Email notification templates are configurable email notifications that are sent to end users to inform them about an upcoming password expiration. These can be sent out at a particular day (for example, 3 days before password expiration), or within a
certain interval (for example, 10 to 1 day(s) before password expiration). You can create as many email templates as you like. Note that the time of day the notifications will be sent depends on the configuration of the PollingTime registry
setting (the default time is 00:00).
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In the GPO in question, create or Edit a configuration (please refer to the section above on how to create or edit a configuration).
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Click on Email notification templates in the left navigation.
- Click the New button to create a new template.
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Fill out all the fields in the template:
Note that new templates will be partially filled out with default content.
- Days: sets the number of days before password expiration. This can be a specific day (e.g. 3) or an interval (e.g. 20-10). Note that you can also combine multiple days and intervals, as long as you separate them by commas
(e.g. 10-5, 1 for the interval 10 to 5 days prior to expiration and 1 day prior to expiration). If you want to send two different notifications (with different texts), you have to make two templates.
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Sender address: sets the address the mail is sent from. Note that the actual SMTP configuration for the email is set in the SMTP Configuration menu (see section below).
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Sender display name: sets the sender name displayed in the email.
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To: sets the email address of the recipient. This should usually be set to the %mail% placeholder to send it to the user in question.
- CC: sets the email address where a copy can be sent.
- Email priority: sets the priority of the email notification. Can be set to High, Normal, or Low.
- Subject: the email’s subject line.
- Body: the body text of the email.
Copying a template
Templates can be copied by selecting an existing template and clicking on the New Copy button.
NOTE
copies of templates need to be saved by clicking OK once you have made all of your changes. Clicking Cancel will result in the copy being deleted.
Deleting templates
Templates can be deleted by selecting the template you want to delete and clicking the Delete button.
Placeholder text
In most template fields placeholder text can be input, which are variables that will be replaced by relevant values specific to the end user the email is sent to. So, the text “Your password will expire in %TotalDaysLeft% days,” for a template set to
an interval of 20-10 days (in the Days field above), will be sent to all affected users whose password will expire in between 20 to 10 days, and will be converted to “Your password will expire in 12 days.” for a
user whose password will expire in 12 days, while it will say “Your password will expire in 19 days.” for users whose passwords will expire in 19 days.
To insert placeholder texts, right-click inside the field where you want to insert the placeholder, and choose from the list that appears.
The following placholders are available:
- %mail%: end user’s email address.
- %TotalHoursLeft: number of hours left before password expiration.
- %TotalDaysLeft%: number of days left before password expiration.
- %HoursLeft%: number of hours left on the last day before expiration. This can be used in conjunction with
%TotalDaysLeft% to give a more precise expiration time. E.g. “Your password will expire in %TotalDaysLeft% days and
%HoursLeft% hours.”
- %PasswordExpirationTime%: the expiration date and time displayed in the Timezone set in the Date Format configuration; the format is determined by the Region for date format.
- %PasswordExpirationTimeUtc%: the expiration date and time displayed in UTC time. Note that this placeholder is a legacy placeholder and will be phased out in future versions; it will also not appear in the right-click menu.