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The Knowledgebase

AlertTraveler®: Testing Notifications and Check-in Requests

Overview

This article discusses how to test the following:

  • AlertTraveler® Admin Notifications: Test that your admin notification settings are correct, and accustom yourself to the appearance and methods of notification you will receive when/if your travelers are impacted.
  • AlertTraveler® Traveler Notifications: Test that your Traveler threshold notification settings are correct, and accustom yourself to the appearance and methods of notification that your travelers receive when they are impacted.
  • Check-in Requests: Walk through the check-in request process. You will initiate the check-in request, see the notifications travelers receive, and see how it appears when the traveler responds to the check-in request. 

 

Conducting a Notification and Check-in Request Test

Take the following steps to test your AlertTraveler® Notification and Check-in Request configurations. 

Note: For these tests it is best practice to create users who meet the following criteria. You may wish to create test users for these tests (particularly for the Traveler), as you may wish to avoid alerting actual travelers: 

  • Traveler: A user who is eligible for AlertTraveler® due to their application on a Study Abroad (SA) site or trip on a Travel Registry (TR) site but does not have AlertTraveler admin permissions.
  • Program Director (SA) or Group Leader (TR):  AlertTraveler® admin who has restricted admin access, meaning their user type shows as "Leader" under AlertTraveler>Settings>Admin Notifications.
  • AlertTraveler® Admin: A user whose AlertTraveler® admin access is not restricted to a program (SA) or a group trip (TR) that they are leading. Their user type will display as "Admin." 

1. Navigate to AlertTraveler>Traveler Locations

 

2. Search for the traveler you would like your test alert to impact and check the box next to their name:

Note for testing AlertTraveler®+ Study Abroad: If you are a Program Director, and your AlertTraveler admin access is restricted to members of your own program, you will want to create a test applicant for the program to which your are designated as Program Director, give the application a status of committed or an alias of committed, add an itinerary that starts within the Scheduled Eligibility window, and manually mark your test applicant as AlertTraveler Eligible in their profile. The test applicant will then appear in AlertTraveler®>Traveler Locations.

Note for testing AlertTraveler®+ Travel Registry: If you are a Group Leader and your AlertTraveler® admin access is restricted to members of the group you are leading,  you will want to create a test traveler and add them to a group trip you are designated as the leader for. If the trip requires approval, make sure the trip is approved. The test traveler will then appear in AlertTraveler®>Traveler Locations.

 

3. From the Options menu, select Create Alert: 

 

4. Populate the required fields and select a severity level that coincides with your notification settings. Then, click "Create Alert" to create your alert. Example: if your notification threshold is “Critical” or “High” you will want to set your severity level to match this.

Note: Your personal notifications settings, in addition to your traveler threshold notification settings, can be found by navigating to AlertTraveler >Settings >Notifications. 

 

At this time, your test traveler and the admin should be notified that the Traveler was impacted by an alert in accordance with the admin's notification settings, and the Traveler should receive notifications in accordance with your Threshold Settings (AlertTraveler>Settings>Email and SMS Threshold Settings). 

Side Note: To see a log of notifications that were sent for the alert, navigate to AlertTraveler>Alerts, open the alert. From the alert's dashboard page (you may need to click the impacted total to get to this page), select the Options menu and click Alert History: 

From the Alert History Log, click the Alert received log to view who was notified of the alert, as well as the method by which they were notified:

Navigate back to the alert's dashboard (click the back arrow at the top left of the Alert History Log) to ready yourself for the next step. 

 

5. After creating your alert, you will be directed to the alert’s dashboard. From here, select your impacted user. From the Options menu, select Add Check-In:

 

6. Follow the prompts to create your check-in request, then click Create Request:

Note: Be sure to indicate if this request should also be sent via SMS by clicking the Add request via SMS box.

 

7. Once the request has been created, impacted users will be notified and prompted to check-in from their device. After impacted users have checked in, the admin should check the alert dashboard to confirm their response has been recorded.

Admins will only be notified of the traveler's response to the check-in request if the traveler indicates they need help. If the traveler indicates they need help, the admin and all other AlertTraveler® admins will be notified via email that a help request has been opened. If the admin indicates that they are safe, no notification will be sent, but the alert's dashboard will show they are safe. This is indicated in the screenshot above.  It may be necessary to refresh the page to see the updated status. 

 

If you do not have access to the impacted traveler's account, you can manually update their status by clicking the box next to their name, and then selecting Edit Check-in Status, and following the prompts to mark them as safe and save their status: It is important to mark the traveler is safe before concluding your test. 

 

This concludes the AlertTraveler® Notifications and Check-in Requests Test.