Send Messages to Users

Message types

There are different types of user messages, according to the action that a message informs a user about.

• Authenticate message — Informs a user that authentication is required to access a URL
• Block message — Informs a user that a request was blocked for various reasons, for example, because a virus was detected in the requested object
• Redirect message — Informs a user that redirecting to another URL is needed for accessing the requested object

Message templates

Messages that are sent to users are based on templates. To modify what a message looks like, you need to adapt these templates. You can do this under the settings for an action.

Message templates contain standard text with variables. The variables are filled with values as needed in a given situation.

All variables used in message templates are also properties used by rules. For example, URL is a variable in a message text and a property when used in a rule to exempt URLs from filtering.

Different versions can exist of a particular template regarding:

• Language — English and other languages
• File format — html or txt

Activities that you can complete when editing a message template include the following:

• Select a language for the message
• Edit the message text
• Replace the variables in the template
• Specify a block reason for logging purposes (only for Block action templates)
• Specify a URL for redirecting (only for Redirect action templates)

Message text and variables

The following text and variables could be contained in a Block message that is sent to a user when access to a requested object has been block due to a virus infection of the object.

• Standard text — The transferred file contained a virus and was therefore blocked.
• Variables — as follows:
  • URL — URL that the user requested to access the file
           The variable used to display a URL is $URL$.
  • Virus name — Name of the found virus that caused the blocking of the file
         The variable used to display a virus name is $List.OfString.ByName(String)$.

When editing a message template, you can select and insert variables from a list of properties. To serve
as variables in message templates, these are converted into strings (if they are not strings already).

For this reason, it makes no sense to select “string converter” properties here, which are properties whose job it is to convert other data types into strings, for example, the NumberToString(String) property.

Template Editor

The Template Editor is a component of the user interface that allows you to work with templates for messages to users. You can access it in several ways.

• Select it under the Policy top-level menu.
• Select the settings for an action:
  • Under Policy | Settings
    
    OR 
     
  • In a rule of a rule set, after enabling the complete rules view and Show details.

Then click Edit within these settings for a template collection or an individual template.