Templates Tab

Templates are organized into categories specified by Common Alerting Protocol. To learn more about Common Alerting Protocol, you can refer to the OASIS CAP documentation.

Existing Templates

Click on a category to see the Templates it contains. Alternatively you can use the search to find a Template. You’ll see a list of Templates with a number of Actions that can be performed, including:

Action	Definition

Action	Definition
Up/Down	You can use these actions to decide on the order that the Templates will appear for Notification Senders.
Edit	Edit the Template using the Add New Template interface.
Delete	Delete the Template.
Clone	Clone the Template. Cloning makes a copy of the Template, and prepends the words “Clone of” before the new template name. It then opens up the Add New Template interface.

Add New Template

Clicking Add New Template, Edit, or Clone will bring up the Add New Template interface:

Fields

If you have questions about what each field does, you can check out the Alerting Mechanism Content Display page, which has a detailed description of how each Alerting Mechanism displays the content of the fields.

This interface contains 4-5 text fields, as well as 5 “Advanced Notification Option” dropdown fields, depending on the customer's configuration.

Text Fields:

Event

Single line field. The "short message text" on most client's systems. You should generally aim to include as much critical information as possible in this field

Headline

This is only available for users of the Advanced Notification interface. This is the short message text for those client systems. This field includes a character counter that will ensure all of your content will be presented to the user, even in character limited Alerting Mechanisms like SMS Text Messages.

Description

This is the "long message text" and will be included by default in non-character limited Mechanisms (like Email).

Instruction

An optional CAP field, included by default in non-character limited Mechanisms (like Email).

Template Name

Not a CAP field. This is an internal facing name, and is not used anywhere else in the system, or shown to message recipients.

Dropdown Fields (Advanced Notification Options):

Dropdown fields are CAP fields that have specific allowed values. For your convenience, we’ve copied the information on these fields from the CAP Standard documentation.

Element Name	Definition	Available Values

Element Name	Definition	Available Values
category	The code denoting the category of the subject event of the alert message.	“Geo” - Geophysical (inc. landslide) “Met” - Meteorological (inc. flood) “Safety” - General emergency and public safety “Security” - Law enforcement, military, homeland and local/private security “Rescue” - Rescue and recovery “Fire” - Fire suppression and rescue “Health” - Medical and public health “Env” - Pollution and other environmental “Transport” - Public and private transportation “Infra” - Utility, telecommunication, other non-transport infrastructure “CBRNE” – Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear or High-Yield Explosive threat or attack “Other” - Other events
responseType	The code denoting the type of action recommended for the target audience.	“Shelter” – Take shelter in place or per <instruction> “Evacuate” – Relocate as instructed in the <instruction> “Prepare” – Make preparations per the <instruction> “Execute” – Execute a pre-planned activity identified in <instruction> “Avoid” – Avoid the subject event as per the <instruction> “Monitor” – Attend to information sources as described in <instruction> “Assess” – Evaluate the information in this message. (This value SHOULD NOT be used in public warning applications.) “AllClear” – The subject event no longer poses a threat or concern and any follow on action is described in <instruction> “None” – No action recommended
urgency	The code denoting the urgency of the subject event of the alert message.	“Immediate” - Responsive action SHOULD be taken immediately “Expected” - Responsive action SHOULD be taken soon (within next hour) “Future” - Responsive action SHOULD be taken in the near future “Past” - Responsive action is no longer required “Unknown” - Urgency not known
severity	The code denoting the severity of the subject event of the alert message.	“Extreme” - Extraordinary threat to life or property “Severe” - Significant threat to life or property “Moderate” - Possible threat to life or property “Minor” – Minimal to no known threat to life or property “Unknown” - Severity unknown
certainty	The code denoting the certainty of the subject event of the alert message.	“Observed” – Determined to have occurred or to be ongoing “Likely” - Likely (p > ~50%) “Possible” - Possible but not likely (p <= ~50%) “Unlikely” - Not expected to occur (p ~ 0) “Unknown” - Certainty unknown

Adding Variables to Template Content

Depending on your Dashboard configuration, you may see an “Insert Variable” button in the top right corner of the interface. This will bring up a list of variables that have been predefined in the system (either Drop-down Variables or Location Variables - see below for a description), and which can be added to your Templates.

Alternatively, you can add a simple Text Field variable by surrounding a new variable name in square brackets E.g.: [Variable Name].

Notification senders will need to fill in the content of each variable every time they send a notification.