Notifications and Email Integration in VBCS

Notification patterns available in VBCS applications

VBCS applications can trigger notifications through several channels depending on the use case:

• In-app toasts/banners: immediate UI feedback for the current user
• Email via OIC integration: background notifications to other users
• Oracle Notifications Service (ONS): push notifications for mobile VBCS apps
• Fusion workflow notifications: for VBCS apps embedded in Fusion approval flows

In-app notifications using oj-messages

Use Oracle JET’s oj-messages component to show non-blocking notifications within the application:

<oj-messages messages="[[ $page.variables.appMessages ]]" display="notification"/>

In an action chain, add messages to the variable:

$page.variables.appMessages = [{
  severity: 'confirmation',
  summary: 'Record saved',
  detail: 'Your timesheet for week 24 was submitted successfully.'
}];

Severity options: error, warning, confirmation, info.

Email notifications via OIC

For sending emails to other users (approvers, managers), call an OIC integration that uses Oracle Email Delivery or a custom SMTP connection:

1. Create an OIC integration with an SMTP adapter or Oracle Notifications trigger
2. Map the email recipient, subject, and body from the VBCS service connection call
3. Call this integration from a VBCS action chain when the relevant event occurs (e.g. form submission, status change)

Template the email body using HTML for professional-looking notifications.

Approval workflow notifications

For multi-tier approval flows built in VBCS + OIC Process Cloud, Oracle Notifications handles routing automatically — no additional notification code needed. Configure the notification templates in Process Cloud, and each assignee receives an email with a direct link to their action.

Preventing notification spam

For status-change notifications, implement a rate-limiting check before firing: record the last notification timestamp in a tracking table, and suppress duplicate notifications sent within a threshold window (e.g. 30 minutes). This prevents cascading notification storms during batch operations.

Mobile push notifications

If deploying as a Progressive Web App (PWA), use the Web Push API alongside VBCS lifecycle events. This is advanced and requires a service worker — evaluate whether the simpler email notification pattern meets the requirement first.