---
title: Configuring workflow email notifications
---

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>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

When a page reaches a workflow step, the system can send out notification email messages to those involved in the workflow process. This page describes how to enable email notifications:

- [globally](#enabling-workflow-email-notifications-globally)
- [for a workflow](#configuring-email-notifications-for-a-workflow)
- [for a workflow step](#configuring-email-notifications-for-a-particular-custom-workflow-step)

The topic applies to both basic and advanced workflow.

The emails are based on global email templates. Xperience comes with several default templates, which you can use without any additional configuration. If you want to create your own email templates for workflow notifications, follow the instructions in the [Writing workflow email templates](#writing-workflow-email-templates) section.

The system sends notification emails according to the following rules:

- When a page reaches a step (except Edit, Published and Archived), the **Waiting for approval** email is sent to users allowed to approve or reject the current (new) step.
- When someone approves a page, i.e., moves it from an approval step to the next step, the **Approved** email is sent to the user who submitted the page for approval.
- When someone rejects a page, i.e, moves it to the previous step, the **Rejected** email is sent to the user who submitted the page for approval.
- Emails are never sent to users who performed the action that invoked the sending.

> **Note:** The system sends all workflow emails to users who have the **Manage workflow** permission, regardless of the settings on the **Security** tab of a [custom workflow step](#configuring-email-notifications-for-a-particular-custom-workflow-step).

## Enabling workflow email notifications globally

1. Open the **Settings** application.
2. Navigate to **Content -> Content management**.
3. Turn the **Send workflow emails** setting on.
4. Type an address into the **Send workflow emails from** setting. This address will appear to recipients as the sender of the emails.
5. Click **Save**.

## Configuring email notifications for a workflow

1. Edit () the workflow and switch to the **Emails** tab.
2. Set the **Send notification emails** setting to **Yes**. Alternatively, you can **Use site settings**.
3. Check the box next to events that you want users to be notified about:
   - **Send waiting for approval** – sends an email when a page reaches an approval step (i.e. all steps except Edit, Published and Archived).
   - **Send approved**– sends an email when a page leaves an approval step in the direction towards the end of the workflow process.
   - **Send rejected** – sends an email when a page leaves a step in the direction towards the beginning of the workflow process.
   - **Send published** – sends an email when a page reaches a Published step.
   - **Send archived**– sends an email when a page reaches an Archived step.
4. (Optional) Select an email template for events for which you don't want to use the default template.
   - To bring up the list of available templates, click **Select**.
   - To edit the currently selected template, click **Edit**.
   - To create a new template, click **New**.
   - To clear your template selection and revert back to the default template, click **Clear**.
5. (Optional) Specify whether you want to notify users who are not involved in the process. This notification will be sent every time a page reaches a step that needs to be manually approved.
   1. Select users using the **Add users** button.
   2. (Optional) Select an email template. Otherwise, the default template will be used.
6. Click **Save**.

## Configuring email notifications for a particular custom workflow step

You can configure email notifications for particular **custom** workflow steps.

1. Edit the step and switch to the **Emails** tab.
2. Set the **Send notification emails** setting to **Yes**. Alternatively, you can **Use workflow settings**. See [Configuring email notifications for a workflow](#configuring-email-notifications-for-a-workflow).
3. Choose events you want users to be notified about.
   - **Send waiting for approval** – sends an email when a page reaches the step.
   - **Send approved**– sends an email when a page leaves the step in the direction towards the end of the workflow process.
   - **Send rejected** – sends an email when a page leaves the step in the direction towards the beginning of the workflow process.
4. (Optional) Select an email template for events for which you don't want to use the default template.
   - To bring up the list of available templates, click **Select**.
   - To edit the currently selected template, click **Edit**.
   - To create a new template, click **New**.
   - To clear your template selection and revert back to the default template, click **Clear**.
5. Click **Save**.

## Writing workflow email templates

1. Open the **Email templates** application.
2. In the **Site** drop-down list, select global.
3. Click **New template**.
4. Enter a name for the new template into the **Display name** field.
5. Choose **Workflow** from the **Email type** drop-down list. This ensures that you will have relevant macros available to insert into the template's text.
6. (Optional) Specify a sender, a recipient, copy and blind copy recipients and a subject (**From**, **Cc**, **Bcc** and **Subject** fields).
7. Write the text of the template.

   - An email template can have two formats – HTML and plain text. You should write the template text at least in the format that you use on you websites. By default, the system sends HTML emails. You can find out what your settings are in **Settings -> System -> Emails -> Email format**.You can insert context-specific information into the template's text, such as the current step name or the link to edit the page, using macros. See the following section for a list of available macros.
8. Click **Save**.

## Macros in workflow email templates

In email templates of the **Workflow** type, you can use [macros](https://docs.kentico.com/13/macro-expressions.md) that hold information about the workflow and about the page that invoked sending the email. The following list presents workflow-related macros that you can use:

- **ActionDefinition** – object that holds the parameters of the current step, if the current step is an action step.
- **ApplicationURL** – URL address of the application.
- **Comment** – comment that users can add when approving or rejecting pages.
- **CurrentStep** – object that holds data of the step the page is currently in.
- **CurrentUser** – object that holds data of the currently logged in user.
- **Document** – object that holds data of the page.
- **DocumentPreviewUrl** – address where anyone can view the latest version of the page as it would appear on the live site.
- **DocumentEditUrl** – address pointing to the page in the **Pages** application where editors can modify the page.
- **DocumentActionName** – name of the action that was performed with the page. The macro has four possible values.
  - Approve
  - Archive
  - Publish
  - Reject
- **OriginalStep**– object that holds data of the step the page was in before it was moved to the current step.
- **Workflow** – object that holds data of the workflow process.