Request a Quote
Schedule Demo

PATCH MY PC DOCS

Knowledge Base

We’re here to help if needed

Catalog Releases
Open Support Case

How Publishing Alerts Work in Patch My PC’s Publisher

An important factor of third-party patching is staying informed as new updates publish in real-time. Our alerts feature allows you to be notified via the following methods:

  • Email
  • Microsoft Teams webhook notification
  • Slack webhook notification

This article will cover how the SMTP Settings and Webhook Settings work within our Publisher.

Topics covered in this article:

How do Email Alerts Work in the SMTP Settings?

The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) has been around since 1982 and is a common method for sending emails. Our Publisher allows you to configure SMTP settings to send email alerts for publishing operations. The first step is to configure the required options for your SMTP server.


More InformationNote: The Recipients and CC Recipients value(s) must be a valid email address. You can specify multiple email-addresses and seperate the addresses with a semi-colon. e.g. [email protected];[email protected].

Once the settings are complete, you can click the Test button to see if the recipient received the test email. If you have any issues sending emails, it’s likely an SMTP configuration error, and you can review our article Troubleshooting SMTP Email Report Sending When Using Patch My PC.

Once the SMTP settings are saved, the Publisher will automatically send an email at the end of each synchronization when any updates or applications have been published.

The email will include the following details for all Published products:

  • Update/Application Title (Links to release notes)
  • Time of Publishing
  • Size of binary
  • Update Classification
  • Update Severity Level
  • CVE’s (Links to CVE-ID on https://cve.mitre.org/)

In the example below, you can see an email alert where both updates and applications were published to WSUS & ConfigMgr.

In the example below, you can see an email alert where both Updates and Applications were published to Intune

For products published to Intune, The email will include the following additional information

  • Intune Tenant friendly name
  • Intune assignments set during Publishing.

How do Alerts Work in Microsoft Teams and Slack?

Another option for Alerts is to use a Microsoft Teams Webhook or a Slack Webhook. The Teams or Slack webhook will allow the Publisher to send a message into a Teams or Slack channel either as each update or application is published in real-time or a single message at the end of the synchronization.

How to Create a Microsoft Teams Webhook URL

Before you can send Microsoft Teams alerts, you need to create an incoming webhook:

 Please follow the steps below to create an incoming webhook URL:

  1. Navigate to the channel where the webhook was added and select (•••) More Options from the top navigation bar.
  2.  If you are using the Classic version of Teams:
    Choose Connectors from the drop-down menu.
    Open Teams Connectors in Channel
  3. If you are using the New version of Teams, choose Manage Channel, and then the Edit button from the Connectors section.

    From here, the next steps are the same for both versions.
  4. On the left, under Manage, choose Configure.
    Configure Incoming Webhook
  5. Next, give the webhook a name such as “Patch My PC Publishing“. Optionally, configure an image. You can use the Patch My PC Logo if you want.
  6. Copy the webhook URL:
    Copy the webhook URL
  7. In the Patch My PC Publisher under the Alerts tab, select Add in the Webhook Settings section
  8. In the Notification Webhook Configuration window, enter a Label for your webhook and Paste the URL into the Webhook URL field. Click OK when done.
  9. Click theTest button
  10. You  should see the test message sent in the Teams channel

    More InformationNote: If your team’s Settings => Member permissions => Allow members to create, update, and remove connectors is selected, any team member can add, modify, or delete a connector.

    How to Create a Slack Webhook URL

    Before you can send Slack alerts, you need to create an incoming webhook:

    Please follow the steps below to create an incoming webhook URL:

    1. On the following web page https://api.slack.com/messaging/webhooks, select Create your Slack app (note: you will need to be logged into your Slack account and, depending on your settings, you may need to be a Workspace Owner of the account)
    2. Select Create an App > From Scratch.  Enter an app name, choose your workspace, and then select Create App
    3. Set Activate Incoming Webhooks to On
    4. Select Add New Webhook to Workspace
    5. Choose the channel you want to post to and then select Allow
    6. Copy the Webhook URL and Paste the URL into the Webhook URL in the Publisher and click the Test button
    7. In the Patch My PC Publisher under the Alerts tab, select Add in the Webhook Settings section
    8. In the Notification Webhook Configuration window, enter a Label for your webhook, set Webhook Provider to Slack and Paste the URL into the Webhook URL field. Click OK when done
    9. Click theTest button
    10. You should see the test message sent in the Slack channel you selected

        Custom Options for Teams and Slack Webhooks

        You can configure the webhook notifications for Teams or Slack in the Notification Webhook Configuration window. To view the Notification Webhook Configuration select Add or Edit under Webhook Settings.

        When the option “Send alerts as each product is published rather than waiting until the end of the synchronization.” is enabled, the Publisher will send a message in real-time right after each update or application is published. When this option is enabled, the message will include more detailed information about each update, including:

        • Update/Application Title(Links to release notes)
        • Timeof Publishing
        • Sizeof binary
        • Update Classification
        • Update Severity Level
        • CVE’s(Links to CVE-ID on https://cve.mitre.org/)

        Below is an example of the individual notification in Teams.

        When the option “Send alerts as each product is published rather than waiting until the end of the synchronization.” is disabled, the Publisher will only send a summary of updates and applications published at the end of the synchronization. This option will only include the name of the update or application and link to the release notes. Below is an example of the Teams summary notification.

        You can choose the notification level in the Notification Webhook Configuration window. The levels include receiving All, Error, or Success. This option can be helpful if you want a specific channel to only receive alerts if an update or application fails to publish.

        In the Webhook Scope section you can scope the product type you want for the alerts. You can also scope out alerts by specific products with the Product Selection section.

         

        More InformationNote: When the Summary option is enabled, notifications can be truncated if they are too long. This is due to Teams and Slack specifications. Since we can’t send long notifications to Teams or Slack, you will need to enable SMTP Settings to receive a full email report. If email reports are not enabled, you will need to fall back to the log file for more information on any error messages.