DocumentationAEM 6.5User Guide

Configuring Email Notification configuring-email-notification

Last update: Mon Dec 04 2023 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

AEM sends email notifications to users who:

  • Have subscribed to page events, for example, modification or replication. The Notification Inbox section describes how to subscribe to such events.

  • Have subscribed to forum events.

  • Have to perform a step in a workflow. The Participant Step section describes how to trigger email notification in a workflow.

Pre-requisites:

  • The user(s) needs to have a valid email address defined in his profile.
  • The Day CQ Mail Service needs to be properly configured.

When a user is notified, he receives an email in the language that is defined in his profile. Each language has its own template that can be customized. New email templates can be added for new languages.

NOTE
When working with AEM, there are several methods of managing the configuration settings for such services; see Configuring OSGi for more details and the recommended practices.

Configuring the Mail Service configuring-the-mail-service

For AEM to be able to send emails, the Day CQ Mail Service needs to be properly configured. You can view the configuration in the Web console. When working with AEM, there are several methods of managing the configuration settings for such services; see Configuring OSGi for more details and the recommended practices.

The following constraints apply:

  • The SMTP server port must be 25 or higher.

  • The SMTP server host name must not be blank.

  • The “From” address must not be blank.

To help you debug an issue with the Day CQ Mail Service, you can watch the logs of the service:

com.day.cq.mailer.DefaultMailService

The configuration looks as follows in the Web console:

The Day CQ Mail Service OSGi configuration window

Configuring the Email Notification Channel configuring-the-email-notification-channel

When you subscribe to either page or forum events notifications, the from-email address is set to no-reply@acme.com per default. You can change this value by configuring the Notification Email Channel service in the Web Console.

To configure the from-email address, add a sling:OsgiConfig node to the repository. Use the following procedure to add the node directly using CRXDE Lite:

  1. In CRXDE Lite, add a folder named config below your application folder.

  2. In the config folder, add a node named:

    com.day.cq.wcm.notification.email.impl.EmailChannel of type sling:OsgiConfig

  3. Add a String property to the node named email.from. For the value, specify the email address that you want to use.

  4. Click Save All.

Use the following procedure to define the node in your content package source folders:

  1. In your jcr_root/apps/*app_name*/config folder, create a file named com.day.cq.wcm.notification.email.impl.EmailChannel.xml

  2. Add the following XML to represent the node:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <jcr:root xmlns:sling="https://sling.apache.org/jcr/sling/1.0" xmlns:jcr="https://www.jcp.org/jcr/1.0" jcr:primaryType="sling:OsgiConfig" email.from="name@server.com"/>

  3. Replace the value of the email.from attribute ( name@server.com) with your email address.

  4. Save the file.

Configuring the Workflow Email Notification Service configuring-the-workflow-email-notification-service

When you receive workflow email notifications, both the from-email address and the host URL prefix are set to default values. You can change these values by configuring the Day CQ Workflow Email Notification Service in the Web Console. If you do so, it is recommended to persist the change in the repository.

The default configuration looks as follows in the Web Console:

The Day CQ Workflow Email Notification Service configuration window

Email Templates for Page Notification email-templates-for-page-notification

Email templates for page notifications are located below:

/libs/settings/notification-templates/com.day.cq.wcm.core.page

The default English template ( en.txt) is defined as follows:

subject=[CQ Page Event Notification]: Page Event

header=-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n \
Time: ${time}\n \
User: ${userFullName} (${userId})\n \
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n

message=The following pages were affected by the event: \n \
 \n \
${modifications} \n \
 \n\n
footer=\n \
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n \
This is an automatically generated message. Please do not reply.

Customizing Email Templates for Page Notification customizing-email-templates-for-page-notification

To customize the English email template for page notification:

  1. In CRXDE, open the file:

    /libs/settings/notification-templates/com.day.cq.wcm.core.page/en.txt

  2. Modify the file to your needs.

  3. Save the changes.

The template needs to have the following format:

 subject=<text_1>
 header=<text_2>
 message=<text_3>
 footer=<text_4>

Where <text_x> can be a mix of static text and dynamic string variables. The following variables can be used within the email template for page notifications:

  • ${time}, the event date and time.

  • ${userFullName}, the full name of the user who triggered the event.

  • ${userId}, the ID of the user who triggered the event.

  • ${modifications}, describes the type of the page event and the page path in the format:

    <page event type> => <page path>

    For example:

    PageModified => /content/geometrixx/en/products

Email Templates for Workflow Notification email-templates-for-workflow-notification

The email template for workflow notifications (English) is located at:

/libs/settings/workflow/notification/email/default/en.txt

It is defined as follows:

subject=Workflow notification: ${event.EventType}

header=-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n \
Time: ${event.TimeStamp}\n \
Step: ${item.node.title}\n \
User: ${participant.name} (${participant.id})\n \
Workflow: ${model.title}\n \
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n

message=Content: ${host.prefix}${payload.path.open}\n

footer=\n \
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n \
View the overview in your ${host.prefix}/aem/inbox\n \
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n \
This is an automatically generated message. Please do not reply.

Customizing Email Templates for Workflow Notification customizing-email-templates-for-workflow-notification

To customize the English email template for workflow event notification:

  1. In CRXDE, open the file:

    /libs/settings/workflow/notification/email/default/en.txt

  2. Modify the file to your needs.

  3. Save the changes.

The template needs to have the following format:

subject=<text_1>
 header=<text_2>
 message=<text_3>
 footer=<text_4>
NOTE
Where <text_x> can be a mix of static text and dynamic string variables. Each line of an <text_x> item needs to be ended with a backslash ( \), except for the last instance, when the absence of the backslash indicates the end of the <text_x> string variable.
More information about the template format can be found in the javadocs of the Properties.load() method.

The method ${payload.path.open} reveals the path to the payload of the workitem. For example, for a page in Sites then then payload.path.open would be similar to /bin/wcmcommand?cmd=open&path=….; this is without the server name, which is why the template prepends this with ${host.prefix}.

The following variables can be used within the email template:

  • ${event.EventType}, type of the event

  • ${event.TimeStamp}, date and time of the event

  • ${event.User}, the user who triggered the event

  • ${initiator.home}, the initiator node path

  • ${initiator.name}, the initiator name

  • ${initiator.email}, email address of the initiator

  • ${item.id}, the id of the work item

  • ${item.node.id}, id of the node in the workflow model associated with this workitem

  • ${item.node.title}, title of the work item

  • ${participant.email}, email address of the participant

  • ${participant.name}, name of the participant

  • ${participant.familyName}, family name of the participant

  • ${participant.id}, id of the participant

  • ${participant.language}, the participant language

  • ${instance.id}, the workflow id

  • ${instance.state}, the workflow state

  • ${model.title}, title of the workflow model

  • ${model.id}, the id of the workflow model

  • ${model.version}, the version of the workflow model

  • ${payload.data}, the payload

  • ${payload.type}, the payload type

  • ${payload.path}, path of the payload

  • ${host.prefix}, host prefix, for example,: http://localhost:4502

Adding an Email Template for a New Language adding-an-email-template-for-a-new-language

To add a template for a new language:

  1. In CRXDE, add a file <language-code>.txt below:

    • /libs/settings/notification-templates/com.day.cq.wcm.core.page : for page notifications
    • /libs/settings/workflow/notification/email/default : for workflow notifications

  2. Adapt the file to the language.

  3. Save the changes.

NOTE
The <language-code> used as the filename for the email template needs to be a two-letters lower-case language code that is recognized by AEM. For language codes, AEM relies on ISO-639-1.

Configuring AEM Assets email notifications assetsconfig

When Collections in AEM Assets are shared or unshared, users can receive email notifications from AEM. To configure email notifications, follow these steps.

  1. Configure the email service, as described above in Configuring the Mail Service.
  2. Log into AEM as an administrator. Click Tools > Operations > Web Console to open Web Console Configuration.
  3. Edit Day CQ DAM Resource Collection Servlet. Select send email. Click Save.

Setting Up OAuth setting-up-oauth

AEM offers OAuth2 support for its integrated Mailer Service, to allow organizations to adhere to secure email requirements.

You can configure OAuth for multiple email providers, as outlined below.

NOTE
This procedure is an example for a Publish instance. If you wish to enable email notifications on an Author instance, you need to follow the same steps on the Author.

Gmail gmail

  1. Create your project at https://console.developers.google.com/projectcreate

  2. Select your project, then go to APIs & Services - Dashboard - Credentials

  3. Configure the OAuth Consent Screen per your requirements

  4. In the Update Screen that follows, add these two scopes:

    • https://mail.google.com/
    • https://www.googleapis.com//auth/gmail.send

  5. Once you have added the scopes, go back to Credentials in the left hand menu, then go to Create Credentials - OAuth Client ID - Desktop app

  6. A new window opens containing the Client ID and Client Secret.

  7. Save these credentials.

AEM Side Configurations

NOTE
Adobe Managed Service customers can work with their Customer Service Engineer to make these changes to production environments.

First, configure the Mail Service:

  1. Open the AEM Web Console by going to http://serveraddress:serverport/system/console/configMgr

  2. Look for, then click Day CQ Mail Service

  3. Add the following settings:

    • SMTP Server Host Name: smtp.gmail.com
    • SMTP Server Port: 25 or 587, depending on the requirements
    • Check the tickboxes for SMPT use StarTLS and SMTP requires StarTLS
    • Check OAuth flow and click Save.

Next, configure your SMTP OAuth provider by following the procedure below:

  1. Open the AEM Web Console by going to http://serveraddress:serverport/system/console/configMgr

  2. Look for, then click CQ Mailer SMTP OAuth2 Provider

  3. Fill in the required information as follows:

    • Authorization URL: https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth
    • Token URL: https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token
    • Scopes: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.send and https://mail.google.com/. You can add more than one scope by pressing the + button to the right hand side of each configured scope.
    • Client ID and Client Secret: configure these fields with the values that you retrieved as described in the above paragraph.
    • Refresh token URL: https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token
    • Refresh Token Expiry: never

  4. Click Save.

Once configured, the settings should look like this:

The CQ Mailer SMTP Oauth2 Provider configuration window

Now, activate the OAuth components. You can do this by:

  1. Go to the Components Console by visiting this URL: http://serveraddress:serverport/system/console/components

  2. Look for the following components

    • com.day.cq.mailer.oauth.servlets.handler.OAuthCodeGenerateServlet
    • com.day.cq.mailer.oauth.servlets.handler.OAuthCodeAccessTokenGenerator

  3. Press the Play icon to the left of the components

    List of components showing the OAuthCodeGenerateServlet and OAuthCodeAccessTokenGenerator

Finally, confirm the configuration by:

  1. Going to the address of the Publish instance, and logging in as admin.
  2. Open a new tab in the browser and go to http://serveraddress:serverport/services/mailer/oauth2/authorize. This will redirect you to the page of your SMTP provider, in this case Gmail.
  3. Login and consent to giving required permissions
  4. After consenting, the token will be stored in the repository. You can access it under accessToken by directly accessing this URL on your publish instance: http://serveraddress:serverport/crx/de/index.jsp#/conf/global/settings/mailer/oauth
  5. Repeat the above for each publish instance

Microsoft Outlook microsoft-outlook

  1. Go to https://portal.azure.com/ and log in.

  2. Search for Azure Active Directory in the search bar and click the result. Alternatively, you can browse directly to https://portal.azure.com/#blade/Microsoft_AAD_IAM/ActiveDirectoryMenuBlade/Overview

  3. Click on App Registration - New Registration

    The new registration button when configuring Microsoft Outlook

  4. Fill in the information according to your requirements, then click Register

  5. Go to the newly created app, and select API Permissions

  6. Go to Add Permission - Graph Permission - Delegated Permissions

  7. Select the below permissions for your app, then click Add Permission:

    • SMTP.Send
    • Mail.Read
    • Mail.Send
    • openid
    • offline_access

  8. Go to Authentication - Add a platform - Web, and in the Redirect Urls section, add the following URL for redirecting the OAuth code, then press Configure:

    • http://localhost:4503/services/mailer/oauth2/token

  9. Repeat the above for each publish instance

  10. Configure the settings according to your requirements

  11. Next, go to Certificates and Secrets, click New client secret and follow the on screen steps to create a secret. Make sure to take note of this secret for later use

  12. Press Overview in the left hand pane and copy the values for Application (client) ID and Directory (tenant) ID for later use

To recap, you must have the following information to configure OAuth2 for the Mailer service on the AEM side:

  • The Auth URL, which will be constructed with the tenant ID. It will have this form: https://login.microsoftonline.com/<tenantID>/oauth2/v2.0/authorize
  • The Token URL, which will be constructed with the tenant ID. It will have this form: https://login.microsoftonline.com/<tenantID>/oauth2/v2.0/token
  • The Refresh URL, which will be constructed with the tenant ID. It will have this form: https://login.microsoftonline.com/<tenantID>/oauth2/v2.0/token
  • The Client ID
  • The Client Secret

AEM Side Configurations

Next, integrate your OAuth2 settings with AEM:

  1. Go to the Web Console of your local instance by browsing to http://serveraddress:serverport/system/console/configMgr

  2. Look for and click Day CQ Mail Service

  3. Add the following settings:

    • SMTP Server Host Name: smtp.office365.com
    • SMTP user: your username in email format
    • “From” address: The email address to use in the “From:” field of messages sent by the mailer
    • SMTP Server Port: 25 or 587 depending on the requirements
    • Check the tickboxes for SMPT use StarTLS and SMTP requires StarTLS
    • Check OAuth flow and click Save.

  4. Look for, then click CQ Mailer SMTP OAuth2 Provider

  5. Fill in the required information as follows:

    • Fill in the Authorization Url, Token Url and Refresh Token URL by constructing them as described at the end of this procedure

    • Client ID and Client Secret: configure these fields with the values that you retrieved as described above.

    • Add the following Scopes to the configuration:

      • openid
      • offline_access
      • https://outlook.office365.com/Mail.Send
      • https://outlook.office365.com/Mail.Read
      • https://outlook.office365.com/SMTP.Send

    • AuthCode Redirect Url: http://localhost:4503/services/mailer/oauth2/token

    • Refresh Token URL: this should have the same value as the Token Url above

  6. Click Save.

Once configured, the settings should look like this:

The completed CQ Mailer SMTP OAuth2 configuration

Now, activate the OAuth components. You can do this by:

  1. Go to the Components Console by visiting this URL: http://serveraddress:serverport/system/console/components

  2. Look for the following components

    • com.day.cq.mailer.oauth.servlets.handler.OAuthCodeGenerateServlet
    • com.day.cq.mailer.oauth.servlets.handler.OAuthCodeAccessTokenGenerator

  3. Press the Play icon to the left of the components

A snippet of the component list containing OAuthCodeGenerateServlet and OAuthCodeAccessTokenGenerator

Finally, confirm the configuration by:

  1. Going to the address of the Publish instance, and logging in as admin.
  2. Open a new tab in the browser and go to http://serveraddress:serverport/services/mailer/oauth2/authorize. This will redirect you to the page of your SMTP provider, in this case Outlook.
  3. Login and consent to giving required permissions
  4. After consenting, the token will be stored in the repository. You can access it under accessToken by directly accessing this URL on your publish instance: http://serveraddress:serverport/crx/de/index.jsp#/conf/global/settings/mailer/oauth
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