Update types and templates

An update type is the definition everything else follows from: which steps the scheduling wizard shows, which inventory the picks come from, whether there is a tasks step, and what text goes out at the end. It lives in settings under Update types and templates, and clicking a row opens its template.

What is defined per type

Setting	What it does
Name	Appears on the calendar chip, in the event title and in every message that goes out
Description	The short line read on the selection card in the wizard's first step
Color	The type's color on the calendar
Icon	A mark chosen from a library. Without one the shape is derived from the name itself, so no two types are unmarked
Target selection in the wizard	Required · Optional · None
What is picked	Servers · Equipment · Databases
Database source	Shown only when databases are picked
Team tasks	Whether the Tasks step appears in the wizard

The three selection options are explained on the screen itself: required — "At least one item must be picked to continue"; optional — "The step is shown, but you can continue without picking anything"; none — "The selection step is not shown in the wizard".

One template, three destinations

Each type has one Message template — a subject and a body — and the screen says where it goes: "This message is sent by email, in the calendar invite and in the external request." The editor works like an ordinary document.

Inside the text you can place automatic fields that fill in at send time. They are chosen from a grouped list and inserted at the cursor:

Group	Examples
Times	Date · window start · window end
People	System manager · manager phone · performed by · contacts
Event	Update type · notes · request id
Server and network	Host name · IP address · domain · system name · operating system · server count · server table

When the type works against equipment or databases, the last group is replaced by Equipment columns or by the Database columns of the chosen source, and the screen states it: "The template variables and table will match this source's columns".

SMS reminder

Each type can carry one SMS message, sent to the system manager a set number of hours before the window starts. It has automatic fields too, a shorter set: time, date, manager, update type, request id and host name.

An empty box means no SMS is sent for that type — the screen states this explicitly, so not sending is a decision rather than a fault.

Default contacts

Each type can carry a list of people added automatically as recipients on every schedule of that type. They are picked from the directory. Anyone added by hand in the wizard beyond that list is what the system remembers and offers in the System memory card next time on the same system.

Taking a type out of circulation

A type marked inactive disappears from the wizard's selection and stays in settings with its badge. That is the correct way to stop using a type.

Real deletion is blocked as long as even one schedule was created under it, with the message "Cannot delete — schedules are using this update type". A historical event has to keep knowing what it was.