Case Study: Filtering Notify.Events Notifications
Once you've set up your channel and subscribed to it yourself and invited your team members, you can set up filtering and/or scheduling messages for each recipient.
We already wrote about delayed sending in our blog, and right now let's talk about message filtering.
Notification filtering helps distinguish between different message flows from sources and direct them to different communication tools or different people.
There are 3 filter options available in Notify.Events:
Each filter is set for each recipient separately. All settings are made on the desired recipient's subscription configuration screen. To get there, on the channel management screen in the Recipients section, click the Edit button next to the desired recipient or simply click on the name.
Here’s what the screen looks like:
By default, all added recipients are in the “Enabled” mode. This is indicated by a checkmark next to the corresponding line. If you want a specific recipient to temporarily not receive notifications, it is not necessary to remove it from the list of subscriptions altogether, just uncheck the box. When you want to "activate" the recipient again, simply check the box back.
Filtering notifications by priority
Priority filtering allows you to determine the priority level of the notifications that the recipient will receive. A total of 5 values are available:
- "Lowest",
- "Low",
- "Medium",
- "High"
- "Highest".
So you can set up receiving notifications with the “Highest” priority level in the form of a voice call - so as not to miss the most important notifications, with the “High” priority level - via SMS, “Medium” and “Low” - in the messenger.
Each source has its own priority hierarchy for events. For some services, you can yourself set priority levels for different types of notifications.
To choose which notifications will go to a particular recipient, check the boxes next to the desired priority levels:
Filtering notifications by level
Filtering by level allows you to choose what type of notifications will be sent to the recipient. Levels determine the state of the source that sent the notification. There are 6 types in total:
- "Verbose",
- "Info",
- "Notice",
- "Warning",
- "Error",
- "Success".
You can send a "Verbose" message type with a detailed build log to e-mail, and an error message to Slack or Telegram, for faster response.
As with priorities, notification levels are individually defined for each source.
To set the notification levels that will be sent to a particular recipient, check the boxes next to the required levels:
Filtering notifications by time
Filtering by time allows you to define at what time and on what days of the week notifications will be received. Or vice versa - at what time and days of the week the recipient will not receive notifications.
With this filter, you can organize shift work (notifying employees only on their shift). Or implement different notification methods depending on the time of day: send messages to instant messengers during the day, and in the form of a voice call at night.
To set the time frame for receiving notifications, check the boxes in the required cells:
After you set up all the filters, click the Save button.
Example of using filters
Here's an example of how message filtering works:
Let’s take an owner of a WordPress (WooCommerce) online store, Tom. He added it to the Notify.Events channel as a notification source.
Then he subscribed 3 managers to the channel: Jack, Lisa, and Tony, so that they can quickly receive messages about new orders and immediately contact customers. Each of them chose a messenger that was convenient for them: Jack prefers getting work-related info in Slack, Lisa decided to install the Notify.Events app for iOS on her iPhone, and Tony loves Telegram most of all. The managers work in shifts: Jack - on weekdays from 8 AM to 5 PM, Lisa is a student and her working hours start after classes - on weekdays from 5 PM to 11 PM, and Katya takes over all weekend from 10 AM to 6 PM.
A place of honor in the team is occupied by a warehouse employee Mrs.Smith. It is important for her to receive timely notifications about the decrease in the stock of goods and place a new order with suppliers. She loves her job but doesn’t want to get distracted when she's out with her family. To receive notifications, Mrs.Smith chose Viber, which her son had once installed).
Tom also wants to control sales and receive notifications of order status changes as soon as this happens. He is always in touch - regardless of day and time. The most convenient way of receiving alerts for him is SMS.
All in all, we have 3 tasks:
After setting all the filters, each employee will receive only notifications related to them and only during working hours. Additionally, Tom can turn off notifications at all when an employee goes on sick leave or vacation.
The described situation is given as an example. You can set the necessary filters depending on your needs.
