email formatting

dclick

I have been searching the forums for some pointers on how to use html tags to format the text of the emails we send as alerts. One of the posts suggests to search the help documentation for "tokenized text" by my searchs have come up empty (running NPM 9.5.1).  Im not even sure HTML code would help a this point.

So, ill ask it here.  Basically, what I am attempting to do is simply list some (custom db fields) details about the node that triggered the alarms. 

So, I build a email using Notepad, setting the text up to (I hope) display cleanly, using TABs to space out the the field name with the field data (which does not show cleanly in these forums  - I have attached a file that shows it properly.

------------------

Application Name:                ${Name}
Componets with status:        ${ComponentsWithStatus}
Componets with Problems:   ${ComponentsWithProblems}

${NodeName} is showing ${Status} at ${DateTime}.

Alert Name: ${AlertName}

Node Details:
-------------
Tracking Number:          ${Node.Tracking_Number}
Node Comments:           ${Node.Comments}
Model:                          ${Node.Model}
Serial Number:              ${Node.SerialNumber}
Building:                       ${Node.Building}
City:                             ${Node.City}
Node Description:           ${Node.Description}
Inventory description:    ${Node.Inventory_Description}
Additional Notes:            ${Node.Device_Notes}

Next polling scheduled for ${Node.NextPoll}

------------------

But when I paste this into the Orion Adavance Alert tool, it comes out like this:

Application Name:  ${Name}
Componets with status:  ${ComponentsWithStatus}
Componets with Problems: ${ComponentsWithProblems}

${NodeName} is showing ${Status} at ${DateTime}.

Alert Name: ${AlertName}

Node Details:
-------------
Tracking Number: ${Node.Tracking_Number}
Node Comments:  ${Node.Comments}
Model:   ${Node.Model}
Serial Number:  ${Node.SerialNumber}
Building:  ${Node.Building}
City:   ${Node.City}
Node Description: ${Node.Description}
Inventory description: ${Node.Inventory_Description}
Additional Notes: ${Node.Device_Notes}

Next polling scheduled for ${NextPoll}

-------------------

And then when I get my email:

 

ACCOUNTING2 is showing Unknown at Wednesday, March 03, 2010 7:14 AM.

 

Alert Name: ** TEST ALERTS HERE **

 

Node Details:

-------------

Tracking Number:  00-00000

Node Comments:          Building Name Here

Model:                  Dell/PowerEdge M600

Serial Number:          999999ASE

Building:         BLD

City:             City1

Node Description: Hardware: x86 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 6 AT/AT COMPATIBLE - Software: Windows Version 6.0 (Build 6002 Multiprocessor Free)

Inventory description:  ISI Infortel for Windows Call Accounting system. Logs & reports Cisco IP phone usage.

Additional Notes: Replaced 05-00193

 

Next polling scheduled for 7:14 AM

 ---------------------

As you can see, the fields are not lining up properly.  Anyone have any tips on how to get the formatting done properly, so it looks nice and clean, instead of a jumbled mess?  Also, for the "Node Descripition", "Inventory Description" and "Additional Notes" fields - these are imported from another SQL database. Is there any way to format that text to be more of a nice "block" of text:

ANY help would be useful. I am about ready to pull my hair out getting this formatted properly. 

problem_alert.txt

scottd

SQL code can handle this...

For adding spaces you can use + SPACE(x) +.  x=number of spaces to use.

For your carriage returns you can use + CHAR(13) +.  CHAR(13) = carriage return

In my example message you can see how they would be used. Below is the message format in SolarWinds;

And below is the email message received;

Volume \ on <server name>

 is 16.03596% full and has  106.34846496582  GB available.

Notice where the carriage return is... When CHAR(13) is left out, the message looks like;

Volume \ on <server name> is 16.03596% full and has  106.34846496582  GB available.