Accessing your notifications

The Notifications task of z/OSMF allows you to view and work with your z/OSMF notifications.

In z/OSMF, a notification is a notice of some occurrence in the system that requires your awareness or response. That is, a notification can be informational in nature, or it can be a request for action from another z/OSMF task.

You might receive notifications that have been assigned to:

Your user ID specifically
A security group to which your user ID is connected, as defined through your security management product, such as RACF
A z/OSMF role to which your user ID is assigned.

When you have unread notifications, the Notifications task is shown in bold in the navigation area with the number of unread notifications in the form '(x).' For example, Notifications (3) indicates that you have three unread notifications. If no unread notifications await your attention, the Notifications task is shown without emphasis in the navigation area.

To access your notifications, select the Notifications task in the navigation area. In the Notifications task, each notification is displayed as a row in the Notifications table. Unread notifications are shown in bold. After you have acted on a notification, mark it as read or delete it, as appropriate. A notification is no longer shown in bold when it is marked as read. You can modify multiple notifications at one time.

For some notifications, a hyperlink is provided to a z/OSMF task that requires further action. If a notification is displayed as a hyperlink, you can click the link to launch the task in a new tab or window. Or, you can select the notification in the Notifications table and select Go to Task from the Actions menu or context menu.

The Notifications task is displayed for all authenticated users. Unauthenticated guest users cannot access this task.

Regardless of whether you access your notifications, z/OSMF deletes them automatically after a given period of time has elapsed, or if a maximum number of notifications is reached for your installation. These threshold settings are controlled by your installation, as described in IBM z/OS Management Facility Configuration Guide.

For a description of the columns in the Notifications table, see Table 1. For a description of the actions that you can take for notifications, see Actions for Notifications.

Columns in the Notifications table

Table 1. Columns in the Notifications table
Column	Description
Description	Description text for the notification. This value can be a hyperlink to a task in z/OSMF. To launch the task, click the hyperlink. If the notification allows application linking than the value of the Description column will still be a link and clicking on it will lead the user to the receiver task. If the notification is user initiated than the value of the Description column will be a link and clicking on it will lead the user to the detailed notifications panel.
From	If the notification is initiated from a z/OSMF task, the value of this column will be the task name. If the notification is initiated from a z/OSMF user, the value of this column will be the user ID.
To	The users, groups, and roles to which the notification was sent.
Time	Time when the notification was created, based on the locale and time zone setting for your browser.

Actions for Notifications

The actions are described in the following tables:

Targeted actions. Actions that apply to the selected items. To use a targeted action, you must select one or more items.
Table actions. Actions that apply to the entire table such as sorting and filtering. No selection is required.

Table 2. Targeted actions
Action	Description
Go to Task	This action is enabled if the description field is a hyperlink to the z/OSMF task that created the notification. Select this action to launch the task, or click the hyperlink. Otherwise, this action is not available.
Mark as Read	Mark the selected notification as read.
Mark as Unread	Mark the selected notification as unread.
Delete	Delete the selected notification from your Notifications table. If the notification was sent to other user IDs, groups, or roles, the notification remains available to those other recipients. If no other users are recipients for the notification, it is permanently deleted from z/OSMF.
New	Clicking on this action will open a new panel for the user to create a new notification. The panel will include user input fields consisting of: subject, to, body, and attachment. After the successful completion of a notification, the user will return to the notifications mail page with the newly created item now added to the table. The value of the Description column of the new item will be the subject.
Sent	Clicking on this action allows a user to view the notifications that they have sent. It shows the description of the notification, who the notification was sent to, and the time that the notification was sent.

Table 3. Table actions
Action	Description
Select All	Select all of the items in the table.
Deselect All	Deselect all of the items in the table.
Modify Filters…	Specify or remove the filter criteria for each column in the table.
Hide Filter Row	Remove the filter row from view. If the filter row is displayed in the table, the Hide Filter Row action is listed. Otherwise, the Show Filter Row action is listed.
Show Filter Row	Display the filter row. If the filter row is displayed in the table, the Hide Filter Row action is listed. Otherwise, the Show Filter Row action is listed.
Clear Filters	Clear all of the filters specified in the table.
Modify Sort…	Sort rows by up to three columns.
Clear Sorts	Clear the sort from all of the columns in the table. When you use this action, the column defaults to a descending sort.
Clear Search	Clear the search.

Sent Notifications

Table 4. Columns in the Sent Notifications table
Column	Description
Subject	The text describing the notification that has been sent. This value can be a hyperlink to a task in z/OSMF. To launch the task, the recipient of the notification must click the hyperlink. If the notification allows application linking than the value of the subject column will still be a link and clicking on it will lead the user to the receiver task. If the notification is user initiated than the value of the subject column will be a link and clicking on it will lead the user to the detailed notifications panel.
From	If the notification is initiated from a z/OSMF task, the value of this column will be the task name. If the notification is initiated from a z/OSMF user, the value of this column will be the user ID.
To	The users, groups, and roles to which the notification was sent.
Time	Time when the notification was created, based on the locale and time zone setting for your browser.

For a description of actions for sent notifications, see Actions for Notifications.