Send a message

The Messaging page contains a list of all forms you have permission to use to create notifications. The values that you enter into a form are used to create the email, text (SMS), and voice notifications that are sent to message recipients.

The Messaging page

When you select Messaging from the main menu you go directly to a page that contains a list of workflows and their associated forms and scenarios. The View Sent Messages option previously in the menu is available as a button on the top right side of the Messaging page. If you have scheduled messages, the Scheduled Messages button appears there too.

The right side of each workflow header contains an information pill with the number of forms and scenarios associated with the workflow. If you have a large number of forms in a workflow, click the chevron to collapse the section.

You can find the form you're looking for by scrolling through the list, or searching for it. If there are forms you use frequently, star them to make them easier to find.

A quick word about permissions...

As information on the Messaging page is based on your permission level some items are links you can click while others are plain text. It's possible for the form creator to give users and roles access to specific scenarios, but not the form itself.

If you can't find the form or scenario you're looking for, ensure the form creator has granted you permission to use them.

Star and filter

When there are a number of forms or scenarios that you use more than others you can star them, then sort the list to display only your starred items. Simply click the star beside each form or scenario, then click the Starred filter. The page refreshes to show you only the starred items.

While the default setting is to show you all available workflows and their associated forms and scenarios, you can easily change what's displayed on the Messaging page by selecting the Workflows, Forms, or Scenarios buttons. If you navigate away from the page and come back, your preferred settings remain.

Search for forms and scenarios

You can quickly locate a quickly locate a specific form or scenario on the Messaging page using the Search field. Whether you enter a full name or just a partial word search, the search looks at both the name and description fields and highlights where your search term appears. If you enter a search term when a filter is activated, the page displays results that match your filter and search term. For example, if you have the Scenarios filter selected, and enter "form" in the search filter, the page displays only scenarios with the word "form" in their names or descriptions.

The Starred, filter, and Search settings are available on both the iOS and Android mobile app.

Send a message

To send a message using a form or scenario in the list:

  1. Click the Messaging tab.
  2. Select the form or scenario that you want to send and click on its name to open it.
  3. Fill out the form values. For more information about filling out form values, see Configure message options.
  4. Click Send Message.
  5. xMatters displays the Alert report, where you can see the alert progress and view responses.
    1. For more information about using the Alert report and how to interpret the information, see Detailed alert information.

Form Values

When you send a message from a form, the values you configure in the form are used to create the message content and determine certain settings such as delivery handling options. For example, if a form includes a property named fireLocation, and you set the value of fireLocation to Building 5, every occurrence of the fireLocation property in the message templates is replaced with Building 5 in the messages sent to recipients. For more information about filling out form values, see Configure form settings.

Scenarios

Forms may have one or more scenarios associated with them. You can think of a scenario as a form that is partially filled in. By predefining the values on a form, a message sender can quickly send a message for specific situation without having to determine the values of every property of the form. For example, you may have a form named Database Outage that you use for database server outages. You could use two scenarios for this form - Linux database outage and Oracle database outage. The Linux database outage scenario is preconfigured to include the Linux database administrator as the message recipient, and the Oracle database outage scenario is preconfigured to include the Oracle database administrator as a recipient. When a message sender sends a notification about a database outage they would use a scenario to send the notification to the right recipient, without having to look up the name of the database administrator.

If you have permission to manage scenarios, you can also edit scenarios from the form's messaging page by clicking the Edit Scenarios button. For more information on managing scenarios on the Messaging page for a form, see Create and manage scenarios on the Messaging tab.