Send a Notification

This guide shows you how to send an adhoc (blank) message. Adhoc (blank) messages are messages that a Command user can create on-the-fly to be broadcast to users.

Pre-requisite: In order to send Adhoc 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.

This guide is different from sending templated notifications which are pre-set and allow for minimal or no changes to be made before broadcasting to users. 
For instructions on how to send a templated notification please see the guide on Send a Templated Notification

To send an adhoc message:

1. Click on New Blank Message.
   
2. The adhoc notification menu appears in Advanced View (more on switching views later).
   
3. Under Select notification groups, select which user groups are going to get the message.
   Don't see any user groups and only see "All Users" as the only option? Please see the user guide on User Groups for help on setting up user groups.

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

Push Notification

1. To send out the notification as a push notification, tick the check-box for "Send push notifications to users with the application installed". The options menu will expand to display more settings.
   
2. To request users check-in on the SafeZone App, tick the check-box for "Request Check In"
3. Under the Applications options, you can choose which apps receive this notification. Select from "OmniGuard" and "SafeZone".
4. You can also send a Geolocated Push message to any SafeZone users in a region. These users do not need to be checked on the SafeZone app. To send out a Geolocated Push, tick the check-box for Filter users by location. You will be presented with the disclaimer as per the screenshot below:
   
   
5. You will be presented with the map view which allows you to specify the target area for the geolocated push.
   
   As per the screenshot above, the orange box represents the target area which the geolocated push message will be sent to. You can zoom in and out using the zoom in/out buttons on the bottom left or your mouse's scroll wheel. You can also type in the area you wish to send the push to in the "Search Google Maps" field in the top right of the screen.
6. Under Sound you can choose the type of sound/behaviour the alert raises when it is sent to the users' devices:
   • Silent - recommended for non-urgent notifications;
   • Silent with vibrate - recommended for notifications which need to stay silent but also vibrate (ie Active intruder scenarios);
   • Default Notification Sound - uses the device's default notification sound;
   • Alarm - uses the devices alarm sound;
7. Enter in the title for the alert in the Title (Optional) field. The title appears in bold text above the message on the device;
8. In the Web Address (Optional) field, you can enter in a web address that the users can visit to see detailed step-by-step instructions on what to do during the incident. This feature can be useful as the push notification screen is limited to 256 characters - having the users visit a web address can allow you to send through evacuation procedures to users.
9. In the Notification Message field, you can create the notification message which you can push out to the users.
   
   

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.