient, subject and body values.

The settings of a target can be duplicated to another target by using the Copy/Paste commands from the context menu.

Parameters

Each notification target is represented by a write-only string parameter target/<number>.

When using the Protocol Converter to trigger the target, other parameter types than string will be automatically converted.

3 - Webhooks

This virtual connection types provides an interface to up to 64 outgoing webhook targets. By using these targets, you can trigger outgoing HTTP calls and pass data to the server.

Configuration

On the Targets tab, double-click a target to edit its settings:

• Method: BTConnect supports the following methods/protocols for the outgoing HTTP call:
  • Raw requests:
    • HTTP GET
    • HTTP POST (application/x-www-form-urlencoded)
    • HTTP POST (multipart/form-data)
    • HTTP POST (raw)
    • HTTP PUT
    • HTTP DELETE
  • Slack
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Mattermost
• Auth User and Auth Password: Enter optional credentials used for HTTP Basic authentication.
• Query Parameters (HTTP GET and HTTP POST urlencoded or form-data): Enter pairs of keys and values to be used as query parameters. Use the cursor-down key to add additional rows to the table.
• Content Type (HTTP POST raw and HTTP PUT): Select value for the Content-Type header of the HTTP request, or enter it manually in the text field next to the dropdown box. When using application/json, the body must be a valid JSON document.
• Destination (Mattermost only): Enter an optional channel or @user name to send to; this must be enabled in the Webhook configuration in Mattermost, otherwise the message will be sent to the default channel set for the Webhook.
• Payload (HTTP POST raw, HTTP PUT, Slack, Teams, Mattermost): Enter value for the HTTP body, or the message text (for Slack, Teams and Mattermost).

Query parameters and payload (including all string parts of a JSON document when using application/json content) can contain any of the variables available for notification connections.

For HTTP POST (application/x-www-form-urlencoded) only, files can be uploaded by entering file:<local filename> as a parameter value. The filename may contain variables as well.

The settings of a target can be duplicated to another target by using the Copy/Paste commands from the context menu.

Parameters

Each notification target is represented by a write-only string parameter target/<number>.

When using the Protocol Converter to trigger the target, other parameter types than string will be automatically converted.