Configure response actions

The Action drop-down list allows you to control what action the system takes based on the response.

  1. Click the Options drop-down menu for your response.
  2. Use the Action drop-down to select an action.
    • The Options menu for a response displays the text from the selected action (for example, "Stop Notifying Target") and the color of the selected contribution value (for example, Positive = green).

For information on setting response count options, see Configure response counts.

Actions specify how each response affects the notification flow. Action options should reflect the goals of your form and the processes that exist in your organization. The following table summarizes the available actions (from the perspective of the recipient who is responding to a notification):

Value Result
Record Response xMatters records the user's response and stops notifying them. When this response action is selected, xMatters does not delink the user from the event. Users can change their responses by responding to the notification again.
Assign to User xMatters stops notifying other recipients, but continues the process for this recipient.
Stop Notifying User xMatters stops notifying this user, but continues the notification process for other recipients.
Stop Notifying Target xMatters stops notifying the targeted user or other members in a target group, but continues notifying other users and members of other groups.
Escalate xMatters stops notifying this user, but continues the process by immediately escalating the event to the next scheduled recipient.
End xMatters stops notifying all recipients, and terminates the event. This stops notifications whether the responses came from an individually targeted user, a user in a group, or from within a nested group.

Response action examples.

Configure response counts

If you have selected the "Count Responses" check box on the Recipients section of your form, the Action drop-down list has different options:

Value Result
Add to Count The response is counted towards the total, and xMatters stops notifying the responder.
Do Not Add to Count The response does not count towards the total. xMatters stops notifying the responder and immediately escalates the event by attempting to notify the next recipient.

For each response, you can specify whether it should be count towards meeting the required minimum number of responses for each group of recipients. Once the defined "fill count" has been met, xMatters stops notifying the target group. Once all groups have met their fill counts, or the total number of responses determines that the fill count cannot be reached, the event is terminated.

Response action examples

The response actions you assign to each response can affect how (and when) xMatters continues to notify other recipients in the escalation path. This behavior, especially for messages that include a "Stop Notifying x" or "Escalate" option, can get complicated when groups are ‘nested’ (i.e., groups are members of other groups), and when other recipients are also targeted by the same event. In addition, recipients can be targeted by several paths; for example, a user may be a member of multiple targeted groups, or may be targeted as a group member and as an individually-targeted user.

The following examples outline the behavior of the "Stop Notifying Target" response in some common situations, and include a few clarifications about the "Escalate" response.

The most basic situation is targeting a group without sub-groups (and that is not itself a sub-group):

  • If a recipient within the group responds with Stop Notifying Target, xMatters terminates notifications for the recipient and for the remaining members of the group.
  • If a recipient responds with Escalate, xMatters escalates to the next recipient in the group. If there are no more recipients, xMatters records the response, but the event remains active until it times out.

In this case, only one group is targeted, but one of the group members has also been targeted for the same event: User 1 is part of Group A, but is also targeted as an individual user and would receive two simultaneous notifications.

  • If User 1 responds with Stop Notifying Target (or Stop Notifying User), there are two possible outcomes:
    • If User 1 is responding to the message sent to Group A, xMatters terminates notifications for User 1 and for the remaining members of Group A.
    • If User 1 is responding to the message targeting User 1, xMatters terminates notifications for User 1; notifications will continue for any remaining members of Group A.
  • If User 1 responds with Escalate; there are two possible outcomes:
    • If User 1 is responding to the message sent to Group A, xMatters terminates notifications for User 1 and immediately escalates to the remaining members of Group A.
    • If User 1 is responding to the message targeting User 1, xMatters terminates notifications for User 1 but does not immediately escalate to the next member of Group A. Notifications will continue for any remaining members of Group A after any specified escalation delays have passed.

Example 2a: One group and a non-group recipient

In this case, User 2 would receive a notification as an individual user at the same time as User 1 receives a notification as a member of Group A. If User 2 responds to the notification with Stop Notifying User (or Stop Notifying Target), xMatters terminates notifications for User 2, and notifies User 3 (after any configured delays).

A Stop Notifying Target response at the child level terminates notifications for all of the nested groups ‘above it’ that have been targeted for notification (i.e., if a group has not been targeted, there are no notifications to terminate). The following example shows how this works when there are three (or more) levels of nested groups.

Targeting Group A for notification produces the following results:

  • If User 1 responds with Stop Notifying Target, xMatters terminates notifications for User 1 and the other members of Group A, and also for all members of Groups B and C.
  • If User 4 responds with Stop Notifying Target, xMatters terminates notifications for User 4 and the other members of Group C. Notifications to User 1 and all members of Groups B and C are also terminated.

Examples 4 and 5 extend the case illustrated in Example 3 as follows:

A Stop Notifying Target response at the child level terminates notifications for all of the nested groups ‘above it’ that have been targeted for notification (i.e., if a group has not been targeted, there are no notifications to terminate). If the groups above the responding child level include additional child groups that have been targeted, xMatters will also terminate notifications to those additional child groups.

An Escalate response at the child level can only escalate to the next member of the sub-group. Because xMatters treats each nested group as its own branch, it will not escalate to the next member of the parent group if the escalation path reaches the last recipient in the nested group until after any delays set in the parent group have expired.

Targeting Group A for notification produces the following results:

  • If User 5 responds with Stop Notifying Target, xMatters terminates notifications for User 5 and for the other members of Group D, and for the members of Group A, Group B, Group C, and Group E.
  • If User 3 responds with Stop Notifying Target, xMatters terminates notifications for User 3 and for the other members of Group B, and for the members of Group A, Group C, Group D, and Group E.
  • If the owner of Device I responds with Escalate, xMatters stops notifying that device, but cannot escalate to anyone because Group D contains no more members. xMatters would notify User 1 after any configured delays between Group B and User 1 had expired.

The group member configuration in this example is the same as in Example 4, but in this case, one of the sub-groups is targeted for notification:

Targeting Group B for notification produces the following results:

  • If User 5 responds with Stop Notifying Target, xMatters terminates notifications for User 5 and for the other members of Group D, and for all members of Group B. Notifications for Group A, Group C, and Group E are not terminated because Group A was not targeted.
  • If User 3 responds with Stop Notifying Target, xMatters terminates notifications for User 3 and for the other members of Group B, and for all members of Group D. Notifications for Group A, Group C, and Group E are not terminated because Group A was not targeted.
  • If the owner of Device I responds with Escalate, xMatters records the response, but the event remains active until it times out. User 1 is not notified because Group A was not targeted.