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Version: 3.4.x

Forward notifications to an external system

If the Notification service is not directly connected to an SMTP / SMS server and you want to use an external system for sending the notifications, you can use the notification plugin just to forward the notifications to your custom implementation.

Define needed Kafka topics​

Kafka topic names can be set by using environment variables:

  • KAFKA_TOPIC_NOTIFICATION_INTERNAL_IN - topic used to trigger the request to send a notification
  • KAFKA_TOPIC_NOTIFICATION_EXTERNAL_OUT - the notification will be forwarded on this topic to be handled by an external system
  • KAFKA_TOPIC_NOTIFICATION_INTERNAL_OUT - topic used for sending replies after sending the notification

Example: send a notification from a business flow​

Let's pick a simple use case. Imagine we need to send a new welcome letter when we onboard a new customer. You must follow the next steps:

  1. Configure the template that you want to use for the welcome email, use the WYSIWYG Editor
caution

Make sure that the Forward on Kafka checkbox is ticked, so the notification will be forwarded to an external adapter.

  1. Configure the data model for the template.

  2. To configure a document template, first, you need to define some information stored in the Body:

  • Type - MAIL (for email notifications)
  • ❗️Forward on Kafka - if this box is checked, the notification is not being sent directly by the plugin to the destination, but forwarded to another adapter
  • Language - choose the language for your notification template
  • Subject - enter a subject

  1. Use the FLOWX.AI Designer to create a process definition.
  2. Add a Kafka send event node and a Kafka receive event node (one to send the request, one to receive the reply).
  3. Check if the needed topic (defined at the following environment variable) is configured correctly: KAFKA_TOPIC_NOTIFICATION_INTERNAL_IN.
  4. Add the proper configuration to the action, the Kafka topic, and the body message.

info

Forward on Kafka option will forward the notification to an external adapter, make sure the needed Kafka topic for forwarding is defined/overwritten using the following environment variable: KAFKA_TOPIC_EXTERNAL_OUT.

  1. Run the process and look for the response (you can view it via the Audit log) or by checking the responses on the Kafka topic

Response example at KAFKA_TOPIC_NOTIFICATION_INTERNAL_OUT:

{
  "templateName": "welcomeLetter",
  "receivers": [
    "john.doe@mail.com"
  ],
  "channel": "MAIL",
  "language": "en"
}


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