Reload alerts via Microsoft Teams

What’s this?

Butler can send two kinds of alert messages via Teams:

• When a reload task fails.
• When a reload task is somehow stopped/aborted.

See the Concepts section for additional details.

A complete reference to the config file format is found here.

Basic vs formatted Teams alerts

Teams alerts come in two forms:

• Customizable formatting using a template concept. A standard template that will fit most use cases is included with Butler. With this option the first and last parts of the script log can be included in the message, allowing you to tell from the Teams message what caused the reload to fail.
  You can also add buttons to the message that can be used to open any URL you want, or open the app that failed reloading.
• A fixed, more basic format that is built into Butler. No template file needed.

Which option to go for depends on whether you want just a notification that something went wrong, or if you want as much detail as possible in the Teams message.

Sample message with custom formatting

A “reload task failed” Teams message using the custom formatting option could look like this:

Here’s how to set it up:

1. Create a workflow in Teams, take note of its URL (you will need it in step 2 below). More information on how to create a Teams workflow in the Concepts section.

2. Edit the Teams section of the config file, i.e. the settings in Butler.teamsNotification.reloadTaskFailure.

   The messageType property should be set to formatted.
   The basicMsgTemplate property is not used with formatted messages and can thus be left empty,

3. Edit the template file if/as needed, the file is specified in Butler.teamsNotification.reloadTaskFailure.templateFile.It uses the Handlebars templating engine, to which Butler provides template fields with actual values.

   The available template fields are described here.

   Sample template files are included in the release Zip file, and are also available in the GitHub repository’s src/config/teams_templates directory.

4. Restart Butler if it’s already running.

Sample message with basic formatting

A “reload task failed” Teams message with basic formatting could look like this:

To set it up:

1. Create an incoming webhook in Teams if you don’t already have one, take note of its URL (you will need it in step 2 below).

2. Edit the Teams section of the config file i.e. the settings in Butler.teamsNotification.reloadTaskFailure and/or Butler.teamsNotification.reloadTaskAborted sections of the confi file.

   The messageType property should be set to basic.
   The basicMsgTemplate property is the message that will be sent via Teams. Template fields can be used.

3. Restart Butler if it’s already running.

Customizing Teams messages

When using the formatted Teams alerts you have full freedom to create the alert you need.
Behind the scenes Teams messages are constructed as “Adaptive Cards”, which is standardised JSON format that Teams understands. More information on Adaptive Cards can be found here, here and here.

When it comes to Butler, it uses the Handlebars templating engine to render a template file into an adaptive card JSON object that is then sent to the workflow webhook.

A few things to keep in mind when creating custom Teams messages:

• The handlebars syntax itself must be correct. If incorrect no Teams JSON object will be created. And no Teams message sent.
• The handlebars template must result in a JSON object that adheres to Teams’s specifications for JSON payloads.
  If the JSON syntax is somehow invaid the Teams API will return errors and no messages sent. JSON can be pretty sensitive to details, there should for example not be any trailing commas in properly formatted JSON objects.

Using custom links in templates

It is also possible to define custom links in the config file, and use them in Teams templates.
This is described here: Custom links in alerts.

How it works

The concept is the same as for all alert types.

Settings in config file

---
Butler:
  ...
  ...
  # Settings for notifications and messages sent to MS Teams
  teamsNotification:
    enable: false
    reloadTaskFailure:
      enable: false
      webhookURL: <web hook URL from MS Teams>
      messageType: formatted     # formatted / basic. Formatted means that template file below will be used to create the message.
      basicMsgTemplate: 'Qlik Sense reload failed: "{{taskName}}"'      # Only needed if message type = basic
      rateLimit: 300             # Min seconds between emails for a given taskID. Defaults to 5 minutes.
      headScriptLogLines: 10
      tailScriptLogLines: 10
      templateFile: /path/to/teams/template/directory/failed-reload-qseow.handlebars
    reloadTaskAborted:
      enable: false
      webhookURL: <web hook URL from MS Teams>
      messageType: formatted     # formatted / basic. Formatted means that template file below will be used to create the message.
      basicMsgTemplate: 'Qlik Sense reload aborted: "{{taskName}}"'       # Only needed if message type = basic
      rateLimit: 300             # Min seconds between emails for a given taskID. Defaults to 5 minutes.
      headScriptLogLines: 10
      tailScriptLogLines: 10
      templateFile: /path/to/teams/template/directory/aborted-reload-qseow.handlebars
  ...
  ...
  udpServerConfig:
    enable: false                                     # Should the UDP server responsible for receving task failure and session events be started? true/false
    serverHost: <FQDN or IP (or localhost) of server where Butler is running>
    portTaskFailure: 9998
  ...
  ...