Creating Communications from within Register Items

Communications Messages can be created from within certain register items. Currently the Request and Information registers support this feature.

This feature allows you to either send the contents of the item or a link to the item with an optional custom message via email or SMS to selected recipients.

Users with permissions to send communications will see a Communications heading in the right hand side of the item’s form. Clicking on the “Share this record via email or SMS” checkbox will expose more fields.

On save of the item a new Communication Message is created and automatically sent to the recipients that have preferences to receive messages in the format being sent.

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Recipients

Similarly to a normal Communication Message, recipients can be drawn from record types containing relevant contact address data. These record types currently include contacts, recovery cases, case applicants, relief registration contacts, permit applicants and more, depending on the Crisisworks configuration.

Receive Communication Settings & Overriding preferences

For Contact recipients, the Communication Message will comply with their “receive communication preferences” set in their contact record (see below). If a contact has selected to not receive communication by email and they are selected as a recipient to be sent to via email, the contact will not appear in the delivery preview section meaning they will not be sent to for this format. To override their preferences and send to this contact via this format anyway, there is an “Override communication preferences” checkbox that can be ticked which will ignore the contact’s preferences . This override feature should only be used in rare circumstances for emergencies and other important messages.

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You can also choose to present a link in the message for the person to explicitly acknowledge the message. To do this click on the ‘Ask recipients to acknowledge the message’ checkbox. This defaults to not being selected.

Adding Event Positions as Recipients

It is also possible to send a message to all users within an event’s participating position. This performs a live lookup and adds users that are currently on-duty in that position for the event. The users who are on-duty in the position will appear in the delivery preview (if they have selected to receive email or receive sms in their contact record). In the example screenshot, we have added the Red Cross EMLO as a recipient. The two contacts ‘Jen Haase’ and ‘Redcross Hundt’ are currently on-duty for this position in the Zombie invasion event. You can see these two contacts have been automatically added as recipients in the delivery preview.

Sending to contacts within an item

For registers that have contacts linked within the item, for example Request Applicants or Request Related Contacts, there is the option of sending a message to these contacts. To do this click on the “Send to contacts within this record” checkbox. This checkbox will only appear for registers that have linked contacts.

Formats

Similarly to a general Communication Message, there are 2 possible formats for sending messages, Email and SMS.

Choose the “Send by Email” checkbox to send the message via email to the selected recipients. You will notice the selected recipients and their corresponding email addresses appear in the delivery preview only if the contact’s receive communication preference is set to Yes. If a contact does not appear in the delivery preview for this format this means they either do not have an email address set in their contact record or the communication preference for that format is set to No. (see the above Receive Communication Settings & Overriding preferences) section for more information on this.)

Choose the “Send by SMS” checkbox to send the message via SMS to the selected recipients. You will notice the selected recipients and their phone numbers will appear in the delivery preview. If a contact does not appear in the delivery preview for this format this means they do not have a phone number set in their contact record or the communication preference for that format is set to No..

If both formats are selected then both email and SMS will be sent.

Email Formatting Options

The following format options are available when sending register items via a Communication Message. Note - these options are for email only. SMS’s contain the subject and a link to the item.

1. Include the details of this record into the message
   This option sends the contents of the register item into the body of the email.

2. Include attachments in email
   This option will include all attachments uploaded into the item as attachments to the email. This is turned on by default. Untick this box to not include any of the items’s attachments in the email sent.

3. Include a link to view this record
   This option will provide a link to the register item in the body of the email. The user will be required to login to Crisisworks to view the item.

4. Include a custom subject
   By default the subject of the email will use the Subject of the item. You can override this by ticking on this checkbox. A text box will appear allowing you to type in a custom subject for the email. Note - this will not override the SMS subject.

5. Include a custom message
   This option will allow you to enter a custom message which will appear at the top of the email. Tick on the checkbox and a text area will appear allowing you to type a custom message for the email.

Sending the Communication

To send the communication out, simply save the register item and it will be automatically sent.

Messages will not be sent if the item does not have an active status, such as Closed, Resolved or Not Current (for Information).

Messages will not be sent from the register if the item is set as a template.

Messages will also not be sent if no recipients have their receive communication preferences turned on for the selected format(s) of the message.

Viewing linked Communication Messages

Once the message has been sent, you can view the Communication Message(s) from the item. When you view the item, Communication Messages that have been sent from the item will appear under the Communication heading when in view mode (not edit mode).

You can click on the id to view the Communication Message that was created. This will show you who received the message and what was sent.