Notifications are sent to alert users of changes to the state of a task. Notifications can be sent through any of the following channels: email, instant messaging (IM), or short message service (SMS). Notifications can be sent from a human task in a BPEL process or directly from a BPEL process.

The human workflow email notification layer works with Oracle User Messaging Service to alert users to changes in the state of a task. The Oracle User Messaging Service exposes operations that can be invoked from the BPEL process or human task to send notifications through email, IM, or SMS channels.

The Oracle User Messaging Service supports features such as:

• Sending and receiving messages and statuses

• Sending notifications to a specific address on a particular channel

• Sending notifications to a set of failover addresses

On application servers other than Oracle Fusion Middleware, the human workflow email notification layer can be used for email notifications.

For more information about configuring the Oracle User Messaging Service, see the following:

• Using the Notification Service

• Developing Applications with Oracle User Messaging Service