Alerts for overdues

Learn how to set up email alerting and texting for overdues in OLIB.

►System Administration> Server Process Configuration
►System Administration> OLIB Defaults
►Users> Locations

The Alerting> Notices domain is used for Overdue Notices to configure the text of the notice or the text message and who it should be sent to. In order for email alerting to work, your SMTP server name needs to be configured in OLIB.

 Tip: to email overdues directly from the server may require some technical input from both OCLC and local Technical Support.

Configure SMTP server for email alerting

Overdues work by sending an email from the system to the designated user (or list of users), therefore it is necessary for an SMTP server name to be set in the System Administration> Server Process Configuration domain. Your IT Department should supply the name of the SMTP server.

  1. In Server Process Configuration obtain the record for General Programs Configuration. This record contains default information which is then automatically set in all the other programs, including the User Alerting Agent.
  2. Display full details and click the Configuration tab.
  3. Scroll through the Configuration>Picked up values section until you find the SMTP server.
  4. Click on this record link and switch to modify mode to include your SMTP server Value.
  5. Save this back to the configuration screen. The details are displayed back in the Picked up Values section, e.g:
Entry Picked up Value Set at Category Default
SMTPServer mailhost.nnn.ocl.org *Current Category* FALSE

Configure SMS texting

Enter SMS configuration details. These can be set at the users' Location level and/or system level in OLIB Defaults. If details are not entered at Location level, OLIB uses the details at System level. In both cases go to the SMS Alerting Configuration sheet.

  1. Go to System Administration> OLIB Defaults or Users> Locations.
  2. Click the SMS Alerting Configuration sheet.
  3. In modify mode, complete the following fields and save the details:
     
Field Instructions
Aggregator The aggregator to use, e.g. Blackboard ConnextTxt, Janet txt, firetext.
Proxy Certificate File Enter the location of the Oracle certification wallet (supplied by OCLC’s OLIB Technical Services department). For firetext this will need to be updated to include COMODO root certificates. This may be carried out as part of an upgrade, or OCLC may need to liaise with your DBAs in order to implement the updated Certificate Store.
URL The aggregator’s URL: e.g. the Janet txt gateway (supplied by Janet txt), or e.g . https://www.firetext.co.uk/api/sendsms
Account User Name / Password 
 The email address and password of your account with the aggregator to log into the account online.
Alerts Sent From The 'from address' that will be included in the SMS messages - i.e. a short piece of text to inform your users that the message is from your library (letters/numbers only and between 3 and 11 characters).
Suppress Unicode? Set to Yes
Reporting Level The diagnostic level that you want to operate. Normally set to NONE.
Retrieve Statuses? Normally set to No. (The OLIB SMS Service can send status update requests to the aggregator to monitor the progress of the SMS messages it has requested to be sent).
Start Time The earliest time that you would like OLIB to send SMS messages. The SMS messages are actually generated in daystart. However, you may not want OLIB to send SMS messages to your users as early as this. You can therefore set Start Time to a 'reasonable' time such as 08:00 so that the texts are actually sent 'during normal office hours'.
End Time Similarly, you may not wish your OLIB system to send texts beyond a certain time of day.
Proxy Server Add the proxy server details if you have to use a proxy server.
Proxy User Name
Proxy Password
User Agent Set to Use default location for UserAgent. Other options will be implemented in a future release.

    

  1. After completing the above details click Save and Continue (if you wish to run a test) or Save.
  2. Test SMS: in the Locations and OLIB Defaults layouts the Test SMS button is standard. Click this button to send a test text message containing some standard text, to the relevant aggregator e.g. firetext. When successful, OLIB displays a popup similar to this:

Judith Seddon - SMS 670885
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Responses>
<SingleResponse>
0:1 SMS successfully queued</SingleResponse>
</Responses>

A message is also directed to the mobile number present in your User record (i.e. whoever you are currently logged into OLIB Web as), e.g:

Judith Seddon – SMS 670885
From: SuSEsp8
29/01/2016 14:29

This includes the name of the current user record and a random 6 digit number.

  1. In the Users domain, for each User record ensure you are entering the user's mobile telephone number in the Main Details:Tel. Mobile field. (If the user’s record does not contain a mobile number, the alert will be generated as normal, but it will be flagged as Not Sent).

This completes alerting for overdues configuration. It is recommended that you test the overdue notices output.