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KB0020: How to setup FrontSupport Alerts & Notifications Solution
Using the combination of
FrontSupport and KnowledgeSync software, FrontSupport Alerts and Notifications
Solution will let you generate alert messages for critical events that happen
in your helpdesk. To read an overview of the FrontSupport Alerts and
Notifications Solution, please click here.
This
article describes the software required and detailed procedure for setting up
FrontSupport Alerts & Notifications solution.
Installing required software
1.
Download and install KnowledgeSync from Vineyardsoft Corporation’s
website. You can either buy or download trial version from http://www.vineyardsoft.com.
Follow the instructions provided with the software to set up KnowledgeSync.
KnowledgeSync essentially has 3 modules:
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Administrator:
Use this module to setup email accounts, subscriber users, fax, pager are
etc.
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Event Manager:
Use this module to install, create and manage events.
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Event Monitor:
Use this module to monitor how and when the events are being
triggered. |
For more detailed
information on these modules, refer the user guide provided along with KnowledgeSync
software.
2.
Click here to download the FrontSupport Alerts eventpak.
After you download, double click to run this fsevpak.kse and install the eventpak. During this
process, you would be asked to login to " Event Manager" of KnowledgeSync as a
user with administrative permissions so as to install the eventpak. After
installing FrontSupport Alerts eventpak, you will need to restart the Event Manager
to take the effect.
3.
Once the FrontSupport Alerts eventpak is installed, you need to
configure it to activate and schedule the desired alerts and notifications. To do so, follow these
steps:
a.
Define email account using
which Alert & Notifications are sent:
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From
the Start menu, select
“Programs | Vineyardsoft KnowledgeSync 2000 | Administrator” and logon as administrator. |
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Open the “Software Setup” Folder and select “E-Mail Accounts”. Click
on the “New Email Account” button at the top-left of the window. This is
the e-mail account that KnowledgeSync will use when sending e-mail alerts. |
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Fill in all of the fields, make sure the “Active” box is checked, and
click on the “Save and Close” button. |
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If you wish to use different emails addresses for different events, you can
setup multiple email accounts.
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b.
Select the ODBC source (DSN):
In the Event Manager, the FrontSupport Alerts is installed as one of the
application events. To run these set of events, this application has to be
connected to a database, based on which, alerts & notifications are sent.
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From your Start menu, select “Programs
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KnowledgeSync 2000 | Event Manager” and logon as administrator. |
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Select the " Properties" of Application Event called “FrontSupport Alerts”
that you just installed. Go to “Edit Connection”. From the
“General” tab, choose the ODBC Data Source Name. Select the ODBC DSN that you
are using currently for the FrontSupport database. If FrontSupport is not
installed on this PC and you don't have a ODBC DSN that points to the
FrontSupport database, use the Control Panel on your PC to create a
System ODBC DSN that points to your FrontSupport MS Access database. |
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Click “Save and Close” button on the top left hand side and then click OK
to complete
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c.
Setup event subscribers:
Before you start to set up an event, you need to define yourself or a support
manager as a potential recipient (or “subscriber”) of event alerts and
notifications.
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In
Event Manager, double-click on the folder called “Subscribers” and
double-click on the folder called “Users.”
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Click on the “Help Desk” group and then click on the “New User” button
at the top-left of the window. |
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Fill in the first 6 fields in the “Description” tab, and make sure the
“Active” box is checked. |
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Click on the “Email” tab; enter your e-mail address in the “Email
Address 1” field and press tab. Click on the “Save and Close” button. |
d.
Setting up the events:
Under “FrontSupport Alerts” application, you will see
"Query Definitions" and "Events" items. Under the
"Query Definitions", there is one query for each event. Similarly,
under "Events", there is one item per event. The name of the query
and the name of the event is the same.
For each of these 5 events, you have to setup (a) email account to send from
(b) subscriber(s) to whom the alerts & notifications need to be sent (c)
schedule time to trigger the event.
For
each event listed in the event tab, do the following:
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Double click an event to open. |
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In
the "Description" tab, check the "Active", "Repeat notification for triggered items"
and "Keep only last checked record in monitor" checkboxes. |
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From “Email Tab”, select the email account using which alerts and notifications to be sent. In the list,
you will see the account(s) which you have setup earlier |
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From the “Subscribers” tab, under the “Standard” tab, click on the “Add Subscriber” button. Under the “Help Desk” folder, select the subscriber(s), which you have added earlier and then, click “Add Subscriber” button, which is on the left hand bottom side. |
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From “Schedule” tab, select the schedule i.e. when you want this event to run and trigger alerts or notifications.
Refer to the below table for recommended schedule for each of the
events. |
Here is the brief description
of all the events that are contained in the FrontSupport Alerts Eventpak for
KnowledgeSync.
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Event
Description
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Recommended
Schedule
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| New issue created for a user
Description:
When an issue is closed, an email notification is sent to the person who the issue is assigned to and also to the selected subscribers.
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Every
15 minutes |
| Issue closed
Description:
When an issue is closed, an email notification is sent to the person who the issue is assigned to and also to the selected subscribers.
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Every
15 minutes |
| Issue is overdue
Description:
When an issue is overdue, this event sends a email notification to the person whom the issue is assigned.
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Daily
at 8:00am or 9.00am
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Issue modified by a user other than who it is assigned to
Description: When an issue is modified by a user other than who it is assigned to, this event sends an email alert to the
subscriber(s) and to the user to whom the issue is assigned. |
Every
15 minutes |
| Issue closed by a user other than whom it is assigned to
Description:
When an issue is closed by a user other than whom it is assigned to, this events sends an email alert to the
subscriber(s) and to the user who the issue was assigned to.
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Every
15 minutes |
If you need help further help, email us at support@frontzone.com. If you have any
questions specific to KnowledgeSync software, click
here to contact Vineyardsoft Corporation.
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