VSys One: Volunteer Management Software

Previous Topic

Next Topic

Book Contents

Book Index

Notification Events ("Triggers")

Every subscription has one or more events in it and a single subscription can have two or more events of the same type. For example, a subscriber may want to be notified by e-mail about self-cancelled assignments up to a day before the assignment starts but by SMS if it's cancelled any closer than that.

Many notification events have common/similar filters.

When checking for duplicate notifications...

Normally when VSys checks to see if a notification is relevant and not a duplicate, it looks for all existing notifications of the same type for the selected object (hours record, person, etc.) If it finds one, it won't generate another.

Checking this field tells VSys that it should only consider a notification generated by this specific event and not consider any other events. This is useful, for example, when you want to send a 30 day, 15 day and 5 day reminder about a certification's expiration.

Also send to defined supervisors for the underlying job

For any notification based around a job, for example an hours record, assignment, slot, etc., checking this will send the resulting notification to not only the designated recipient but also every person who is defined as a supervisor of the underlying job or that job's job group.

Also send to designated alternates of the recipient

If checked, notifications will also be sent to everyone in the system with the relationship "Designated alternate" to the current recipient.

Only if no one else has been notified in the last

No notification will be generated if anyone else - explicit or automatic - received a notification for the same thing. If A generated but undelivered notification qualifies as being notified is checked then just the notification being generated for someone else is enough to cause this notification to not be generated, otherwise the notification for someone else must have been delivered.

This filter is useful as a "catch all" for things that really do need to have someone notified, but only if the person you'd want to be notified isn't because of rule or personnel changes.

Only people on lists, Exclude people with these flags, People types, Groups, Volunteer types

These filter the person referenced in the notification.

Events that require the target person to be on lists now interpret that filter as "Any of these lists" rather than "All of these lists".

Primary Supervisor as Sender

This applies only to the recipient's primary supervisor if there's a supervisor associated with the current object (hours record, assignment, etc.) that is not considered when VSys tries to determine what sender name to use.

Account Lockout

This event generates a notification when a VSys Security user's account becomes locked out due to too many failed login attempts, and that lockout occurs during the Locked out between window. The security user is filtered by People types and Groups, if specified. Checking Only if account is still locked out makes this event not generate a notification if, at the time the notification is generated or delivered, the user's account is no longer locked out.

A notification is generated for each locked out account. If an account is locked out multiple times, only the most recent lockout will create a notification.

Anniversary

Anniversaries can be based on a person's Date active or Date started, whichever is more appropriate for how you use these fields.

Minimum days from now, Maximum days from now

Based on the Date to reference, how far in the future should that date be to be applicable here.

Date to reference

Date active or Date started.

Minimum years, Maximum years

Minimum and maximum number of years between the anniversary date and the current date.

Assignment Cancelled for Lack of Release Form

This selects assignments whose status is "Cancelled: no release form". It can be filtered based on Job, Location and start date/time.

Assignment Pending Release Form

Use this to be notified about assignments whose status is "Pending release form". Filter these assignments on Release form due between (use relative dates), start date/time, Jobs and Locations.

Assignment Reminder

Assignment reminders are used to send notifications to volunteers, supervisors or other people about upcoming assignments. (The subscriber "Referenced person" is perfect for generating reminders sent to each assignment's volunteer.)

Include iCalendar/ics files with e-mails

If checked, for notifications delivered by e-mail, VSys will include an iCalendar file for each assignment.

Starting within

How far into the future (from the current date/time) can the assignment be.

Jobs, Locations

Filters the jobs and locations associated with the assignment.

Assignment Statuses

This event generates a notification by the presence of an assignment with one of the given statuses, created during the Created between window. Checking Only if starting within lets you only be notified about assignments which are starting soon and therefore more critical. Assignments are filtered by Jobs and Locations. The volunteer in the assignment is filtered by People types, Groups and Volunteer types.

A notification is generated for each assignment meeting your criteria here and includes the volunteer's name along with a description of the assignment itself.

In this example, with this event, a notification e-mail will only be generated for assignments in Meals for Many and Resource Management jobs, which have a status of Pending approval which were created in the last 10 days and where the assignment is starting in the next 15 days.

Attachment

Checks for attachments with specific criteria. This is most commonly used to notify a staff member about attachments uploaded by volunteers using VSys Live that require approval.

Award

Awards notifications are used to announce awards. (The subscriber "Referenced person" is the award's recipient.)

Types, Statuses

These filter the awards themselves.

Earliest nominated, Latest nominated, Earliest awarded, Latest awarded

Filter dates associated with the awards; you can use relative dates in these fields.

Backups Not Run

These notifications are used to detect if full backups (via VSys One) of the VSys database have not been made during some recent time period.

Backups made by SQL Server of the underlying database - which are perfectly good backups - cannot be detected by VSys.

Banned People Whose Banned Expiration is Expiring

Used for notification about a person who's banned in VSys One, but whose Banned expiration field date is coming. A notification is generated for each person which meets your criteria here.

Regardless of the value in the Banned expiration field, VSys will never automatically un-ban someone.

Birthday

Birthday notifications are used to announce upcoming birthdays.

Minimum days from now, Maximum days from now

Distance, in days, from the current date.

Minimum age, Maximum age

These filter based on the age of the person at the upcoming birthday.

Certifications

Checks for certifications that meet specific criteria. It is most commonly used as a reminder to a volunteer that one or more certifications are expiring. If exactly one certification type is selected, the filters can also include detailed properties of the certification, otherwise those filters support effective dates and expiration distance.

Concurrent User License Counts

Only applicable if you use concurrent user rather than named user licensing for VSys One and VSys Lite. This checks the count of licenses currently in use against the number referenced in your registration code, then generates a notification if the count in use exceeds a certain percentage of the count available.

Registration code

A VSys One or VSys Lite concurrent user registration code. Only licenses using this registration code are checked. If you have both concurrent VSys One and concurrent VSys Lite registration codes, use separate notifications for each.

Maximum percentage of licenses in use

A notification will be generated only if the count in use divided by the count available exceeds this number.

CPU Utilization

This is a special-purpose notification that checks for the current and recent past CPU utilization on the machine that is generating the notifications; it's intended to spot performance problems and is unsupported for general use.

Eligibility/Intake Checklist

These can be used to send notifications about eligibility/intake checklists.

Types, Statuses

The type and current status of the checklist.

Earliest changed, Last changed

These filter on when the checklist itself was last changed or recalculated.

Earliest completed, Last completed

Uses the Date completed field.

Start dates between

Uses the Start date property of the checklist.

HHS/Office of Inspector General Excluded Persons

These three events are all related:

Hours Online Approval Link

Generates notifications about hours that require approval, sending those to the appropriate recipients by e-mail in order to approve or reject those hours using VSys Live.

Hours online approval via VSys Live is not part of the standard VSys Live implementation. In general, installing and configuring this option comes with an additional fee. See Advanced VSys Live features for information.

Hours Pending Approval

Generates notifications about self-entered volunteer hours (via VSys Web, VSys Live or the VSys Kiosk) that still require approval. A notification is generated for each and every pending hours record and describes that hours record.

Inactive Followup Date

For a volunteer who is inactive, generates a notification if their Inactive followup date is upcoming. Use this to be reminded about volunteers who may be coming back, or who you want to encourage to come back.

Incoming Messages

Incoming messages can come from the VSys Kiosk, VSys Live or by SMS/text message. Use this notification to be informed about incoming messages that need to be handled. Use filters on Sent via and Message types to get e-mail or SMS notifications to yourself about high-priority messages.

Filters on People types, Groups and Volunteer types only apply if VSys is able to match the incoming message to a person in VSys. An anonymous message or one that VSys can't associate with a VSys One person will not generate a notification if any of these filters are set.

A notification is generated for each and every incoming message which meets the criteria here.

Indices Need Rebuilding

Indices in VSys should be updated every few days. This notification is generated if they have not been run recently, but only if the subscriber hasn't been notified within the Don't notify about this time period. Unlike object-specific notifications VSys will re-notify you about this condition more than once, hence the Don't notify about this... setting to prevent a constant stream of duplicate notifications.

If multiple indices need to be updated, only a single notification is generated - not one per index.

Interview Reminder

Interview reminders are used to send notifications to volunteers, supervisors or other people about upcoming interviews. (The subscriber "Referenced person" is perfect for generating reminders sent to each interview's interviewee.)

Include iCalendar/ics files with e-mails

If checked, for notifications delivered by e-mail, VSys will include an iCalendar file for each interview.

Only if starting within

How far into the future (from the current date/time) can the interview be.

Types, Locations

Filters the subjects and locations associated with the interview.

Interview Status

Finds interviews meetings specific criteria. Commonly used for reminding staff about interviews but also for interview cancellations, results, etc.

Kiosk Login/Logout

Logins by volunteers on the kiosk are tracked, both when successful and not. This notification can be used to tell you when either or both of these events has happened. Use "Kiosk login successes and failures" to see both successful and failed logins, "Kiosk login failures" for failures only and "Kiosk login successes" for just successful logins.

Mandate

These select mandates for notification purposes.

Mandate types, Statuses

The type and current status of the mandate.

Required hours, Completed hours, Remaining hours

Hours required, completed so far, and still needed.

Started, Deadline, Finished

These filter on the dates in the mandate.

New Assignment

This notification is designed to tell you about a new assignment, not necessarily one that's pending approval or self-cancelled or anything else, though you can filter on specific statuses. Use these primarily to inform supervisors and venue managers. One notification is generated for each assignment meeting your criteria here, each with the volunteer's name and information about the assignment.

New Hours

Creates a notification about a newly-created hours record based on when it's created. One notification is generated for each hours record meeting your criteria.

New Interview

Creates a notification about a newly-created interview based on when it's created and optionally how soon it's starting. One notification is generated for each interview meeting your criteria here, each with the interviewee's name and information about the interview.

New Job Association

Creates a notification for a job association with the appropriate status created during the time window you specify. You'd most often use this when volunteers can self-select job associations using VSys Live. Can be filtered based on whether or not the volunteer self-selected this job association using VSys Live (usually via an open schedule job) or not.

New Training Record

For newly-created training records, filtered by their Subjects, Locations and properties of the training student. One notification is generated for each training record meeting your criteria here, each with the student's name and information about the training.

News Items

Looks for news items targeted to specific VSys Live sites meeting certain criteria; used most commonly for notifications that newly-created news items require approval.

Pending VSys Live Messages (outbound)

This event is used to notify a volunteer that she has messages pending in VSys Live. Most commonly this is used with sending secure messages with VSys Live to prompt the volunteer to log into VSys Live to retrieve that message.

For secure messages, never check Include message body in notification since that would defeat any security by sending the message insecurely right here.

Recurring Assignment First Assignment

This event generates a notification for the first assignment in a recurring assignment. Use them to remind a volunteer (or their supervisor, or someone else) about the volunteer's first day. One notification is generated for each recurring assignment meeting your criteria here, each with the volunteer's name and information about the assignment.

Recurring Assignments Ending

Use these to be notified about recurring assignments which are reaching the end of their extended-to period. Find out from the volunteer if they'll be continuing on in their position and extend the assignment if appropriate. One notification is generated for each recurring assignment meeting your criteria here, each with the volunteer's name and information about the assignment.

Reference Check Status

Looks for reference check certifications with specific properties, e.g. Only those with incomplete/incompatible addresses, Methods, Results, etc.

Self-cancelled Assignment

This is probably the most-requested notification of all: being informed about a volunteer cancelling her own assignment.

If you just make a new assignment with a status of Cancelled by volunteer, VSys won't detect that as a "Self-cancelled assignment". Why? VSys doesn't look at the current status of the assignment when it's first searching for records to use here, instead it looks for records which once had some status other Cancelled by volunteer but now have one that is Cancelled by volunteer. (That also means that an assignment whose status was changed by an older version of VSys One won't qualify here, either.)

VSys doesn't know that the volunteer herself did the cancellation, instead it detects that the assignment's status was changed to Cancelled by volunteer within the Cancelled between window.

Do you approve assignments after the volunteer signed up? Want to not be notified if a volunteer cancels an assignment before it's been approved? Use the Previous statuses filter and select Normal. If the assignment's status just was Pending approval just before it was changed to Cancelled by volunteer, you won't get notified about it.

One notification is generated for each assignment meeting your criteria here, each with the volunteer's name and information about the assignment.

Self-cancelled Interview

If you just make a new interview record with a status of Cancelled by interviewee, VSys won't detect that as a "Self-cancelled interview". Why? VSys doesn't look at the current status of the interview when it's first searching for records to use here, instead it looks for records which once had some status other Cancelled by interviewee but now have one that is Cancelled by interviewee. (That also means that an interview whose status was changed by an older version of VSys One won't qualify here, either.)

VSys doesn't know that the volunteer herself did the cancellation, instead it detects that the interview's status was changed to Cancelled by interviewee within the Cancelled between window.

One notification is generated for each interview meeting your criteria here, each with the interviewee's name and information about the interview.

Self-cancelled Training

If you just make a new training record with a status of Cancelled by volunteer, VSys won't detect that as a "Self-cancelled training". Why? VSys doesn't look at the current status of the training when it's first searching for records to use here, instead it looks for records which once had some status other Cancelled by volunteer but now have one that is Cancelled by volunteer. (That also means that a training whose status was changed by an older version of VSys One won't qualify here, either.)

VSys doesn't know that the volunteer herself did the cancellation, instead it detects that the training's status was changed to Cancelled by volunteer within the Cancelled between window.

One notification is generated for each training record meeting your criteria here, each with the student's name and information about the training.

Self Reminders

Generates one notification for each qualifying self reminder.

SendGrid E-mail Status Checks

Only if SendGrid e-mailing is enabled and an API key is provided, this queries SendGrid for any bounce, rejection, bad e-mail address and spam reports then generates notifications (only to a specific person) regarding those events. Note that SendGrid does not send back enough information in these results to link to specific letters, etc. in VSys.

Slot Statuses/Slots Needing Volunteers

Checks for slots which meet certain criteria, e.g. still needing some number of volunteers. The Maximum % full setting indicates how empty the slot must be. One notification is generated for each slot meeting your criteria here, each with information about the relevant job slot.

Standalone E-mail Robot Not Running

If you send e-mails and/or SMS/text messages using the Standalone E-mail Robot, it's good to know if for some reason it's not running. If the Standalone E-mail Robot has not run recently (Only if E-mail Robot not running...) and no recent notifications have been sent about this event (Don't notify about this...), this generates a single notification record telling you when the last time the Standalone E-mail Robot was last seen to be in operation.

Unlike object-specific notifications VSys will re-notify you about this condition more than once, hence the Don't notify about this... setting to prevent a constant stream of duplicate notifications.

Survey Responses

Notifies when any responses are entered for the surveys selected. These don't filter on what the responses are, just that someone responded to the survey using VSys Kiosk, VSys Live or SurveyMonkey.

Trace (Audit Log) Records

Trace records are used to track who's changed, viewed, created or deleted records, plus various other events and actions in VSys. Used in notifications, they can be a powerful mechanism for alerting staff about things that have happened.

Actions

These can be things like "Login", "Edit", "Delete", etc. Any action which posts a trace record in VSys is available here.

Types

The object which was affected by the action. Note that some actions such as "Database backup" do not have this property, and so filtering on Types would result in that action not being included.

Object owner types

For affected objects, these filter on that object's owner. This can be "Group", "Job", "Location", etc.

Training Reminder

Training reminders are used to send notifications to volunteers, supervisors or other people about upcoming trainings. (The subscriber "Referenced person" is perfect for generating reminders sent to each training's volunteers.)

Include iCalendar/ics files with e-mails

If checked, for notifications delivered by e-mail, VSys will include an iCalendar file for each training record.

Only if starting within

How far into the future (from the current date/time) can the training be.

Subjects, Locations

Filters the subjects and locations associated with the training.

Training Statuses

Generates notifications about trainings with the various statuses. One notification is generated for each training record meeting your criteria here, each with the student's name and information about the training.

Trainings Expiring

Notifies about a person with an expiring training in the selected subjects if it's expiring between the current date and Only if expiring within this many minutes/hours/days in the future. People are filtered by People types, Groups and Volunteer types. (The subscriber "Referenced person" is perfect for generating notifications sent to the volunteer herself.)

A notification is generated for each training record which meets your criteria here and includes the subject and expiration date for each.

Transitions

Transitions-based notifications are particularly powerful: they can alert you when values change. In the example below, a notification will be generated whenever a person's Active status is changed from any value to "Active".

Old values and New values are only available as criteria here if you've selected just one Type. Different fields have different values and these values would get quite confusing if mixed-and-matched together.

Verified Volunteers Results

Looks for Verified Volunteers background check requests that were sent during a specific timeframe and which have one or more selected Vendor statuses.

Volunteer Check In

Use this to be notified each time a volunteer checks in via VSys Kiosk or VSys Live. By setting Only if late... you can see only those who are checking in at least some time after their scheduled assignment start. This only works for assignments, not for checkins based on job associations, walkup check in jobs, etc.

One notification is generated for each check in meeting your criteria here, each with the volunteer's name and information about the check in.

Volunteer Missed Assignments, Volunteer Missed Consecutive Assignments

VSys counts the number of uncredited assignments during the window that you specify, and generates a notification if there are at least as many uncredited assignments as you set in the filters here. Note that if the volunteer has hours on or near the assignment these do not count unless they directly credit the assignment. VSys won't "guess" as to whether or not an hours record actually fulfills the assignment unless it's actually linked to that assignment.

These events now reset themselves whenever a new assignment is missed. For example, if a volunteer has missed five assignments and a notification is sent, that same subscription will not result in a new notification about this condition until a newer assignment is missed; before this it would effectively never re-trigger. Use the Only if no one else has been notified in the last... filter to limit how often this re-notification can happen.

Volunteer Missing

This notification is generated by a volunteer not being checked in for their assignment some time after the assignment was supposed to start. Note that if the volunteer checks in for some job other than their assignment (via a walkup checkin job, job association, etc.) then the volunteer is still considered "missing" since they're not checked in for this assignment.

One notification is generated for each assignment meeting your criteria here, each with the volunteer's name and information about the assignment.

Volunteer Request Applications

Only available if the Volunteer Request Portal is enabled, this event generates a notification for volunteer request applications which meet your criteria based on Types, Statuses, Requested sites, Requested departments and Handlers.

Volunteer Still Checked In

A notification of this type is generated by a volunteer being checked in past their expected check out time plus Time past expected check out but only if they checked in within the time period specified by Start time between. One notification is generated for each check in meeting your criteria here, each with the volunteer's name and information about the check in.

The expected check out time that VSys uses will vary based on the type of check in: Assignment? Training? Job association?

Volunteer With No Recent Hours

Use this notification to be alerted to volunteers with specific attributes (status, lists, etc.) who have no hours posted within some time period (Last hours between). This is useful for finding volunteers who should have been marked as inactive or volunteers who simply haven't been showing up.

This event now resets itself whenever a more recent hours record is posted for a volunteer. For example if a volunteer has no hours in the past 30 days and a notification is created based on this, no new notification will be triggered when this subscription is run at 31 days, 50 days, 99 days, etc. But if a new hours record is posted for that volunteer, then the event will trigger 30 days past that last hours record's date.

VSys Live Account Lockout

This event generates a notification when a VSys Live user's account becomes locked out due to too many failed login attempts, and that lockout occurs during the Locked out between window. Checking Only if account is still locked out makes this event not generate a notification if, at the time the notification is generated or delivered, the user's VSys Live account is no longer locked out.

A notification is generated for each locked out account. If an account is locked out multiple times, only the most recent lockout will create a notification. In this example, a notification of an SMS/text message will only be generated if someone using VSys Live had been locked out of their account in the last day before this event and was still locked out.

VSys Live Application

This notification alerts you about VSys Live applications which were entered recently, and can be filtered by the Type, Application status, Requested department, and Requested site. Use this to send notifications to site and department administrators about pending applications, or just as a general alert that there are unprocessed applications which have been sitting that way for too long.

Note that this event supports a special type of subscriber via relationship to the Requested site and/or Requested department.

VSys Live Application Approval Link

Used for online application approval via VSys Live, for example a notification to a sponsor selected by an intern applicant.

Application approval using VSys Live is not part of the standard VSys Live implementation. In general, installing and configuring this option comes with an additional fee. See Advanced features for information.

VSys Live Kiosk Concurrent User License Counts

This event checks for the number of devices that have connected to a specific VSys Live Kiosk site during a given timeframe; it triggers a notification if the allowed number of devices has been exceeded.

VSys Live Queued Reports

Checks for self-run reports which are queued for processing by VSys but are not yet processed. Use this notification to alert you if volunteers are submitting reports via VSys Live but those reports are not being processed, it could indicate that the scheduled task for running VSys Live reports is not working.

VSys Live VOXI Errors

VOXI, the engine that underlies VSys Live, will records any accumulated system errors and these are available via its monitor port.

The most common errors are database authentication and connection. When these occur VOXI will continue on, attempting to make new connections, but if it's unable to re-connect, or if these errors occur too often, VOXI itself can fail.

Use this event to check VOXI's status. VSys One will connect to VOXI's monitor port and look for any errors. If the number of errors exceeds the count you set here, a notification will be generated.

Website

One or more websites to check, each on its own separate line. For anything other than port 80 for HTTP and port 443 for HTTPS, include the port number as part of the URL. In the example above, VSys will connect to port 8080.

Maximum error count

If fewer than this number of errors are present, VSys won't generate a notification.

Note that VSys One must be able to connect to VOXI's monitor port for this test to be effective.

VSys Live Website Unavailable

This is used to check that a VSys Live website is available and returning reasonable results. Include one or more website URLs, each on their own line. An HTTP 404, 302, or anything other than a 200 result will be considered "unavailable", as is an empty 200 result.

There's no reason why you can't use this event to monitor other websites as well - VSys One will happily check any website for you here.

VSys Security Account Expiring

This notification is generated when a VSys Security user's account (not a VSys Live account, but a user of VSys One/VSys Lite) is due to expire.

VSys Security Account Password Expiring

Used to notify a VSys Security user (not a VSys Live user) that their VSys Security password is expiring.

VSys Web Applications

This notification alerts you about VSys Web applications which were entered recently, and can be filtered by the Type, Application status, Requested site and Requested department. Use this to send notifications to site and department administrators about pending applications, or just as a general alert that there are unprocessed applications which have been sitting that way for too long. (Only VSys Web applications which have been downloaded can trigger this notification. To be alerted about applications which need to be downloaded, use the VSys Web New Applications Need Download event.)

VSys Web Applications Pending Approval

Use this to be notified about applications entered via VSys Web and downloaded into VSys but which have not yet been processed. One notification is generated for each pending application which meets your criteria.

Filters on People types, Groups and Volunteer types only apply if VSys is able to match the application to a person already in VSys. An application by a new person will not generate a notification if any of these filters are set.

Note this event checks VSys Web without you doing a synchronization to give you this notification.

VSys Web New Applications Need Download

Use this event to be notified that there are applications in VSys Web which have not yet been downloaded using the VSys Web synchronization tool. This event will generate one notification for each application that needs to be downloaded.

Note this event checks VSys Web without requiring that you synchronize with VSys Web first.

VSys Web New Hours Need Download

Use this event to be notified that there are self-entered volunteer hours in VSys Web which have not yet been downloaded using the VSys Web synchronization tool. This event will generate one notification for each hours record that needs to be downloaded.

Note this event checks VSys Web without requiring that you synchronize with VSys Web first.

See Also

Notifications

Subscribers

Notifications Subscriptions Tool

Subscriptions

Notification Diagnostics

Global Notification Rules

Subscription Types

Generating Notifications

Delivering Notifications

Viewing Notifications

Obsolescence

Custom Notification Templates

Archiving Notifications