Types of Message System

Enterprise PDM's built-in database message system. Notifications are sent to the vault inbox of the recipient. The notification messages are only accessible when using a client vault view. Users view notifications by clicking the system tray icon, or by viewing the vault inbox (Tools > Inbox).

• External emails cannot be sent through the database message system to users' vault inboxes.
• Automatic notifications (triggered by a workflow or API) rely on the Enterprise PDM database-server service being available and configured correctly. If notifications are not being sent, check that the database-server service is running and that the application log has no errors.

Enterprise PDM uses an SMTP mail server. Notifications can be delivered to external email applications such as Microsoft Outlook. To receive email, users must have an email address specified in their profile cards.

When you configure the SMTP settings, you can send a test email to a user to ensure they are correct.

• If you have trouble getting SMTP notifications to work, switch to the database message system temporarily to ensure that the notifications are being generated correctly.
  If you are testing using transition notifications, notifications are not processed if you set "yourself" as the recipient. The target user must be someone other than the logged-in user triggering the notification.
• For automatic notifications, the originator of an SMTP message is the system running the database-server service, typically the SQL server system. Ensure that the SMTP server allows relaying messages from the database-server service system.
• Automatic notifications sent to an email address are formatted in HTML. The action buttons in the message (such as View and Open folder) work only if there is a local vault view available on the computer where the message is read. Also note that the action buttons may be blocked from triggering if the email application security restrictions are set too high.
• Ensure that the SMTP port is not being blocked between the SMTP server and the client computers or database-server service that generates the notifications.
• Ensure that no anti-virus applications are preventing the SMTP messages from being sent. It may be necessary to create exceptions for the processes that generate messages:
  • For client (user-to-user) notifications, create exceptions for: explorer.exe, inbox.exe
  • For database-server service (automatic) notifications, create an exception for: ConisioDbServer.exe
• If an email address is specified in the user's profile card, then notifications are sent only to the email address. No copy is sent to the user's vault inbox.
• User-to-user notifications (such as replying to inbox messages or using the Notify, A Colleague option) are sent directly from the client computer where the message is created and do not rely on the database-server service. If using the SMTP option, ensure that the SMTP server allows relaying messages from the client computers.