Notifications

The Notifications section allows users to manage all of the device, user and account-wide notifications that can be received when certain events occur. A Notification is a request to receive an alert when something happens. For example, users may want to get a text message notification when a specific access user unlocks a door, or get notified when anything happens on a specific lock.

Setting up Notifications is a two-step process:

1. First, Contacts must be created. These are phone numbers and email addresses where the Notifications can be sent.
2. Next, a Notification (a request to receive an alert when something occurs) needs to be created so that when a specific event or set of events occur, a Notification is sent to a specified Contact (email or text).

After clicking the Advanced tab, select the Notifications tab.

You will see a list of any notifications already created for the account. You can also Add new notifications by clicking the Add Notification button. The Contacts tab allows you to edit or add the email and cell phone numbers where notifications can be sent. The Notification History tab shows a history of any notification sent out from your account.

Contacts

Before Notifications can be received, Contacts must first be added to the system. Contacts are email addresses and phone numbers for text messages. Under the Contacts tab, there are three sub-tabs for the three types of contacts that can be added; Email, Text & Webhook.

Add Contact

To add a Contact, select the type of Contact you want to create; Email, Text message (phone number), or Webhook (see below for more info on webhooks). 

For Email or Text, please enter appropriate email address or phone number & carrier.

Notifications

Notifications (Also called "Alerts") for an Access User can either be set up from the Access User management page, or here from the global Notifications manager section.

In order to receive a notification when an Access User unlocks a door, account managers need to set a "Notification Subscription" to receive notifications to a particular "Contact". A Contact can be an email address or cell phone number where the notification is sent.

Before a Notification can be set, Contacts (email addresses or phone numbers) must be previously set up by navigating to the main Notifications section, then selecting Add Contact.

Add Notification

To begin, click on the Add Notification button. In the pop-up screen, select the Contact Type (Email, Text message or webhook), then select the contact from the drop-down.

 

Source

Next, select the "Source". This is the entity that will trigger the notification. You can select "Account" if you want anything from the account to trigger an alert for the chosen event. Or, you can select an individual lock, location, access user, access guest, ACS reader, Thermostat, or Power Plug if you want the events that the user or device trigger to create a notification.

Events

Finally, select the type of Events that you want to be notified of out of the available list. For example, click on Access granted to receive a notification when a particular access user unlocks a door. The list of events available will depend on the source selection.

Click Create to save your Notification.

Low Battery Alerts

Alerts can be created for devices showing low battery voltage. However, the correct battery type is required for low battery alerts to work properly. Within each lock's settings tab, there is a setting for Power Source. The choices include Alkaline and Lithium batteries.

This setting needs to reflect the type of batteries in the lock because each battery type has a significantly different end of life voltage curve. Many factors contribute to determining a batteries end of life, but our system needs to key off of the voltage reported. Although lithium batteries usually last much longer than alkaline batteries, battery failure (low battery) occurs very quickly after reported voltage drops below 5 volts (opposed to 4 volts for alkaline). As a result, our system has a different alert point depending upon battery type.

Low Power Notifications are initially sent when the device reports battery at 30% or less. Once the battery has reached 30%, we will send additional low power notifications once per week until the device is dead.

Battery life is monitored from our end in voltage and will report as 0% when voltage reads 3.5 on alkaline batteries and 4.8 on lithium batteries.

To create a Low Battery Alert

1. Click Add Notification from the main Notification menu
2. Set Subscriber to receive the alert
3. Select the Publisher
4. Account: Select Account to receive low battery alerts for any device that reports low batteries within the entire account
5. Location: Select Location to receive low battery alerts for any device that reports low batteries within a specific Location
6. Lock: Select Lock to specify one specific lock to receive low battery alerts from
7. For Events, select "Power level low"

Connectivity Alerts

Connectivity (or offline) alerts are intended to notify users when a device hasn't connected to the system in an amount of time that indicates a problem. From time to time, a device may miss a regularly scheduled Heartbeat due to any number of issues like high traffic on a router, low signal strength, etc. In order to not create false alarms, we, therefore, set the alert point at 2 times the heartbeat interval. For example, if you have your heartbeat interval set for 1 hour, we do not send an alert until the lock has not checked in for over 2 hours. When a device comes back online, the system sends another alert to indicate the connection.

Webhooks

The least common type of notification used is a webhook.  Webhooks are typically used by developers for integrations between software, specifically to update an external software system.  They allow you to build or set up integrations for certain notification events from the SimpleAccess system. When one of those events is triggered, an HTTP POST payload is sent to the webhook's configured URL.

Webhook Fields

Name:  Enter the Name for the Contact you want to use to identify it

URL:  url supplied from the external software system of where to send the HTTP POST

Content Type:  Select either FORM or JSON based on external software's input format

Secret:  Any unique identifier needed to be presented to external software system to verify identity

Active:  Check this box to have the webhook be active on notifications the webhook contact is assigned

 

Events available for notification via Webhook: access_person_used, acs_door_opened, acs_door_closed, acs_door_held_open, lock_requested, unlock_requested, temporary_unlock_requested, temporary_unlock_timeout, access_person_synced, access_person_sync_failed, access_guest_late_sync, reset, ready_pin_sync_failed, unlocked, locked, access_denied, jammed, connectivity, power_level_low, battery_replaced, temperature_changed, humidity_changed, relay_enabled, relay_disabled, kore_ready_pin_used or unlockedlocked

 

Webhooks Failure Notification

On Webhook failure to be accepted or connect, an email notification is sent to user: 

From: SimpleAccess <noreply@simpleaccess.com>
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2023 12:40 PM
To:   user@account.com
Subject: Webhook failed warning before deactivation

If a notification is sent via a webhook and not accepted, the system will try three times before sending an error response and being deactivated. In this scenario please verify the endpoint that has been configured, that it is online, and available to receive notifications. Confirm it is receiving events properly and has not had any interruptions in service. 

We can not investigate whether or not certain tools and programs will work with our Webhook notification system.  We are not able to dedicate time to testing engines (such as slack or IFTTT). Our webhook engine works as expected but may not fit the format for some integrated tools.