Schedule a message
You can schedule a form or scenario to send in the future, either just one time or on a recurring basis. You might want to use a one-time scheduled message to send a notification during off hours to a recipient in a different time zone, or send other messages on a repeating daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.
You can choose from one of the following frequency options for repeating messages:
- Daily: the message is sent at a specific time every day.
- Weekly: the message is sent at a specific time on each selected day of the week; i.e., Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
- Monthly: the message is sent at a specific time on the same date or day of each selected month; i.e., the 15th of every month, or the first Monday of January, April, and October.
- Yearly: the message is sent at a specific time on the same date every year.
Supported form or scenario features
Scheduled messages support all features of forms or scenarios (i.e., properties, attachments, device options, voice interactions, response counts, etc.), with important considerations for integrated properties and conference bridges:
- Integrated property values are populated at the time a message is scheduled; the external system is not re-queried for each recurring message.
- A new xMatters or external conference bridge will be created for every scheduled message alert; existing xMatters conference bridges will be ignored.
Depending on the selected message frequency, you can define the start date for your message schedule, and the days of the week or months of the year on which your message is sent. You can choose to allow a message to recur indefinitely, or end by a certain date or after a certain number of occurrences.
You must specify the Time the message is sent for all frequency options. One-time messages are scheduled to send at the specified time on a selected date in the future. You must specify a Start Date for daily, weekly, or yearly messages. The first message will be sent the next time the specified time and frequency option becomes available, on or after the start date. If you set your message to begin on today's date but the selected time has already passed, the message will be sent at the specified time on the next available date.
For messages scheduled with a weekly or monthly frequency, the On These Days or On These Months fields allow you to choose which days of the week or months of the year the message will be sent. Use these fields to limit messages to send only on the selected days or months. If you would like your message to recur on every day of the week or month of the year, select every day or month. Monthly scheduled messages can be sent on a specific Date (i.e., 1 to 31, or last), or specific day of the Week (i.e., Second Tuesday, or Third Friday).
The End field allows you to specify when to end the recurrence of a schedule message:
- Never: The message sends according to the specified frequency, indefinitely.
- Date: The messages end on or by a specific date.
- After: The messages end after a fixed number of times. Every time a message is sent counts as an occurrence, regardless if the message repeats daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. For example, if you configure a message to send on the first of every month of the year for 6 times, the message will occur on the first of the month for the next six consecutive months, and end after six months.
To schedule a message:
- Click Messaging from the main menu. You're taken to the Messaging page that contains a list of workflows, forms, and scenarios you have permission to use.
- Locate the form or scenario that you want to schedule, and configure your message.
- Click Schedule Message.
- Type a descriptive Name for your message.
- This name is used to identify your scheduled message in xMatters; it is not the subject of your scheduled message.
- Configure your desired message schedule using the available Recurrence, Frequency, Start Date and End settings.
- Review the message schedule summary to confirm the message recurrence settings and date the next message will be sent.
- Click Schedule Message.
- Click Messaging from the main menu. You're taken to the Messaging page that contains a list of workflows, forms, and scenarios you have permission to use.
- Click Scheduled Messages from the top right-hand corner of the page.
- xMatters displays a list of scheduled messages:
- Click a column heading to sort the list of scheduled messages by Name, Owner, Frequency, or the Date & Time of the previous or next scheduled message.
- Click the Date & Time link for a message to view its schedule details.
- For messages with future occurrences, the Date & Time link will be for the Next scheduled message.
- For expired scheduled messages, the Date & Time link will be for the Previous scheduled message.
- Click the Name link for a message to view the message content.
- The Name link is only available for messages with future occurrences.
Expired scheduled messages will remain in the list of scheduled messages until manually deleted by a user with appropriate permissions.
You can only edit the content of a scheduled message that has future occurrences. To edit the content of an expired message, first edit the message schedule so there is at least one future occurrence.
To edit a scheduled message:
- Do one of the following:
- To edit the schedule, click the Date & Time link for the message and edit the schedule details.
- To edit the content of the message, click the Name link for the message and edit the content of the message form.
- Save your changes or click Cancel to return to the list of scheduled messages.
If the layout of the message form has changed since the message was scheduled, editing the content of the scheduled message will update it to use current version of the form. Sections or properties removed from the form will no longer be displayed in the message, and new properties or sections will display default values until they are edited and saved.
- Click Messaging from the main menu. You're taken to the Messaging page that contains a list of workflows, forms and scenarios you have permission to use.
- Click Scheduled Messages from the top right-hand corner of the page.
- To delete a scheduled message, click the X to the right of the scheduled message entry.
- Deleting a recurring message will delete all future occurrences of the message.
When you delete a user from the system, all of the scheduled messages created by that user are deleted.
Example scheduled messages
The following more detailed examples demonstrate how to schedule messages for different time frequencies.
A one time scheduled message is sent only once, on a specific date and time in the future.
To schedule a one-time message:
- Type a descriptive Name for the message.
- Select a Recurrence of One Time.
- Specify a future Date and Time when the message should be sent.
- Review the message schedule summary.
- Click Schedule Message.
In this example, the message will be sent one time, at 11:00 AM on Saturday May 5, 2018:
A daily scheduled message is sent every day at a specific time, starting on or after a selected start date. Daily messages can be scheduled to send indefinitely, to end on a specific date, or to end after a certain number of messages have been sent.
To schedule a daily message:
- Type a descriptive Name for the message.
- Select a Recurrence of Repeat.
- Select a Frequency of Daily.
- Specify a future Start Date when the message schedule should begin.
- Specify the Time the message should be sent.
- Select when you want the scheduled messages to End:
- Never: The message will be sent daily, indefinitely.
- Date: The message will be sent daily, ending on a specific date.
- After: The message will be sent daily, ending after a specific number of messages have been sent.
- Review the message schedule summary.
- Click Schedule Message.
In the following example, starting on May 5, 2018 a message will be sent at 11:00 every day until October 31, 2018:
A weekly scheduled message is sent at the same time on specified days of the week, starting on or after a selected start date. Weekly messages can be scheduled to send indefinitely, to end on a specific end date, or to end after a certain number of messages have been sent.
To schedule a weekly message:
- Type a descriptive Name for the message.
- Select a Recurrence of Repeat.
- Select a Frequency of Weekly.
- Specify a future Start Date when the message schedule should begin.
- Specify the Time the message should be sent at.
- Select the days of the week the message should be sent on, using the On These Days selector.
- Select when you want the scheduled messages to End:
- Never: The message will be sent on the specified days, indefinitely.
- Date: The message will be sent on the specified days, until a specific end date.
- After: The message will be sent on the specific days, ending after a specific number of messages have been sent.
- Review the message schedule summary.
- Click Schedule Message.
In the following example, starting on May 5, 2018, messages will be sent every Tuesday and Thursday, until a total of 5 messages have been sent.
Monthly messages can be scheduled to send at a specific time and day on selected months indefinitely, until a specific end date, or ending after a certain number of messages have been sent.
To schedule a monthly message:
- Type a descriptive Name for the message.
- Select a Recurrence of Repeat.
- Select a Frequency of Monthly.
- Specify the Time the message should be sent.
- Select to send the message on a specific Date or day of the Week:
- Date: Select a day from 1 to 31, or the last day of the month
- Week: Select the first, second, third, fourth or last day of the week (Monday to Sunday)
- Select on which months the message should be sent using the On These Months selector.
- Select when you want the scheduled messages to End:
- Never: The message will be sent on the specified day of the selected months, indefinitely.
- Date: The message will be sent on the specified day of the selected months, until a specific date.
- After: The message will be sent on the specified day of the selected months, ending after a specific number of messages have been sent.
- Review the message schedule summary.
- Click Schedule Message.
In the following example, a message will be sent at 5:00 PM on the last day of every other month, 3 times. A total of 3 messages will be sent, starting at 5:00 PM on Tuesday May 31, 2016, and repeating at 5:00 PM on the last day of every other subsequent 2 months (November and January).
A yearly scheduled message is sent at a specific time on the same date every year, after a selected start date. Yearly messages can be scheduled to send on a specific date and time every year indefinitely, until a specific end date, or ending after a certain number of messages have been sent.
To schedule a yearly message:
- Type a descriptive Name for the message.
- Select a Recurrence of Repeat.
- Select a Frequency of Yearly.
- Specify the Start Date when the first message should be sent.
- Specify the Time the message should be sent at.
- Select when you want the scheduled messages to End:
- Never: The message will be sent at the specified time and date every year, indefinitely.
- Date: The message will be sent at the specified time and date every year, until a specific end date.
- After: The message will be sent at the specified time and date every year, ending after a specific number of messages have been sent.
- Review the message schedule summary.
- Click Schedule Message.
In this example, a message will be sent at 11:00 AM on May 5, 2018, and will repeat every year on May 5 at 11:00 AM, indefinitely: