Creating Custom User Notification Templates

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Overview

When traffic matches a security rule with a Block or Prompt action, users see a browser or Client notification explaining the reason for enforcement. These notifications let you explain each policy enforcement rule to users at the moment access is blocked or prompted. This improves user knowledge and awareness, reduces friction during security actions, and aligns security enforcement with broader business communication goals. Helping reduce confusion and support requests. For more information on User Notifications, see Creating User Notification Templates.

To create a fully customized User Notification Template, you can upload an HTML file that defines the notification content and styling of the browser page.

Creating Custom User Notifications

Create an HTML file for your user notification and upload it to the Cato Management Application.

To create custom User Notification Templates:

  1. From the navigation menu, select Account > User Notifications.

  2. Either:

    • Use an existing template, e.g. Step Up Re Authenticate, and click Edit

      or

    • Click New

  3. Choose a Template Name and select the Page Type.

  4. Under Page Content Mode, select Custom Page.

  5. Click Choose File and upload an HTML file with your template design.

  6. Click Save.

Supported Elements

The following elements are supported in the HTML file.

HTML Tags

Structure

html, head, body, meta (charset/viewport only), title, div, section, header, footer, main, article, aside

Text            

h1–h6, p, span, br, hr, strong, em, u, small, code, pre, blockquote

Lists            

ul, ol, li

Tables            

table, thead, tbody, tfoot, tr, th, td, colgroup, col

Media & Links            

a, img

Attributes

Global

id, class, lang, title

Links

href, target, rel

Images

src, alt, width, height

Tables

colspan, rowspan, scope

Styling

style (only when it passes the strict CSS property allowlist)

Action Controls

Block/Prompt pages can contain theses actions:

  • Proceed: On a prompt page only, this lets the end user proceed to the website

  • Report a wrong category: The end user can report the catagory of the website that is attempted to be accessed as incorrect  

This can be added to the HTML file with the data-cato-slot action hook. For example:

  • <div data-cato-slot="proceed"></div>

  • <div data-cato-slot="report-wrong-category"></div>

URL Policy

Links (a[href])

  • Only https:// URLs are allowed.

    • Outbound links are automatically forced to:

      target="_blank"

    • rel="noopener noreferrer">

  • For example, implement a “Go to IT Portal”  button, as a CSS-styled <a> element, not a <button>              

Images (img[src] )

  • Only embedded data URIs are supported. For example, data:image/png;base64,..., data:image/jpeg;base64,..., data:image/gif;base64,...

  • External image URLs are not supported

Dynamic Parameters

Dynamic parameters are updated based on the action taken by the user:

{blockedURL} , {reason} , {user} , {host IP} , {server IP} , {client IP} , {categories}

Validating the HTML File

When you upload an HTML file it is validated to ensure it does not contain any unsupported elements. If the validation fails, the errors are displayed