Notification message templates

Notification message templates enable you to customize your notification event data before it's sent to your third-party destination. The templates map your custom values to the values used by your third-party destination.

This gives you full control over what data will be sent and where, as well as being able to fully engage with the services you use.

Message template variables

A message template is what you use to convert New Relic event data to data that's consumable by your third-party service. Variables are specific attributes that are mapped to data fields in your third-party service.

Message templates are written in a simple templating language called Handlebars. Variables in the message templates are written as expressions inside double curly braces {{ }}.

A screenshot of an example webhook notification message template.

Use the notification message template to map your New Relic notifications to the fields in your external services.

The New Relic variable names are listed in the message template variables menu. The variables are grouped into subcategories.

In the variables menu, type {{ to select from a list of variables. As you type, variable names appear via autocomplete. The variable type is written on the right-hand side. If the workflow has enrichments, they'll appear at the top of the list after typing {{.

A screenshot of the variables menu that. shows the breadth of variable options available.

The variables menu shows the options you have when mapping New Relic notification fields onto the fields in your external service.

Importante

Issue specific variables, such as accumulations.tag.foo won't appear unless there's already been an issue containing this metadata. To create a message template which includes them before an issue has occured, use the #if statement described below.

Use the Handlebars syntax

When an event generates a notification, the message template uses the Handlebar variables to map the notification data to the fields used by your third-party service.

The Handlebars language provides many features in addition to basic variable replacement, including evaluating nested input objects and functions, such as iterations (loops), conditional statements, and more. In Handlebars, these functions are called helpers. Click here for an explanation of the variables used for Workflows.

Helper functions

Our message templates support the Handlebars built-in helpers.

In addition, we've added other helpers that might be useful to you.

The {{json}} helper converts text to a JSON element.

Use this when you're configuring a Webhook’s payload, which uses a JSON syntax, and any other situation you might want to pass JSON formatted data.

For example, with a variable called data.

{
  "data": {
    "tags": ["infra, team-a"]
  }
}

To get the tags array as a JSON element, use the {{json}} helper:

{{json data.tags}}

to get:

["infra", "team-a"]

Similar to the {{json}} helper, the {{escape}} helper escapes JSON breaking characters, but doesn't generate JSON output.

Use the escape helper when the value of the variable contains text with JSON-breaking characters, such as ", that must be escaped for the message template to have the correct syntax.

For example, the following needs to be sent as text, such as when sending to a Slack webhook endpoint:

{
  "text": "id:{{ escape issueId }},\nEnrichment Data: {{ escape [latest my_enrichment] }},\nDescription:{{ escape accumulations.conditionDescription }}"
}

Use the equality {{#eq}} helper to compare variables.

Compares variables a and b, renders 'yes' or 'no':

{{#eq a b}} yes {{else}} no {{/eq}}

Compares string value "a" to variable b, renders 'yes' or 'no':

{{#eq "a" b}} yes {{else}} no {{/eq}}

Renders 'true' or 'false':

{{eq a b}}

Renders 'y' or 'n':

{{eq a b yes='y' no='n'}}

Use the {{#contains}} helper to compare variables.

Asserts that b contains a, renders 'yes' or 'no':

{{#contains a b}} yes {{else}} no {{/contains}}

Asserts that variable b contains string value "a", renders 'yes' or 'no':

{{#contains "a" b}} yes {{else}} no {{/contains}}

Renders 'true' or 'false':

{{contains a b}}

Renders 'y' or 'n':

{{contains a b yes='y' no='n'}}

Use the {{#math}} to perform simple math operations.

Renders addition of two number values:

{{#math openIncidentsCount '+' closedIncidentsCount}} {{/math}}

Renders subtraction of two number values:

{{#math createdAt '-' closedAt}}{{/math}}

Renders multiplication of two number values:

{{#math 3 '*' 3}}{{/math}}

Renders division of two number values:

{{#math 9 '/' 3}}{{/math}}

Use the {{#timezone}} to convert epoch time to a date in the format of 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss zzz'. You can find a list of tz database timezones here.

Example #1: convert createdAt in epoch time to US Eastern timezone:

{{#timezone createdAt 'US/Eastern'}}{{/timezone}}

to get:

"2023-06-06 09:45:07 EDT"

Example #2: convert epoch time to Paris timezone::

{{#timezone 1686059107319 'Europe/Paris'}}{{/timezone}}

to get:

"2023-06-06 15:45:07 GMT+2"

The replace helper replaces instances of the first parameter in the second parameter with the child block.

Use else clause to specify what happens when no instance of the first parameter is found. If it is omitted an empty string will be generated.

Example #1: replace the word dog with cat in the sentence The dog likes to eat:

{{#replace "dog" "The dog likes to eat"}}cat{{/replace}}

to get:

The cat likes to eat

Example #2: replace the word cat with mouse in the sentence The dog likes to eat:

{{#replace "cat" "The dog likes to eat"}}mouse{{/replace}}

to get an empty string:

Example #3: replace the word cat with mouse in the sentence The dog likes to eat, using the else clause:

{{#replace "cat" "The dog likes to eat"}}mouse{{else}}There is no cat to replace{{/replace}}

to get:

There is no cat to replace

Example #4: replace the word dog with cat in the sentence The DOG likes to eat while ignoring case:

{{#replace "/dog/i" "The DOG likes to eat"}}cat{{/replace}}

to get:

The cat likes to eat

Example #5: replace the variable {{needle}} with the variable {{replacement}} in the variable {{haystack}}:

{{#replace needle haystack}}{{replacement}}{{/replace}}

using this data:

{
  "needle": "/dog/i",
  "haystack": "The DOG likes to eat",
  "replacement": "cat"
}

to get:

The cat likes to eat

Our helper functions can also be nested. Here is an example:

{{#eq "a" b}} yes1 {{else}}{{#eq "a" c}} yes2 {{else}} no {{/eq}}{{/eq}}

Usage examples

The examples are based on a variable called data:

"data": {
  "tags":["infra, team-a"],
  "id":123456789,
  "name": "Alice",
}

The data value has an equivalent, dot-notated format:

"data.tags": ["infra, team-a"]
"data.id": 123456789
"data.name": "Alice"

Validate data

If id equals 123456789, then the output is valid. If not, the output is not valid.

{{eq data.name "Alice" yes='valid' no='not valid'}}

If name equals Alice, then the output is valid.

Return JSON

Get the tags and object’s properties in a JSON form:

{{json data.tags}}

This would return the following JSON:

["infra", "team-a"]

Get values from an array

Get the first tag from the tags array:

{{json data.tags.[0]}}

This would return the first value from the array:

"infra"

Iterate through an array

Iterate a variable of type array and aggregate the values into a string:

{{#each tags}}{{this}}{{#unless @last}}, {{/unless}}{{/each}}

The result contains the tags, seperated by commas (the trailing comma is omitted):

infra, team

Similarly, iterate the data variable, aggregate the object’s values, and output a JSON element:

{{#each (json data)}}{{this}}{{/each}}

This would return a JSON such as:

{
  "tags": ["infra, team-a"],
  "name": "Alice",
  "id": "123456789"
}

Iterate the data variable, then aggregate the object’s entries to a string:

{{#each data}}{{@key}}: {{this}}{{#unless @last}}, {{/unless}}{{/each}}

This would return a string such as:

tags: infra,team-a, name: Alice, id: 123456789

Handle missing attributes

In some cases, such as for tags that weren't present in previous issues, an attribute may be missing from the variables menu, or not exist whatsoever.

We can use the #if statement to set a fallback, such as:

{{#if data.type}}{{ json data.type }}{{else}}"N/A"{{/if}}

This would return the string "N/A".

Advertencia

If a missing attribute also has a nested value, rendering will fail, so we will not save the webhook payload. For example, the case:

{{#if data.type}}{{ json data.type }}{{else}}"N/A"{{/if}}

will need to be changed to:

{{#if data}}{{#if data.type}}{{ json data.type }}{{else}}"N/A"{{else}}"N/A"{{/if}}

Message template variables

The variables menu

Importante

Use the Handlebars syntax

Helper functions

JSON

Escape

Equality

Contains

Math

Timezone

Replace

Usage examples

Validate data

Return JSON

Get values from an array

Iterate through an array

Handle missing attributes

Advertencia

Notification message templates

Message template variables .css-21sua1{background:none;border:none;width:0;padding:0;}

The variables menu

Importante

Use the Handlebars syntax

Helper functions

Escape

Equality

Contains

Math

Timezone

Replace

Usage examples

Validate data

Return JSON

Get values from an array

Iterate through an array

Handle missing attributes

Advertencia

Message template variables