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We are excited to announce the launch of updated product names, logos, and headers within our user interfaces as part of the CivicPlus® Solution Rebranding initiative. These changes mark the first step toward creating a cohesive and seamless user experience across all solutions in our portfolio. As part of this transition, users may notice minor design updates. While the functionality you rely on remains unchanged, we are in the process of updating screenshots and other resources on our Help Centers to reflect the new branding. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to complete these updates.

CivicReady to Web Central Alert Center Integration

  • Updated:

This article will walk through how to set up an integration between the Mass Notification System (formerly CivicReady) 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 System
  • Adding a new Alert Center item to a designated Alert Center category when an alert is sent to a Mass Notification System group
  • Content to be created in Alert Center widgets when sending an alert to a Mass Notification System 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 System (CivicReady). 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 (Short Message Service) should be disabled for the Alert Center categories used in the integration.
  • Alerts items can still be created and posted on the website separately, but would not be distributed through Notify Me.

 

Prerequisites

  1. Set up your Web Central and Mass Notification (CivicReady) credentials
  2. Make sure the applicable Web Central Alert Center category is set to Update Integration Hub
    The Update Integration Hub checkbox.

 

 

Instructions

  1. Sign in to your site
  2. Navigate to the Integrations tab
    The Integrations option in the left navigation menu.
  3. Select + New Integration
    The red, rectangular New integration button to the right of the Integrations header.
  4. Scroll down and click the CivicReady Alert Users template
    The CivicReady template option.
  5. Some of the fields will automatically populate, select the Applications for CivicReady and Web Central
    The Application dropdowns.
  6. Select the Credentials for each application
    The Credentials dropdowns.
  7. Select Alert Sent from the Type drop-down
    Alert sent option in the Type dropdown.
  8. Choose the Group from your CivicReady instance that you wish to use when triggering an alert
    The Groups dropdown field.
  9. Select the Alert Center Category in Web Central that the alert should be added to
    The Category dropdown field.
  10. Click Next
    The red, rectangular Next button to the right of the progress bar.
  11. Map fields from CivicReady to Web Central as needed
    Map fields.
    Note: Required fields include Name and Description. None of the Alert Center fields can support the CivicReady HTML Message. Learn more about how field mapping looks in Web Central. The available CivicReady 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 CivicReady 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".
  12. Click Next
    The red, rectangular Next button to the right of the progress bar.
  13. View an Overview and Test Instructions for your integration
    Test instructions.
  14. Click Save
    The red, rectangular Save button to the right of the progress bar.
  15. Enable your integration using the toggle under the Status column
    The Enable integration toggle.
  16. The integration will now send CivicReady alerts to the Web Central Alert Center
    An Alert Center example.

 

Supporting Articles

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