Send a Custom "Blank" Notification

This guide shows you how to send a custom blank message with no pre-filled data. Blank messages are messages that a Command user can create on-the-fly to be broadcast to users.

Pre-requisite: In order to send custom messages you will need to have "Notification Administrator" or "Send adhoc messages and templates" enabled in your user permissions. Please refer to the Editing user permissions user guide or speak to your SafeZone Command administrator to give you access.

Note: For instructions on how to send a pre-templated notification please see the guide on Send a Templated Notification

To send a Custom "Blank" Message:

1. Got to Notify in Command and Click on New Blank Message.
2. A new screen loads where you can select recipients and the messaging channels you want to use.
3. Go scroll through the page completing each section to first set who will get the message and then specific settings for each channel. Subject to licensing you may see the following channels which are described on subsequent pages of the guide:
   • Push notification (Click for more information)
   • SMS
   • Email
   • Desktop Notifications (Click for more information)
   • Twig
   • InReach (Garmin - Click for more information)
   • Voice
   • Web Publishing
4. Once you have selected users and filled in the information on the channels to use, click "Next"
5. If there are any errors they will be displayed at the top of the screen
6. You will then see a confirmation / review page where you can review your messages and the system will confirm you have the permissions to send the notifications
7. If you are happy to send, click "Send" or to make changes and go back a step, click "Cancel"
8. You will then see a live updating progress page with information on how many alerts were sent. To view more information on message history and statuses, refer to the Notification History page.

Each delivery method (Push Notification, SMS and Email) to send the notification is broken down into its own section below.

SMS

1. To send out the notification via SMS, tick the check-box for "Send SMS messages". The options menu will expand to display more settings.
   
2. For SMS Recipients, you can choose to send to "Only pre-registered recipients" or to "All recipients".
   Sending the SMS to the pre-registered recipients requires a mobile phone number added to their user record. Sending the SMS only to pre-registered recipients reduces the number of duplicate notifications that users get (useful if you are sending non-urgent notifications).
   One limitation of the SMS Message notification is that it is limited to 140 characters. The characters remaining will count down and let you know how many characters are left in your message.

Email

1. To send out the notification via email, tick the check-box for "Send email messages". The options menu will expand to display more settings.
   
2. Enter the subject of the email in the "Email Subject (Optional)" field.
3. Enter in the notification into the "Message (2000 remaining)" text box. The character limit will count down until it reaches 0 and will let you know when you have gone over the character limit.

Advanced View/Simple View

By default, any adhoc notification you create will be displayed in Advanced view. Once you have chosen at least one delivery method (Push notification, SMS or Email) and have entered in text into the Notification Message, you can then switch to Simple View by clicking on the Simple View button in the top right. (Push notifications also require at least one application from OmniGuard or SafeZone to be selected as well)

The screenshot below shows text in the Push notification message and the SMS notification message fields.

To change the groups that the message is broadcast to:

1. Click on Select Groups: 0 Selected
2. Select the user groups you wish to send the notification to

Save as a template (Advanced View only)

If you would like to save your adhoc message as a template to use for future notifications:

1. Click on the Save as a template link.
2. Please refer to the Notification Templates guide on how to create and save templates. (Save as a template does not appear if you are in the Simple View.)

Sending the notification message

Once you have finished composing the notification message, you are ready to send. To send the message:

1. Click on Next to go to the confirmation page otherwise, click on Cancel to cancel the message.
   
2. The Confirmation page will provide a summary of the message, which users and user groups will receive the message.
   
3. To send the notification click on Send otherwise, click on Cancel.
   
   
4. On the Notification Sent screen, you will get a delivery progress on the notification.
   
   Here you can see how many users the notification is going to go to using each of the delivery methods you have chosen.
5. Click on OK to close out of this screen and go back to the Notify page. You can also see a non-updating version of the delivery progress in History -> Notifications.