This article will walk through how to set up an integration between the Mass Notification and Web Central Alert Center in the Integration Hub. The integration allows for:
Activating the Web Central Alert Center Banner when a notification is sent from the Mass Notification
Adding a new Alert Center item to a designated Alert Center category when an alert is sent to a Mass Notification group
Content to be created in Alert Center widgets when sending an alert to a Mass Notification group
Important Notes
When the Alert Center item is created in Web Central, no expiration date is set. Expiration for the Alert Center item is determined by the Expiration field on the Send Alert form. The Expiration field on the Send Alert form can be added in the Mass Notification System’s Custom Alert Form settings if not present.
Alerts cannot be updated from the Mass Notification. Once the Alert Center item is created by the integration, it must be manually modified from the Web Central back-end.
Subscriber options for email and SMS should be disabled for the Alert Center categories used in the integration.
Alert items can still be created and posted on the website separately, but would not be distributed through Notify Me.
Prerequisites
Set up your Web Central and Mass Notification (CivicReady) credentials
Make sure the applicable Web Central Alert Center category is set to Update Integration Hub
Instructions
Sign in to your site
Navigate to the Integrations tab
Select + New Integration
Scroll down and click the CivicReady Alert Users template
Some of the fields will automatically populate; select the Applications for Mass Notification and Web Central
Select the Credentials for each application
Select Alert Sent from the Type drop-down
Choose the Group from your Mass Notification instance that you wish to use when triggering an alert
Select the Alert Center Category in Web Central that the alert should be added to
Click Next
Map fields from Mass Notification to Web Central as needed
Note: Required fields include Name and Description. None of the Alert Center fields can support the Mass Notification HTML Message. Learn more about how field mapping looks in Web Central. The available Mass Notification fields may differ depending on your custom alert form.
Description: Description is limited to 250 characters and is mapped to the Brief Description field in the Alert Center item. We recommend typing a placeholder such as “Emergency Alert” and not mapping a variable Mass Notification field, such as Subject or Plain Text Message. If a variable field is used and the incoming characters exceed the 250-character limit, the integration will fail.
Full Description: Use the "Plain Text Message" field. If the settings in the integration’s Alert Center category have the “Featured Area Type” set to Simple, only the Full Description will be displayed on the front end of the website when the item is created, and the Brief Description will not be displayed.
Alert Bar Text: Alert Bar Text is limited to 20 characters. We recommend typing standard text in the integration field, such as "Emergency Alert". Do not leave the field blank or the integration will fail.
Alert Bar Visibility: The Alert Center category must have the banner option enabled. The integration must have the desired Alert Bar Visibility option selected. A department page and subpages cannot be selected from the integration. For emergency alerts, we recommend selecting "All Pages". For standard city alerts, we recommend selecting "Home Page Only".
Click Next
View an Overview and Test Instructions for your integration
Click Save
Enable your integration using the toggle under the Status column
The integration will now send Mass Notification alerts to the Web Central Alert Center
