Administering task reminders

You can set up automated email reminders based on the tasks in the system and their relevant dates. For example, you can send Preparers an automated email the day after the required start date of a task to remind them that they have a task that should have been started. Similarly, you can send an automated email to Approvers for a task to remind them of an upcoming due date.

To use email reminders, you must specify the SMTP server.

For more information, see Specifying the email server for reminders and notifications.

Understanding task tokens

In some cases, you may be able to use a token to include dynamic information from the Tasks app in a reminder email. You can use tokens in the email subject or body for a reminder. Tokens are replaced in the reminder email based on the row’s value for the corresponding column.

Token names correspond to the columns in the Tasks app:

• #Status 
• #Preparer
• #Reviewer
• #Approver
• #ID
• #Entity
• #Jurisdiction_Level
• #Jurisdiction
• #Description
• #Due_Date
• #Start_Date
• #Completion_Date
• #Notes

Adding reminders

You can create customized email reminders to alert users about dates associated with tasks.

To add a reminder:

1. In the Task Management navigation pane, click Administration.
2. Expand Tasks, and then click Reminders.lvapp. The Reminders app opens in the workspace.
3. Click Add. A new row appears in the list.
4. Complete the following information:

   Field	Notes
   Reminder Category	Select the category for the reminder. When you create tasks in the Task Details app, you can select a category for each task. If you do not select a Reminder Category, any tasks without a Reminder Category will be treated as members of this category. For information on adding categories to this drop-down list, see Configuring Task Management settings.
   Description	Type a description for the reminder. This field can contain a maximum of 100 characters.
   Reminder Field	Select the date field on which to send reminders. You can select from one of the following: Due Date—Select this option to create a reminder based on the due date for the task. Start Date—Select this option to create a reminder based on the start date for the task. Completion Date—Select this option to create a reminder based on the completion date for the task. Processed Date—Select this option to create a reminder based on the processed date for the task.
   Days (Before) / After	Type the number of days before or after the date for the Reminder Field to send the email. Indicate days before with a negative sign ( -  ). For example, to send an email four days before the date, type -4. If you want to send the email on the date, type 0.
   Email Subject	Type a subject for the reminder email. Optionally, you can use tokens in the email subject. For more information, see Understanding task tokens. This field can contain a maximum of 255 characters.
   Email Body	Type the body for the reminder email. If you need to include double quotation marks in the email body, you must use the html character entity ( &quot; ). Similarly, if you need to use multiple lines, you must use the html break tag ( <br> ). Optionally, you can use tokens in the email body. For more information, see Understanding task tokens. This field can contain a maximum of 4000 characters.
   Email All Users	Select this option to email all users in the Longview system.
   Email All Preparers	Select this option to email all users who are assigned as Preparers for the tasks that meet the reminder criteria.
   Email All Reviewers	Select this option to email all users who are assigned as Reviewers for the tasks that meet the reminder criteria.
   Email All Approvers	Select this option to email all users who are assigned as Approvers for the tasks that meet the reminder criteria.
   Email All Assigned	Select this option to email all Assigned Users for the tasks that meet the reminder criteria.
   Email Specific Users	If you want to send an email to specific Longview users when a task meets the reminder criteria, select them in the list.
   Email Non-Longview Users	If you want to send an email to external users when a task meets the reminder criteria, type their email addresses in this field. Separate multiple emails with a semicolon ( ; ).
   Status Filter	Use this field to filter reminders to those tasks with the specified Status. For example, if you select Not Started for this field, reminders will be sent only for tasks that are Not Started and meet the criteria for Reminder Field and Days (Before) / After. You can filter reminders for more than one Status. Separate multiple statuses with a semicolon ( ; ).
   Recur Daily	Select this option if you want the reminder email to be sent daily when the Status Filter and Days (Before) / After conditions are met. Reminders are sent daily until the task is Completed, Approved, or Archived, or satisfies the Status Filter. If you do not select this option, reminders are sent only once.

5. When you are finished, click Submit.

Updating reminders

You can click the cell that you want to edit for a reminder to make a change at any time. Click Submit to apply your changes.

Displaying reminders

The Reminders app has some display features that allow you to customize the view for your list, including

• filtering and grouping reminders
• sorting
• reordering
• hiding columns.

Filtering reminders

If your reminder list is large, you may want to specify a filter on certain columns so that your list is easier to manage. For example, you may want to filter by Reminder Category.

To filter reminders:

1. In the Task Management navigation pane, click Administration.
2. Expand Tasks, and then click Reminders.lvapp. The Reminders app opens in the workspace. 
3. Click Filter. The Filter arrow becomes available in each column header.
4. Hover over the relevant column header and click the Filter arrow.
5. Select the column values to filter on. 

Note: If you add a new row or modify values, you must click the Filter arrow and click OK to reapply the filter.

To remove filters:

1. Click Remove Filter.

   All filters in the view are removed, and the Filter arrow is no longer available in the column headers.

Grouping reminders

If you want to organize your reminder list in certain way, you can group the reminders by a specific column.

To group reminders:

1. In the Task Management navigation pane, click Administration.
2. Expand Tasks, and then click Reminders.lvapp. The Reminders app opens in the workspace.
3. In the Group by list, select the column to group the task list by. The list is grouped by the selected column. Any tasks that do not include a value for that column are grouped in the Unspecified category.

To ungroup reminders:

1. In the Task Management navigation pane, click Administration.
2. Expand Tasks, and then click Reminders.lvapp. The Reminders app opens in the workspace.
3. In the Group by list, select the blank entry. The list is ungrouped.

Changing column order

If you want to view reminders using a custom column order, you can change the order of the columns. Drag and drop a column to change its order in the Reminders app.

Sorting Columns

Click a column header at any time to sort the column in ascending or descending alphabetic or numeric order.

Hiding columns

If a particular column in the Reminders app is not relevant to you or your organization, you can hide it. To hide a column, right-click the header for the column that you want to hide, and select Hide on the pop-up menu. To unhide all columns, right-click any header, and select Unhide all on the pop-up menu.

Saving your view

If you have made layout changes to your view, such as hiding columns, changing column order, width, or sorting, grouping reminders, or filtering, they are saved when you exit the Reminders app.

Note: The layout for the Reminders app is always saved when you exit the app. If you have made changes to your preferred layout, but don’t want to save them, reload your saved layout before you exit.

Reloading your saved layout

You can reload your saved layout the next time you work in the Reminders app.

To reload your saved layout:

1. In the Reminders app, click Layout.
2. On the pop-up menu, click Reload. The layout returns to the last saved layout.

Resetting the layout

You can reset the Reminders app to the default layout provided by Longview. The default layout sorts by ID, with no grouping or filtering.

To reset the layout for the Reminders app:

1. In the Reminders app, click Layout.
2. On the pop-up menu, click Reset. The layout returns to the default layout provided by Longview.

Deleting reminders

To delete a reminder

1. click the row selector to the left of the row for the reminder that you want to delete
2. click Delete on the toolbar.

Exporting reminders to Microsoft Excel

You can export information for all reminders in the Reminders app to Microsoft Excel.

Only the current view is exported. Data that is included in a filter, or in columns that are hidden, is not exported. New reminders that have not yet been submitted to the database will be exported.

To export the current reminder view to Microsoft Excel:

1. On the Reminders app toolbar, click Export to Excel. The Save As dialog opens.
2. Navigate to the location where you want the file to be saved.
3. Type the name of the file you want the tasks to be exported to.
4. Click Save. The file opens in Microsoft Excel.

Exporting reminders to a .csv file

If you want to create a backup of the reminders in the system, you can export the reminder list to a .csv file.

Note that, during export, the following behavior applies:

• values for string fields are enclosed in double quotation marks.
• symbol names are wrapped in square brackets [ ].
• date formats are converted using the short date specified for the client machine’s regional settings.
• the file delimiter is converted to the list delimiter specified by the client machine’s regional settings.

To export reminders to a .csv file:

1. In the Task Management navigation pane, click Administration.
2. Expand Tasks, and then click Reminders.lvapp. The Reminders app opens in the workspace.
3. On the app toolbar, click Export. An export dialog opens.
4. Modify the location and file name of the export as needed.
   The default location and file name is My Documents\Longview\<LID>\data\ReminderData.csv.
5. Click OK. The file is exported. 

Importing reminders from a .csv file

The Reminders app includes import functionality that allows you to import reminders from a .csv file.

Note that, during import, the following behavior applies:

• double quotation marks are removed from string fields.
• square brackets [ ] are removed from symbol names. 

To import reminders from a .csv file:

1. In the Task Management navigation pane, click Administration.
2. Expand Tasks, and then click Reminders.lvapp. The Reminders app opens in the workspace.
3. On the app toolbar, click Import. A browse dialog opens.
4. Type the name of the file to import or use the browse button to browse to the appropriate .csv file.
5. If you want to clear all the reminders in the system and replace them with those in the specified .csv file, select Replace all. If you do not select this option, new reminders will be appended to the reminder list.
6. Click OK. The reminders are imported from the selected .csv file.