I'm trying to use the PRTG placeholders in my custom HTML email template but they don't work. All i see in the email it the placeholder text (e.g %probe, %history %systemdatetime, etc...). Is there a special format needed?

snippet from my template: <td> <br><h3>History</h3>%history<br> </td>

Thanks

Can you post your parameter field of the EXE file (from the notification)? Is it possible that you didn't hand it over via -placeholders?

Wow this is sooooo complex. We use an email to SMS service so the message we get on the phone is just full of this at the beginning;

Sensor:

Almost useless. There isn't a simpler way to cut down the nonsense emailed to an sms gateway?

Joe

You could set the mail to text only in the notification options, then you can configure an entirely custom text :)

Have been able to get the script working via powershell, passing the parameters and receiving the email with the correct template. But when associating the powershell script in the notification settings and putting the same parameters under execute program it is not working. Have tried the execute program option to run the program under the local admin account and still didn't work. Is there a way for the script to generate a log to troubleshooting why it is not working with PRTG.

Are you already using PowerShell sensors within PRTG? If not, you may need to work through step #1:
https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/71356-guide-for-powershell-based-custom-sensors

Let me know if that's not the case or if it has worked :)

I don't see sensor comments as one of the placeholders that can be used.

We're wanting to just edit/customize the standard HTML notification mail to put the sensor comments higher (like right above the sensor status). This is mostly because we keep "how to fix this" notes in the comments, and want it more visible than having to scroll down past the graphs and so on.

If there's an easier way to do that than by making an all new custom template, that would be awesome too.

You can sure use them. Assuming that it's your only placeholder, simply add {0} to the template and use the following parameters: -Placeholders @("%comments") This will replace {0} with the content of the comments field, preceeded by Comments:

Kind regards,
Stephan Linke, Tech Support Team

Stephan,

The code you provided didn't worked.

my Placeholders, from EXE:

`$Placeholders = @("sensorPARENTGROUP", "deviceURL", "sensorPARENTDEVICE", "sensorURL", "sensorNAME", "sensorSTATUSTEXT", "%datetime")`

my HTML snippet: `padding: 10px; border: 1px solid #ddd8d6;color:#00264d;"> {6}</td>`

All the placeholders worked, but the "%datetime".

May you help me?

Could you post your entire template, please?

Kind regards,
Stephan Linke, Tech Support Team

Stephan,

Figured out how this part worked. I was trying to use the % placeholder type direct from the command line, and now I know it won't work, but does if I pass the parameters from PRTG notification, cool.

But now another problem: The notification as a whole ain't work if it's called from PRTG, but will if I do directly from command line, with the exactly same parameters. Any idea on what could lead to this?

Let me know if you need more info, but, the code as a whole is kind of the same up there (GitHub link), but filled with our credentials and with some $global:foobar removed.

Do you see any errors under Logs | System Related | Notifications? Did you configure the Execution-Policy according to this article?

Kind regards,
Stephan Linke, Tech Support Team

After some good hours trying to figure it out, I did. Turned out the problem wasn't the script, nor PRTG, nor the script call by PRTG. The problem was the timeout setted by default in a custom exe notification, which is 5 seconds. Changed it to 60 seconds and it's working well now. Thanks for you assist, and, maybe, tell the devs to change the default timeout to something higher, maybe other people would get stuck in such thing too.

Regards, Jesus.

I have now a simple problem. Since I can't use the %placeholder format within the script, I need to pass they as parameters in the PRTG call to the script. But, I need to place the placeholders as comma separated, but PRTG will put a ` before every comma, what makes the code fail to execute. Any ideas on how to make it work? my actual parameters line is: -SensorID %sensorid -Placeholders '%group','deviceURL','%device','sensorURL','%sensor','%message','%lastup'

It should be -Placeholders @('%group','deviceURL','%device','sensorURL','%sensor','%message','%lastup')... but the parameter pass of special characters (@ and ( ) ) is currently broken :( I'm sorry that this is a somewhat tedious process currently :( The easiest would be to configure all placeholders directly in the script (in the parameters) and use them accordingly in the templates with their corresponding counters ({0}, {1}, etc.).

Kind regards,
Stephan Linke, Tech Support Team

Well, thats actually pretty sad, since the %placeholder style would work only if called as parameter from PRTG, not from the script, and it would inutilize most of the PRTG's placeholders. So, after some work, I made it work too.

In the script, comment the $Placeholders = @() line inside Params. Create a new line with $Placeholder = "", in it. It will create a String, instead of an Array, as the old variable. A little below, since the whole script is made to work with the placeholders as array, we need to convert the variable we just created to an array type. To do this we need the split method. Do it as follows:

[System.Array]$Placeholders = $($Placeholder -split ",,"); Important here is that the String one is Placeholder, in singular, meanwhile the array created above is in plural, as in the original code, so you don't need to change anything else.

Enough edit in the code, now the PRTG Parameters line in the custom exe notification should look something similar to this (but with your placeholders instead):

-SensorID %sensorid -Placeholder "%group,,deviceURL,,%device,,sensorURL,,%sensor,,%message,,%datetime"

The %sensorid will pass to the script the actual sensor, so it will work properly. Without this automation, the script has no sense at all.

I chose the double comma (,,) because I think it's something pretty hard to appear legimate in any part of the PRTG answer, or in any device name or anything else, but you could have chose anything, just remember to change it in the Split method in the code. After it your automatic notification with powershell should be working as expected.

Best regards,

Jesus.

Thanks for the interim "patch" and sharing of the same! :)

Kind regards,
Stephan Linke, Tech Support Team

Why use such a complex system for custom email templates? Why not having something GUI based, which would be much more user friendly, like the map builder?

Almost everything custom within PRTG feels like a chore, rather than something you should be able to "just do"..

We had it built-in, the code for it was very, very cumbersome, near impossible to maintain. Storing the HTML within the configuration, parsing it for malicious code, escaping control characters so they won't interfere with the configuration was a nightmare. That's why we decided to remove it.

We figured that we should give customers an opportunity to still send customized mails. I agree, it's comlplex to set up, but we don't have an alternative, unfortunately.

Hello, with "-SetupPasswords" you get a message that the function "PRTG-ShowMessage" was not found. I was able to fix this quickly. There was an error in line 133 and 389. I changed this to "Console-ShowMessage".

But a simple start of the Powershell causes the message: "None of the configured mailservers is responding". I am very sure that I have entered the correct credentials. Even a short test with an own Powershell Script with User/Password/SMTP Server/Port works without problems. Tested on the PRTG server with both configured SMTP servers. This ensures that the URL and ports go through.

Hi, following your description, I run into multiple errors:

Whatever I put into "smtpHost", I get the error "None of the configured mailservers is responding, please check them for availability." but when I change line 145 from

"$tcpClient.Connect($global:servers.smtpHost,$global:servers.smtpPort)"

to

"$tcpClient.Connect("<myservername>",25)"

the error is gone. When I run the script from directly in PowerShell, I get a prompt for credentials and the following errors in the background:

"Exception calling "DownloadFile" with "2" argument(s): "Illegal characters in path."
At C:\Program Files (x86)\PRTG Network Monitor\Notifications\EXE\PRTG-SendCustomHTMLNotifications.ps1:303 char:9"

Exception calling "DownloadString" with "1" argument(s): "Illegal characters in path."
At C:\Program Files (x86)\PRTG Network Monitor\Notifications\EXE\PRTG-SendCustomHTMLNotifications.ps1:290 char:9
+         $sensorInfo = ($wc.DownloadString($url)) | ConvertFrom-Json;
+         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ArgumentException

Index operation failed; the array index evaluated to null.
At C:\Program Files (x86)\PRTG Network Monitor\Notifications\EXE\PRTG-SendCustomHTMLNotifications.ps1:314 char:9
+         $global:stateIcon = $stateIcons[$SensorInfo.sensordata.status ...
+         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NullArrayIndex

Index operation failed; the array index evaluated to null.
At C:\Program Files (x86)\PRTG Network Monitor\Notifications\EXE\PRTG-SendCustomHTMLNotifications.ps1:322 char:9
+         [hashtable]$placeholderTable = @{
+         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NullArrayIndex

New-Object : Exception calling ".ctor" with "2" argument(s): "Cannot process argument because the value of argument "userName" is not valid. Change the value of the "userName" argument and run the operation again."
At C:\Program Files (x86)\PRTG Network Monitor\Notifications\EXE\PRTG-SendCustomHTMLNotifications.ps1:190 char:23
+ ... edentials = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCrede ...
+                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [New-Object], MethodInvocationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ConstructorInvokedThrowException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewObjectCommand

Please advise. If possible, we can also have a remote session for demonstration of the error.

Best regards, Caroline

Sorry, this took somewhat longer to debug. The issue likely was that the $servers variable was not declared globally, at least it works like that for me. Please use the updated script accordingly and let me know if it worked :)

good afternoon mr prtg is giving me this error

Main;
[01/03/2021 16:25:45] [done]	All credentials found.
[01/03/2021 16:25:45] [info]	Checking mail server availability...
[01/03/2021 16:25:45] [info]	Using primary mail server
[01/03/2021 16:25:45] [info]	Setting up template paths...
Template or directory not found. Please make sure all folders and templates exist!

Hi Juan,

Please see step 5 of the "How Do I Install the Script?" section.

Please note that you need to create the required "custom" folder in your \webroot\mailtemplates\ directory. With a PRTG installed in its default directories this would result in a manually created folder under:
C:\Program Files (x86)\PRTG Network Monitor\webroot\mailtemplates\custom

Best,
Sebastian

the folder to create it manually with says step 5, but I have doubts about the filling of this part

## mail configuration
[System.Collections.ArrayList]$global:recipientList = @();
[string] $priority              = "high"
## template configuration
[string] $templateBaseDir       = "C:\Program Files (x86)\PRTG Network Monitor\webroot\mailtemplates\custom"
[string] $templateDefaultLogo   = "C:\Program Files (x86)\PRTG Network Monitor\webroot\images\prtglogo.png"
[string] $Global:graphGUID      = [guid]::NewGuid()
[string] $iconFolder            = "C:\Program Files (x86)\PRTG Network Monitor\webroot\icons"
[string] $tempFolder            = "C:\temp";
[string] $global:stateIcon      = "";
## miscallenious
[hashtable]$directories = @{
    "templateBaseDir" = "C:\Program Files (x86)\PRTG Network Monitor\webroot\mailtemplates\custom";
    "tempFolder"      = "C:\temp";
    "iconFolder"      = "C:\Program Files (x86)\PRTG Network Monitor\webroot\icons";
    "templatePath"    = ""; }

Why's that, why do you have doubts?

Hi Paessler Support!

I'm trying the custom email script, but not matter what I do I always finish to receive the following message:

Retrieving users of PRTG group Test Notification Group Found 0 users in group Test Notification Group, sending to 1 contacts in total.

The group, obviously, contains some test users. The user account I'm using to access PRTG Server has the built in administrative rights. I've also already tested primary user assignment and other groups as well. What am I missing?

Thanks!

what should i put in this part mr. prtg

[string] $global:stateIcon      = "";

"templatePath"    = ""; }

Juan, regarding your question "what should i put in this part"? You can them empty, they'll be filled during execution.

Error sending "EXE": Error1. SNMP : The term 'SNMP' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again. At line:1 char:147 + ... s] BRCD_[...] (Sensor ID: 2437 | Trigger Source ID: 2437 | Trigger ID: 3)

Unfortunately, we cannot really provide additional support for a script that old :( It's probably best to start over and configure it according to the guide here, as this has proven to work 100%. Make sure to run it in ISE for debugging so you can check what's going on.

Stephan Linke, Technical Support Team

[08/03/2021 14:45:06] [done]	All credentials found.
[08/03/2021 14:45:06] [info]	Checking mail server availability...
[08/03/2021 14:45:06] [info]	Using primary mail server
[08/03/2021 14:45:06] [info]	Setting up template paths...
[08/03/2021 14:45:06] [info]	Customized logo found.
[08/03/2021 14:45:06] [info]	Retrieving current live graph for sensor #2464
[08/03/2021 14:45:06] [done]	Graph downloaded and stored as C:\temp\0e258cd1-c659-49d6-90fa-135c58f38f3c.png
[08/03/2021 14:45:06] [info]	Preparing notification mail
[08/03/2021 14:45:06] [info]	Retrieving information for sensor #2464
[08/03/2021 14:45:06] [fail]	The notification could not be sent.
[08/03/2021 14:45:06] [info]	Removing live graph image. Exiting.

So it seems like the mail itself cannot be sent via the script or the configured mail server. When running the following command in a PowerShell on the PRTG Server (replace accordingly):

Send-MailMessage -From "[email protected]" -To "[email protected]" -Subject "Testmail for PRTG" -Body "Hello World" -SmtpServer "your.mail.server.fqdn" -Port 465 -UseSsl -Credential (Get-Credential)

What error message do you get? Note that you may not be able to send as somebody else, depending on the account/server configuration of your mail server.

I know this is an old thread, but has there been any progress on getting the parameters from within PRTG to work properly for this script? I have the script running perfectly from the server itself, but like others, the parameters in PRTG Notifications won't work. I tried Jesus' modifications to the script, but I keep getting an error on

[System.Array]$Placeholders = $($Placeholder -split ",,");

Powershell does not like the semicolon at the end and a normal comma does not work either.

I know I could simply place the parameter in the script itself, but it always reports on the Root, not the specific sensor and forget about it attaching the Live Graph, that is not working either yet, but perhaps it is because of the sensor placeholder issue.

Anyone have any ideas for me?

Thanks

Sorry for the delay - what does your parameter field actually look like?

How can I bypass entering a credential for the primary server. our internal SMTP relay does not use authentication.

Hello,

the "SMTP Relay Authentication" option can be set to "Use no authentication".

I am having issues with actually running the script via the notification template. The script runs great using the interactive method from our PRTG server and we receive the email notification, but when testing the script using an simulated error, the logs report an "OK" for the execution but no email is received.

Command from testing interactively: .\CustomNotificataions.ps1 -SensorID 1026 -Recipients @("*****") -TemplateFolder "**" -Template "simple" -From "***" -Subject "[sensorPARENTDEVICE] [sensorNAME] Sensor is in sensorSTATUSTEXT state." -Priority "High" -PrimaryOnly

Parameter configuration in notification template: -SensorID %sensorid -Recipients @("***") -TemplateFolder "**" -Template "simple" -From "***" -Subject "[sensorPARENTDEVICE] [sensorNAME] Sensor is in sensorSTATUSTEXT state." -Priority "High" -PrimaryOnly

I suspect it is related to the fact the script is running noninteractively, but not sure how to remediate this.

Thanks for your help.

Hello,

as there is no logging for programs run through a notification template, please add debug logging in the script to check where exactly it fails.

As log file destination, please do not use the local folder as it is usually protected, instead write to a folder like C:\Temp