Communication tasks in playbooks enable you to send surveys and collect data. Ask task, data collection task.
Communication tasks enable you to send surveys to users, both internal and external, to collect data for an issue. The collected data can be used for issue analysis, and also as input for subsequent playbook tasks. For example, you can send a scheduled survey requesting analysts to send specific issue updates or send a single (stand-alone) question survey to determine how an issue was handled.
There are two types of communication tasks:
Ask tasks: A conditional task that sends a single question survey. The answer is used to determine how the playbook proceeds.
Data collection tasks: A data collection task sends a survey of one or more questions. The answers are recorded in context data and can be used as input for subsequent tasks.
An ask task is a type of conditional task that sends a single question survey, the answer to which determines how a playbook proceeds. If you send the survey to multiple users, the first answer received is used, and subsequent responses are disregarded. For more information about ask task settings, see Create a conditional task.
Because this is a conditional task, you need to create a condition for each of the answers. For example, if the survey answers include, Yes, No, and Maybe, there should be a corresponding condition (path) in the playbook for each of these answers.
Users interact with the survey directly from the message, meaning the question appears in the message and they click an answer from the message.
The survey question and the first response is recorded in the issue context data. This enables you to use this response as the input for subsequent playbook tasks.
For all ask conditional tasks, a link is generated for each possible answer the recipient can select. If the survey is sent to more than one user, a unique link is created for each possible answer for each individual recipient. These links are visible in the context data of the issue's Work Plan. The links appear under Ask.Links in the context data.
In this example, the message and survey will be sent to recipients every hour for six hours, until a reply is received (it is repeated every 60 minutes, 6 times). The SLA is six hours. If the SLA is breached, the playbook will proceed according to the Yes condition.
In this example, a message and survey are sent by email to all users with the Analyst role. We are not including a message body because the message subject is the survey question we want recipients to answer. There are three reply options, Yes, No, and Not sure. In the playbook, we will only add conditions for the Yes and No replies. We require recipient authentication, which first involves setting up authentication.
The data collection task is a multi-question survey (form) that survey recipients access from a link in the message. Users do not need to log in to access the survey, which is located on a separate site.
All responses are collected and recorded in the issue context data, whether you receive responses from a single user or multiple users. This enables you to use the survey questions and answers as input for subsequent playbook tasks. If responses are received from multiple users, data for multi-select fields and grid fields are aggregated. For all other field types, the response received most recently will override previous responses as it displays in the field. All responses are always available in the context data.
For all data collection tasks, a single link is generated for each recipient of the survey. These links are visible in the context data of the issue's Work Plan. The links appear in the context data under the Links section of that survey.
You can include the following types of questions in the survey.
Stand alone questions. These are presented to users directly in the message, and from which users answer directly in the message (not an external survey).
Field-based questions. These are based on a specific issue field (either system or custom), for example, an Asset ID field. The response (data) received for these fields automatically populates the field for this issue. For single-select field based questions, the default option is taken from the field’s defined default.
From the Task Library pane, click the task you want, for example Blank Task.
In the Task Details pane, select the Data Collection Task Type.
Enter a meaningful name in the Task Name field for the task that corresponds to the data you are collecting.
Select the communication options you want to use to collect the data.
(Optional) To customize the look and feel of your email message, click Preview.
You can determine the color scheme and how the text in the message header and body appear, as well as the appearance and text of the button the user clicks to submit the survey.
If you configured a custom logo in server settings, it will appear in the preview.
Note
When customizing HTML for data collection emails, do not apply CSS styles directly to the
<body>tag. Cortex XDR injects your HTML as a fragment into an existing email template and removes the<body>tag to ensure valid HTML structure. Any styles applied to the<body>tag will be lost. To ensure your formatting renders correctly, wrap your content in a container element such as a<div>or<span>and apply your styles to that container.<body> <div style="font-family: sans-serif;">Content</div> </body>Click Save.
The task is added in the playbook editor.
A user icon (
) indicates the task requires manual inputs.Connect the tasks you've added in their logical order by dragging and dropping a wire from one task to another.
Save the playbook.
In this example, we create a stand-alone question, with a single-select answer. This question is not mandatory. If we selected the First option is default checkbox, the reply option "0" is the default value in the answer field.
In this example, we create a question based on a custom issue field that is marked as mandatory. You can add a question based on a field. To add a field, click the Add Question based on field.
When sending a form in a communication task, you can configure user authentication to ensure only authorized users gain access to the form.
The authorized users are usually external users not in Cortex XDR, and they will not be able to access anything else in Cortex XDR.
Set up your SSO if it is not already configured. See Authenticate users using SSO for more details.
In the Task details of your playbook communication task, check Require users to authenticate to have your SAML or AD authenticate the recipient before allowing them access to the form.