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ChannelWatch

Notification Templates

Use templates when you want a shorter alert or different wording. Templates change the message text; alert presets decide which events notify, and routing decides where they go.

Edit a template

Section titled “Edit a template”
  1. Open Settings > Notifications and find Notification Templates.
  2. Open the template settings and select Edit template for an alert family.
  3. Turn Use default off.
  4. Enter a Title Template and Body Template using the placeholders shown in the editor.
  5. Select Save.

Channel Watching, VOD Watching, Recording Events, and Disk Space have separate templates. DVR Health uses its built-in outage and recovery messages in v1.6.0.

To return to the built-in text, turn Use default on or select Reset to Default, then save.

ChannelWatch Channel Watching template editor with custom title and body, a Use default switch, Reset to Default and supported placeholder names
Edit a notification title and bodyThe editor shows supported placeholders next to the template. This example uses synthetic program and device data. Captured from ChannelWatch v1.6.0 with safe demo data.View full-size screenshot

Start with a short message

Section titled “Start with a short message”

For Channel Watching, try this title:

{client_name} is watching {channel_name}

And this body:

{program_title}
{Channel: <channel_number}
{Device: <client_name}

With synthetic values Living Room Apple TV, HBO, The Last of Us, and channel 501, it renders as:

Title: Living Room Apple TV is watching HBO


The Last of Us
Channel: 501
Device: Living Room Apple TV

This is a text example, not a notification captured from a provider app.

Supported syntax

Section titled “Supported syntax”

Write placeholders with single braces. These templates are not Jinja, JavaScript, or Python.

Purpose Template text Result
Insert a value {channel_name} The channel name
Add a label only when a value exists {Channel: <channel_number} Channel: 501, or nothing when the value is empty
Add text after a value {disk_percent> used} A percentage followed by used
Uppercase {severity!u} WARNING
Lowercase {recording_status!l} completed
Title case {title!c} A title-cased value
First list item {genres:[0]} The first genre
First three list items {cast:[:3]} Up to three names, separated by commas

Values and artwork depend on the metadata available from your DVR. A known placeholder with an empty value produces no text. An unknown placeholder or unsupported format causes the formatter to use the default message.

Useful placeholders

Section titled “Useful placeholders”

Use the list in each editor for the easiest starting point.

Template Common fields
Channel Watching channel_name, channel_number, program_title, client_name, client_ip, resolution, stream_source, stream_count
VOD Watching media_title, progress_line, client_name, client_ip, summary_block, info_sections
Recording Events channel_name, channel_number, status, details, summary_block, time_table
Disk Space disk_free, disk_total, disk_used, disk_percent, disk_path, severity, threshold
Shared DVR identity server_name, server_url, server_version
Shared app/time fields channelwatch_version, alert_type_friendly, timestamp, datestamp, current_time

Use {server_name} for the DVR name. dvr_name and dvr_id are delivery context fields, not supported template placeholders in v1.6.0.

For a full field list, see the v1.6.0 template reference.

Conditional sections

Section titled “Conditional sections”

VOD templates support content tags. For example:

<movie>Movie: {title} ({release_year})</movie><episode>Episode: {show_name} - {episode_title}</episode>
{Starring: <cast:[:3]}

Available content tags are movie, episode, show, live, and recorded. The engine keeps a block only when its condition matches the alert context.

Recording templates support started, completed, failed, and cancelled blocks:

{recording_status_friendly}: {title}
<failed>Error: {error_message}</failed><completed>Saved to {file_path}</completed>

The template engine does not execute code. Keep unsupported markup and expressions out of the placeholders.

Check the result

Section titled “Check the result”

Save, then use the matching command-line notification test. ChannelWatch v1.6.0 has a Diagnostics test-name limitation. Tests send real messages through configured destinations. Check the received message as well as the Delivery Log.

If the built-in wording appears after you save custom text, check Use default, placeholder spelling, and the app logs for template errors. Restore the default before troubleshooting provider credentials.

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