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A channel is a way a notification reaches people. Omnilinker has two: Slack, Microsoft Teams, SMS and webhook channels are not available: Omnilinker cannot post notifications to a chat or call your URL. For a system that must react to order changes, see Webhooks and change feeds.

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Before you start

To set up email you need the Manage channels permission, under Notification Center. It exists only if your plan includes Email notifications. Without that, notifications reach the bell and the inbox only, and the email buttons on How I get notified are greyed out.

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Open the Channels page

Open Administration > Settings and choose Channels under Notifications, at /settings/notifications/channels. You can also reach it from the Manage link on How I get notified. The top card lists both channels:
  • Bell: “Built in · nothing to set up · N delivered this week”, marked Always on.
  • Email: the mail server, how many emails were sent this week and how many failed. It is marked Ready, Off, or with the number that failed, for example 3 failed.

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Set up email

1

Switch email on

In the Email card, turn the switch on. It reads Enabled. Email is on by default.
2

Enter the sender

Under Sender, enter the From name and the From address that notifications are sent from.
3

Enter your mail server

Under Mail server, enter the Host, the Port, and the Security: SSL/TLS or None. Enter the Username, and click Set next to Password to type it. “Stored encrypted. Never shown again after saving.” To change a saved password later, click Replace.
4

Set the hourly limit

Under Limits: “Send at most … emails an hour for the whole workspace.” The default is 200.
5

Save and test

While you change something, a bar appears at the bottom of the page: Unsaved changes, Discard and Save (or press Ctrl+S). Click Save. Then click Send a test to me: Omnilinker sends a test email to your own address and says “A test email went to …” or why it failed. The button is disabled while there are unsaved changes, because the test goes through the saved settings.
With your own mail server, notifications go out through it, so replies and your domain’s sender checks, such as SPF, stay yours.
The sender and mail server are your organization’s email settings, shared with every other email Omnilinker sends for you, such as password reset emails. Changing them here changes those too.

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When your platform manages the mail server

If your plan does not allow changing email settings, the page says “The mail server is managed by your platform administrator. You can switch email on or off and set the hourly limit.” The Mail server fields are hidden and the sender is shown read-only. You can still switch email on or off, change the hourly limit and send a test.

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Email health

The Email card also shows the Last 7 days: a bar for each day, and the number Sent, the share Delivered, and how many People use it. When emails failed this week, a strip says “Failed this week: N.” with the latest failures: the time, the person and the mail server’s reason. If you cannot change the mail server, the reason reads “The email could not be sent. Your platform administrator can see why.” People with Manage channels also see a Notification email card on Home, with the emails sent in the last 7 days, the share delivered, and a warning when every email today failed. While email is switched off, the card says “Notification email is off” and offers Set up email.

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How email is sent

  • One email per notification that reaches a person right away, when their Interrupt me line includes email.
  • One email per digest or summary, when that line includes email. A digest lists the topics it bundled, the most serious first, with a link to each one’s page where it has one, and a link to the inbox.
  • Escalations go by email when the escalation step asks for it; see Escalation policies.
With the default templates, a notification email has an Open in Omnilinker button to the page the notification is about, when there is one, and every email has a link to change how the person gets notified. The words come from your message templates. Two limits keep the volume down: A failed email is retried. Omnilinker stops retrying when the person has no email address, when the mail server rejects the message outright, or after 10 attempts. A notification whose email failed is still in the inbox, and its Activity says what happened to the email.

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Switch email off

Turn the Email switch off and click Save in the bar at the bottom. No notification emails are sent; every notification still reaches the bell and the inbox. People’s choices of email are kept, and apply again when you switch email back on.

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Troubleshooting

The mail server refused the test. The text after the colon is the server’s reason, for example a wrong password, a refused connection or a certificate problem. Check Host, Port, Security, Username and Password, save, and send the test again.
Your platform manages the mail server, and the test failed there. Ask your platform administrator.
The test goes to your own account’s address. Add an email address to your account, then send the test again.
When every email today failed, the mail server is the likely cause rather than one address. The Notification email card on Home says “Every email today failed. Check the mail server on the Channels page.” Check the reasons under Failed this week.
Ask them to open the notification in their inbox and read Activity: it says whether the email was sent, failed, or was not sent because a limit was reached or email was off. Also check their settings on How I get notified: a line without email sends none.

How I get notified

Choose which lines also go by email.

Message templates

Change the words in notification emails.

Limits and retention

The per-person email limit and how long the delivery log is kept.

Features

What your plan includes.