Programatically creating Block in folder with Approval Sequence does not generate Notifications

Vote:
 

Using: EPiServer.CMS version=11.12.0 

Programatically creating a Block in sub-folder whose parent has an Approval Sequence does not generate the Notification emails, is this a bug?

This works: Manually adding Block via the CMS back-end in blocks folder with inherited Approval Sequence. I investiagted what was happening in the database and this is what occurs when the Block is created in the CMS:

  1. Create Block
    1. Creates 1 record in the [tblNotificationSubscription] table
      1. e.g. projects://notification/21234/
    2. Publish the content set it to Ready for Review
      1. Creates 2 records in the [tblNotificationSubscription] table
        1. approvals://notification/17/ (one for each User in the Approval group)
        2. projects://notification/21235/
      2. Creates 1 record in the [tblNotificationMessage] table
    3. Run the Notification Dispatcher service – sends email to relevant people in the Aproval Sequence group

 

This does not create the Notifications: Programmatically creating a Block and adding to folder with inherited Approval Sequence is as below. The problem here is that the Notification email is never generated in the [tblNotificationMessage] table:

  1. Create Block with code below sets the Block to Ready for Review
_contentRepository.Save(contentBlock, SaveAction.RequestApproval, AccessLevel.NoAccess);
  1. Creates 1 record in the [tblNotificationSubscription] table
    1. e.g. approvals://notification/19/
    2. Note: There is no projects:// entry added
  2. No records are added to the [tblNotificationMessage] table

So when I programatically add the Block that is in a Approval Sequence NO notifications are generted = no emails sent to the relevant modertators.

Is this a bug?

Is there any way to tell Episerver to create the Notifications for the Approval Sequence other than programatically using the INotifier interface?

If I have to us the INotifier interface is it possible to use the epi-approval Channel and Approval type like in code below:

var notifier = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<INotifier>();

INotificationUser sender = new NotificationUser("noreply@hop-episerver.com");
INotificationUser receiver = new NotificationUser(_settingsWrapper.HopSiteSettingsPage.CommentModeratorsGroupEmail);

notifier.PostNotificationAsync(new NotificationMessage()
{
    ChannelName = "epi-approval",
    // Content =  What Json do I add here for the email formatter or how do I access the formatter txt??
    Recipients = new[] { receiver },
    Sender = sender,
    TypeName = "Approval"
});

#208658
Edited, Oct 29, 2019 16:56
Vote:
 

In the absence of any solutions or exaplantion of the behaviour Ive seen Ive decided to programatically create the Notifications.

So first I create the CommentBlock with code like:

_contentRepository.Save(contentBlock, SaveAction.RequestApproval, AccessLevel.NoAccess);

Then I generate my NotificationMessage and Ive 'hijacked' the Approval sequence Channel which is epi-approval and code as is below. It works but fingers crossed that the json for Content does not change in future releases of Episerver:

var dateTimeCreated = DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("o", CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-GB")); //2019-11-04T10:40:28.9240851Z

//Note: The json Content property here was copied from the [tblNotificationMessage] db table entry for a Comment block added
//      using the CMS editor interface to a folder with an Approval sequence applied to it.
notifier.PostNotificationAsync(new NotificationMessage()
{
    ChannelName = "epi-approval",
    Content = "{\"status\":7,\"contentLink\":\"" + commentContentLinkId + "\",\"resourceKey\":\"awaitingapproval\",\"comment\":null,\"stepNumber\":1,\"totalSteps\":1,\"created\":\"" + dateTimeCreated + "\"}",
    Recipients = recipients,
    Sender = sender,
    TypeName = "Approval"
});
#208962
Nov 05, 2019 12:57
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