Adding a Custom Device
Your organization configures a set of standard devices that are available to every user. You can also add other devices if you want to provide AlertFind more ways to contact you.
These other devices you add to your account are considered custom devices. After you create a custom device, you must add it to a notification profile to receive notifications on it. See Customize a Notification Profile for more information.
AlertFind can send email notifications to phone devices (such as cell phones or Blackberry devices) that support SMTP. To receive a notification on a cell phone in email format instead as a phone call, you must configure the phone as an email device using the email address assigned by your carrier.
To add a custom device:
- Log in to AlertFind, then click My Account from the navigation menu. Your User Overview page appears.
- Click Notification Devices from the list of User Editor options. The Notification Devices page appears.
- To add a new device, click + New. A list of available devices appears.
- Choose the device to add from the drop-down list, then follow the instructions below for each type of device:
- To add an email address or WAP/SMTP-enabled cell phone:
- Type a device Name to identify this email address. This field is required.
- Type a valid Email Address. This field is required.
- To add this device but disable it, click Disable at the top of the Create Device page. Your device will be added but will be unable to receive notifications until you enable it. See Enable or Disable a Device.
- Click Save to return to the Notification Devices list.
- To add a new voice phone number:
- Type a device Name to identify this phone number. This field is required.
- Select US/Canada or Other. The Phone Number entry field changes depending on your choice.
The correct format for Other phone numbers is:
[COUNTRY_CODE][CITY AREA_CODE][PHONE_NUMBER]
Numbers that include '0' between the country code and the city/area code are invalid in AlertFind. For example, the phone number 44(0) 207 333 4444 is invalid.
However, a UK number such as 44 20 7333 4444 is valid. In this example, the area code for London (20) is separated by spaces from the rest of the phone number. AlertFind will eliminate spaces so that number will become 442073334444.
- Enter a valid telephone number. This field is required.
- To set advanced dialing options required to reach this phone device, check Use advanced dialing options and set any advanced options.
When AlertFind calls an office phone, it can encounter an automated system that requires an extension number to be dialed. AlertFind will dial the extension and wait for the user to pick up. If the time to connect is too long, then AlertFind will assume the caller did not pick up and will attempt to leave a voicemail. The amount of delay depends on the PBX.
To add additional delays to the post-dial string to extend the AlertFind timeout time, in the Use advanced dialing options dialog box, insert additional commas (,) in the Post-dial field. One comma indicates a pause of one second.
- To add this device but disable it, click Disable at the top of the Create Device page. Your device will be added but will be unable to receive notifications until you enable it. See Enable or Disable a Device.
- Click Save to return to the Notification Devices list.
- To add a new alphanumeric or numeric pager number:
- Type a device Name to identify this pager. This field is required.
- Select US/Canada or Other. The Pager Number entry field changes depending on your choice.
- Enter a valid pager number. This field is required.
- Enter a PIN, if this pager requires one.
- Select the Carrier from the drop-down list.
- Set the Pager Type to either
AlphanumericorNumeric. - To add this device but disable it, click Disable at the top of the Create Device page. Your device will be added but will be unable to receive notifications until you enable it. See Enable or Disable a Device.
- Click Save to return to the Notification Devices list.
- To add a new SMS device:
- Type a device Name to identify this SMS device. This field is required.
- Select US/Canada or Other. The SMS Phone Number entry field changes depending on your choice.
- Enter a valid SMS Phone Number. This field is required.
- Choose an option for Max Length Handling.
Depending on the maximum message lengths imposed by your carrier, you can choose to receive all characters of a message, split messages into multiple chunks, or to truncate messages after a certain number of characters. For splitting or truncation options, you must provide the number of characters allowed before messages are chunked or truncated. You can leave this field blank to use the default method for your organization.
- SMS messages have a 140-byte limit and are delivered in 140-byte chunks. To send messages larger than 140 bytes, devices and carriers either truncate the message or send the message in chunks of a specified length. Chunk sizes are determined by the device, by the carrier or by user settings. This means, if chunk sizes are not specified, for a languages that use single-byte character sets (such as English, Spanish, French, and German), only the first 160 characters of the message will be delivered. For languages that use double-byte character sets (such as Hindi, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese) only the first 70 characters of the message will be delivered.
- AlertFind sets chunking size defaults at 160 characters. If your organization sends SMS messages using double-byte character sets, you should consider changing these defaults to 70 characters to ensure that the full messages are delivered. In the Edit Standard SMS Device dialog box, select
Split message into smaller chunks of:Then enter70in the characters number box and click Save. - The system measures a single chunk's size as the number of characters in the message header, plus the number of characters to convey the portion of the message subject or message body. For example, each chunk includes the header From {company notification system} (x of y) plus part of user-defined subject or message. If the header length is greater than the configured chunk size, the message will not be sent.
- To add this device but disable it, click Disable at the top of the Create Device page. Your device will be added but will be unable to receive notifications until you enable it. See Enable or Disable a Device.
- Click Save to return to the Notification Devices list.
- To add a new fax number:
- Type a device Name to identify this fax line. This field is required.
- Select US/Canada or Other. The Fax Number entry field changes depending on your choice.
- Enter a valid Fax Number. This field is required.
- To add this device but disable it, click Disable at the top of the Create Device page. Your device will be added but will be unable to receive notifications until you enable it. See Enable or Disable a Device.
- Click Save to return to the Notification Devices list.
- To add a new mobile email device:
- Type a device Name to identify this mobile email device. This field is required.
- Enter a valid Email Address for the mobile email device. This field is required.
- Choose an option for Max Length Handling.
Depending on the maximum message lengths imposed by your carrier, you can choose to receive all characters of a message, split messages into multiple chunks, or to truncate messages after a certain number of characters. For splitting or truncation options, you must provide the number of characters allowed before messages are chunked or truncated. You can leave this field blank to use the default method for your organization.
- To add this device but disable it, click Disable at the top of the Create Device page. Your device will be added but will be unable to receive notifications until you enable it. See Enable or Disable a Device.
- Click Save to return to the Notification Devices list.
- To receive notifications on custom devices, you must enable them and add them to a notification profile. See Enable or Disable a Device and Customize a Notification Profile.