For Tags go to Alert Tags

Use the Alerts module to create and manage alerts. Alerts can be organized into station or location based groups. They can also be organized based on types of alerts such as flooding or meteorological. Alert data is often acquired through an automated feed but can be entered manually as well.

Alerts are similar to stories in that they have a header and a detailed text field. All the other fields are also included like Airs, On Air Time, Expiry Time and dynamic fields. For example, here's an example of some alerts coming from the US National Weather Service feed:

This is what one looks like when it's expanded to see more details:

Which Alerts go to Air?

You can toggle them on and off by clicking on the icons seen in the Airs column:

Icon

Description

This item is active and will go to air…
- if there is no on-air time or it has been reached AND
- there is no expiry time or it is not yet past.

This item is inactive and will NOT go to air.
- the on-air time and expiry time are ignored when it is in this inactive state.

Alert Groups

Alerts are organized into Groups. This works in the same way as Story Topics.

Alert groups are assigned to a content group when they are created. If you create a group in the Global content group it will be view-only to all users except members of the Global group.

Alert groups can have dynamic field values associated with them. This can be useful in customizing their output.

BLADE for Alerts

Alerts can also be accessed through BLADE. See the topic BLADE - Alerts for details.

System Preferences

There are a number of system preference options that apply to the Alerts module. These include:

Alert - Absolute Expiry Time

Indicates if the default expiry time is an absolute (daily) or relative time from the time of creation.

Default: false

Alert - Auto Expiry Time

The default time before the alert expires after it is created. This will be the time they stop playing out in the ST player though they will remain as content.

Default: 02:00:00

Alert - Default Position for Manual Alerts

Enter 'First' or 'Last' as the default position for new alerts when entered manually.

Default: Last

Alert - Enable Air by Default

True indicates that the alert editor defaults to enabling an alert to air for new alerts when entered manually.

Default: False

Alert - Enable Images

True indicates that the alert editor allows images to be used with alerts. Requires Media Bin to be enabled.

Default: false

Alert - Header Box Edit Lines

When 1 the text is edited in single line mode. When more than 1 multi-line editing is enabled. Recommend a value between 1 and 10.

Default: 1

Alert - Header Maximum Length

The max length an alert header is allowed. Set to 0 to have no limit.

Default: 255

Alert - Header Warning Length

When an alert header reaches this length display a visual cue to the user.

Default: 30

Alert - Warning Length

When an alert reaches this length display a visual cue to the user.

Default: 150