Notification system

There are three notification methods in Zebrabase:

The two notification types used in Zebrabase are:

  • Personal notifications: Messages targeted at a specific user (i.e. the substock owner or a requested assignee etc.).
  • Global notifications: Messages to every target (a Slack channel for example) about every event (i.e. a notification about a new unassigned request sent to an email conference or to a Slack channel accessible to multiple users).

Events

Zebrabase notifications are invoked by specific events, which are listed in Admin / Notifications. Here, the administrator can edit the templates for the subject and the message body for each event (the subject is not displayed by Slack). There are two important read-only flags: Global and Personal. These indicate which type of notification can be assigned to this event.

Events - list

Global notifications

Global notifications cannot be sent via the inbuilt messaging system.

In case an event occurs, a notification message is generated and sent to all the global targets associated with the given event and to all the users who are involved and have the event notification enabled. The desired targets for global notifications can be added in the event form.

Event detail

New global targets can be set up in Admin / Codebooks / Notifications: Global Target.

A global target has three attributes: unique name, type (Slack/email), and target (email address OR Slack channel name or personal ID), and can be associated with any event flagged Global.

Personal notifications

For Slack notifications, a Slack ID must be set up in the user profile first. A tutorial is presented in this video.

Each event that flagged Personal can be switched on or off for a specific user. The notifications are set in the user profile settings, either by the specific user (click on the user name in the top right corner, then click Update), or by admin in Admin / Users / Edit. It is possible to choose more options of notifications for one type of event, the message will be sent through all the selected pathways.

Some notifications (for example a notification to the admin about all input counts) cannot be set up this way; using the global notifications is necessary for this.

Event types and endpoint (targeted) users

  • input - the substock owners
  • request - the request submitter and all request assignees
  • fishline - no events with personal handlers available
  • project - the project leader and the deputy
  • message - the system message recipients

Video tutorial: Slack notifications