Notifications

“Notifications” will add functionality to IMPACT that allows users to be notified, both automatically by the system and manually by other users. This will provide a way to communicate important events and changes during a project’s lifetime.  

Automatic notifications will give the users a daily update on important changes to planning and drawing data. These notifications will be sent out as an e-mail to the users that have subscribed to the information. Delivering daily updates will hopefully make it easier for users to keep up with all the changes and to spot changes that may lead to problems in the future.  

Manual notifications are stored in the database and have a deep integration with the system. They are created, modified, and read by users from within the application. The notifications can carry attachments, comments, and references to elements or drawings which makes it easy for the recipients to follow up on the information and respond with comments and/or attachments of their own. Users who want to compose an email of a manual notification will have the ability to do that as well. 

Before it's possible to use the notifications the following is needed for each client:

• Users need access to an email and a mail client on their personal computer to be able to send/receive emails of the notifications composed by IMPACT. 
• Users must have their email address, first- and last name stored in the database (Set in User Admin) to be eligible as a recipient for notifications.

Automatic Notifications

To use Automatic Notifications it's needed to enable it and set up the mail server configuration in the IMPACT Service Configuration - The reason for this is that Automatic Notifications will always be sent out to the Email.

Figure 1: Automatic Notification in Service Configuration

Furthermore it's also necessary to set up IMPACT Sync with the Trigger Parameter 50 - How to set up IMPACT Sync can be found here - This is the "Automatic part" and will send out the emails according to the IMPACT Sync.

When both the Mail server configuration and IMPACT Sync have been set up then it's possible to enable the Automatic Notifications under the Notification setting.

The Notification settings can be found in the Notification dialog that can be accessed through either IMPACT Resource Manager or IMPACT Project Manager.

Figure 2: Notification Icon in IMPACT Resource Manager

Figure 3: Notification Icon in IMPACT Project Manager

Under the Settings tab the Sys Admin of the company sets up the Company Settings - These settings will define what the Automatic Notification should include and how it should behave. It's also important to note that Automatic notifications are only available to projects that have the status In Progress and are of type Production.

Figure 4: Automatic Notification - Company Settings

Enable Automatic Notification - Sets if the Automatic Notification should be enabled.

Include Data on Project Level - Sets what data should be exported if the Project Level is selected.

Include Data on Factory/Division Level - Sets what data should be exported if the Factory/Division Level is selected.

Number of days to production to generate a warning - Sets how many days to production before a warning is given. It's also possible to set the color of the warning.

Number of days PlanningDates must be changed before including - Sets how many changes there should be made to planning dates before the changes should be included in the Notification.

Color for the changes in planning data - Sets the color for the changes in the planning data.

To receive these notifications, users must first subscribe to automatic notifications for either projects or production factories and divisions. Subscribing to projects will make the user receive one email for every active project with changes that he or she has subscribed to. Subscribing to production factories and divisions will make the user receive one email for every production division.  

The subscription of a project or Factory/Division can be set under the "User Setting" - An important thing to note is that it's only possible to subscribe to projects OR Factory/Division.

Figure 5: Automatic Notification - User Settings - Project

In the project settings it's possible to select the project that should be subscribed to and what information the user wants notifications on.

Project - Sets what project the user wants to subscribe to.

Planning data- Sets if the user wants notifications on changes to the planning data.

Building drawings - Sets if the user wants notifications on new building drawings.

Revised drawings - Sets if the user wants notifications on revised drawings.

Element status - Sets if the user wants notifications on changes to the element status.

Decreased element status - Sets if the user wants notifications on decreased element status.

It's also possible for the user to subscribe to a factory/division level.

Figure 6: Automatic Notification - User Settings - Factory

In the factory settings it's possible to select the factory/division that should be subscribed to and what information the user wants notifications on.

Factory - Sets what factory the user wants to subscribe to.

Email for elements without divisions- Sets if the user should be notified about the elements in the factory without a division.

Division - Sets what division the user wants to subscribe to.

Planning data- Sets if the user wants notifications on changes to the planning data.

Building drawings - Sets if the user wants notifications on new building drawings.

Revised drawings - Sets if the user wants notifications on revised drawings.

Element status - Sets if the user wants notifications on changes to the element status.

Decreased element status - Sets if the user wants notifications on decreased element status.

Below are some examples of the different tables that a Notification email can contain.

Figure 7: Example of different tables in an Email

Manual Notifications

Manual Notifications are notifications that are stored in the database and will not be sent as an Email (It's possible to also make the manual notification send out an Email). It's possible to set if a new notification should play a Sound and/or show an Alert in the notification settings.

Figure 8: Notifications - User Settings

Before creating a notification could it be a good idea to set up a send list. A send list allows the user the notify a group of people when making a notification instead of selecting every single user. 

To create a new send list for a project add the project (1) and click on "New Send list" (2).

Figure 9: Notifications - Send Lists

A new send list always contains a Title and a Description - After that is specified the recipients can be added on the right side. This is done by using the search function and then clicking on the name to add the users to the send list.

Figure 10: Notifications - New Send List

When the send list has been created it's ready to be used when creating a new notification. It's possible to select the created send list and see the information about the send list. It's also possible to edit, copy or delete it. 

Figure 11: Notifications - Send List overview

Creating a notification can be done in multiple places depending on how specific the notification should be - Creating one from the Notification dialog will create an overall notification on the selected project whereas creating one on a drawing or element id (Right Click and choose Add Notification) will automatically add the project and element id/drawing in the notification data. 

The example below shows the procedure of adding a notification in the notification dialog.

Figure 12: Notifications - New Notification

When creating a notification a title and description are needed. It's also possible to attach pictures or PDFs to the notification (This requires that cloud storage is configured - How to configure cloud storage can be found here). Adding the recipients can be done by searching and selecting each one or selecting the newly created send list. Marking the "Create Email" will create an email will the data in "Create new Notification" and allows the user to modify the notification in an email.

Figure 13: Notifications - New Notification from Notification dialog

When a notification is received it will play a sound and show at the notification icon that a new notification has been received (If the settings are configured to do that). 

Figure 14: Notifications - New Notification icon

Clicking on the new notification allows the user to see the notification information, add comments, and see the attachments and the recipients.

Figure 15: Notifications - Received Notification

It's also possible to Compose the notification to an Email or Archive the Notification. On the left side, the list of notifications can be found and this list will grow over time - To give a better overview it's both possible to search in the list and to add a filter.

Figure 16: Notifications - Received Notification filter

With the Manual and Automatic notification it's possible to bring the information flow in IMPACT to a whole new level.