XNAT can be configured to send automated notifications on system events to a series of email address of your choice. It also provides multiple mechanisms for allowing you to alert XNAT users.
Developer Note
This functionality has been overhauled in XNAT 1.7 and now uses the XAPI notifications api. You can find additional documentation and working examples of this in the Swagger XAPI browser embedded in your XNAT application by going to Administer > Site Administration > Miscellaneous > View Swagger
Notifications Prerequisite: Configure the XNAT Email Server
In order to send any automated or manual notifications, SMTP must be enabled in your XNAT and the XNAT Email Server must be properly configured. These settings can be updated at Administer > Site Administration > Email Server. Contact your local network administrator if you are not sure which settings to use here.
Managing Automated Notifications
When you go through your initial site setup, you are asked to provide an administrative contact email. This email is then used as the default contact method for all XNAT notifications. However, you can easily split this up into multiple emails for various system events if you prefer, using the Admin UI. Go to Administer > Site Administration > Notifications to begin.
You can also edit your Admin contact email at Administer > Site Administration > Site Setup.
System Event Contacts
By default, XNAT will allow you to specify any email address as recipients of notifications, including non-users. You can limit these email address to those of registered users by setting "Allow Non-user Subscribers" to FALSE on the Notifications Admin page.
| Event | Description |
|---|---|
| Help Contact Info | The email address provided will be the recipient of any user query sent through the contact form located in the Help > Report An Issue page. It will also be listed as a contact in emails sent to users on various error conditions. It is recommended that this email address be monitored by a real person, and not an auto-response agent. |
| Error Messages | This is not currently used by default in XNAT, but data processing scripts and pipelines could be configured to send error messages to the listed email address. |
| Issue Reports | This is not currently used by default in XNAT, but new plugins, scripts or pipelines could be configured to send issue reports to the listed email address. |
| New User Alert | This is not currently used by default in XNAT, but a future release will send new user registration notifications to this email address. Currently, these notifications are sent to the primary site admin email address. |
| Updates | This is not currently used by default in XNAT, but new plugins, scripts or pipelines could be configured to send update reports to the listed email address. |
Editing Default Email Messages
The Notifications Admin page allows you to edit the default email messages sent to users on new user registration events, or on user "forgot username" or "forgot password" events. Please note that these system emails are configured to use a series of shortcodes, or strings that will be replaced with system values.
Shortcode Reference
| Shortcode | Replacement Value |
|---|---|
| SITE_NAME | Your XNAT's site name, which is set in Administer > Site Administration > Site Setup |
| SITE_URL | Your XNAT's URL, which is set in Administer > Site Administration > Site Setup |
| USER_USERNAME | The username or login of the registered user, which is unique and set by the user |
| USER_FIRSTNAME | The first name provided by the registered user. This can be edited by the user in their profile, or by the site administrator in Administer > Users |
| USER_LASTNAME | The last name provided by the registered user. This can be edited by the user in their profile, or by the site administrator in Administer > Users |
| ADMIN_EMAIL | The primary XNAT administration contact email, which is set in Site Administration > Site Setup |
| HELP_EMAIL | The Help Contact Info email specified above |
Editing Password Reset Emails
The email that is sent to users who request a password reset has a unique shortcode in it that must be included: RESET_URL. This shortcode will be replaced with the URL the user should go to in order to reset their password. The link includes a newly created token that is only good for one use. This token will expire after the amount of time specified in XNAT Security Settings > User Logins/Session Controls > Alias Token Timeout.
Sending Custom Notifications to Users via Email
This UI will be updated in a future release of XNAT 1.7, and these documents will be updated accordingly.
XNAT provides a bare-bones interface for sending email alerts to one or more registered users. This can be accessed at Administer > Send Email. Please note that SMTP must be activated and the XNAT Email server must be configured for this interface to work. See above for info.
Creating Site-wide Alerts
Email alerts are not always effective at immediately notifying users of system conditions or upcoming events such as an IT maintenance window, as it relies on users to (A) check their email, and (B) remember what that email said in the wake of a dozen other daily priorities that can come up. If you have a high-priority message that all users of your XNAT should see, we recommend creating a site-wide notification. Go to Administer > Site Administration > Site Setup and scroll down to Site-wide Alerts.
Settings
| Setting | Property Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Enable Alert Message | siteWideAlertStatus | Toggles between three possible settings:
|
| Alert Message | siteWideAlertMessage | Message text. Can be plaintext or HTML. |
| Alert Type | siteWideAlertType | Toggles between three alert types:
|
Only one site-wide alert can be set up at one time, and it can be positioned in two different places: On the Login Page, and/or in the top navigation section of each page in the site.
The alert message area can accept simple HTML tags such as <a> or <strong> to allow you to add links or emphasis tags. You can also specify an alert type, which will affect the display of the message and its apparent urgency.
If you use HTML, please close your tags properly or you can introduce some unexpected and ugly behavior in the UI.
Viewing Site-wide Alerts on the Login Page
Viewing Site-wide Alerts in the Site Header
