> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://gsfcorp.gitbook.io/macula/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://gsfcorp.gitbook.io/macula/monitor-guide-v1.33.0/alarms-and-notifications.md).
# Alarms and Notifications
The Macula Monitor application has several ways of displaying different **notifications** received from the servers. Depending on the alert type and/or configuration, they may appear in the live notification pane (channel overlay), in the Alarm pane, in the dedicated Alerts tab, or as popup dialog boxes.
{% hint style="info" %}
If you want to send alerts to Macula Monitor from Macula servers, use the Event & Action Configurator in Macula Console. Use the Send event to client and Create bookmark action types.
{% endhint %}
#### Notification Panel
Each channel in the **live view** has an overlay notification panel. It is hidden by default and can be toggled by clicking the corresponding  **overlay** element in the bottom-right-hand corner of the viewport. Depending on your application settings, this overlay control may be disabled, shown always, or only shown when the viewport is selected (default setting).
This pane displays **several types of messages** related to the target channel:
* streaming errors (RTSP, wrong password, etc.)
* text notifications from E\&A (pre-configured)
* results from external services (e.g., recognized license plates with thumbnails)
* other custom event messages (pro-configured on the server side via Macula Console)
Messages related to the video archive (e.g., recognition results) are interactive meaning that you can **double-click** them to go to that moment in the archive.
For this panel, there are two configurable settings in the application settings: **font size** and an option to display **thumbnails** (tiny images) for the external service results. You can also **adjust the panel appearance** for each viewport individually; for this, long press your left mouse button on the panel and then click the Edit button (with the pencil). The process is described in more details in the Overlay section of this document.
#### Alarms Pane
**Alarms** are generated by the connected servers or created "on the fly" by the user. You can find the **Alarms Pane** from the right side of your Macula Monitor in the *Live View* mode. Alarms, in their essence, are the **Bookmarks** and possess all their features: **Severity, Color, Status, and Comments**. **Alarms** (Bookmarks) are also available through the *Search* in the *Playback* mode of the Macula Monitor application.
#### Enabling Alarms Pane
You can hide or enable the **Alarms Pane** in the Main menu -> *Edit -> Settings -> Usability ->* *Enable Alarm Pane*.
You can mark the *Show alarm pane in all tabs* checkbox to see the *Alarm pane* in all monitor tabs, or leave it unmarked, so the pane is visible only in the *Live view* tab.
Users with administrator permissions can also turn off the **Alarms Pane** in the Main menu -> *Tools -> Administration Tool -> Interface -> Alarms*.
{% hint style="danger" %}
By turning off the **Alarms Pane** in the **Administration Tool**, you **override** it in the *Edit -> Settings -> Usability*, and even if the **Alarms Pane** checkbox is marked there, the pane will stay hidden in the application window unless you enable it back in the **Administration Tool**.
{% endhint %}
#### Alarms Pane Interface
If the **Alarms Pane** is turned on in the settings, by default, you will see the tab with a bell icon on top of the pane with the notification bubble over the icon. This bubble means that you have new events. The number inside the bubble provides info on the number of the **Alarms** with the **Status** *NEW*. The Notification bubble will also appear in the upper-left corner, over the *Live View* tab in the Main menu. The number displayed in the notification bubble over the *Live View* tab summarizes all the **Alarms Pane** active Notification bubbles.
You can expand and collapse the **Alarms Pane** by clicking on the *"two arrows"* icon on the top of the **Alarms Pane**. It will expand the pane and show the **Alarm Tab** (Alarm filter preset) names. New **Alarm Tabs** will appear vertically in this pane. If you lock the **Alarm Tab**, the new section will appear on the top of the pane. You can readjust the **Alarm Tab** order by dragging and dropping it inside the corresponding pane section.
{% hint style="danger" %}
You can't drag and drop **Alarm Tabs** from the locked pane section to the unlocked and vice versa.
{% endhint %}
At the bottom of the **Alarm Pane**, a button named *"Next Alarm Tab->"* is located. You can use this button to navigate through the **Alarm Tabs** with the active notifications (Alarm Tabs that contain bookmarks with the **status** *NEW*).
If the number of the **Alarm Tabs** (Alarm filter presets) exceeds the screen height, you can scroll through your list of **Alarm Tabs** with the mouse or by interacting with the scroll bar on the right side of the pane.
You can also resize the alarm pane by grabbing it by the side and pushing or pulling while keeping the mouse button pressed down.
#### Single Alarm (Bookmark) Pop-up Window
As mentioned previously, in their essence, **Alarms** are **Bookmarks** and possess all their properties. **Alarms** can be generated on the server side by the **Events and Actions** or created by the user manually. You can raise an **Alarm** by adding the **bookmark** in the *Live View* mode and marking the related checkbox at the bottom of the **Add Bookmark** pop-up window.
Single-click on the **Alarm Tab** name or icon will bring one more panel with the list of all the **Alarms** (Bookmarks) and their filtering options.
Single-click on the particular Alarm (Bookmark) from the list will pop up a window with this Alarm's properties and available options. Let's review them from top to bottom:
***Channel Snapshot***** with the Overlay Buttons:**
You can find the **Channel Name** at the top-left corner over the **Channel** **Snapshot**. At the bottom-right corner over the **Channel Snapshot**, you can find the controls to pop up bookmarked videos in *Live View* or *Playback* mode.
* *Date and Time:* Behind the **Channel Snapshot**, you can find the date and time of the **Bookmark** creation*.*
* *Alarm:* **Bookmark** name.
* *Severity:* The **Severity** field displays the **Bookmark** **severity**. You can change the **Severity** by clicking on the three-dots menu on the right side of the entry. Available **Severity** options: *Critical, High, Normal, Low, Info.*
* *Status:* **Status** displays info on the **Bookmark** processing **Status**. You can change the **Bookmark** **Status** by clicking on the three-dots menu on the right side of the entry. Available **Bookmark Statuses** are *NEW, IN PROGRESS, CLOSED, and HIDDEN.*
* *Bookmark Comments:* You can find **Bookmark** history logs on creation, **Status** changes, and user **Comments** inside the **Bookmark Comments** field.
* *Add Comment* button and an input field: At the bottom of the pop-up window, you can find a Field to add the **Comment** and a button to publish this **Comment** to the **Bookmark Comments** field.
{% hint style="danger" %}
By adding a *Comment* to the **Alarm** (Bookmark), you will change its **Status** from *New* to *In Progress* automatically. **Severity** updates do not influence the **Bookmark Status.**
{% endhint %}
You can close the **Alarm** (Bookmark) pop-up window by clicking on the empty space everywhere outside this pop-up window.
#### Alarm Tab (Alarm Filter Preset) Interface
On the top of the expanded **Alarm Tab,** you will find the current **Alarm Tab** *Name*, *Lock* icon, and *"Two Arrows"* collapse button. If there is more than one **Alarm Tab** and the tab is not locked in the pane, the *Bin* icon will also appear in the same row. Single-click on the *Lock* icon will pin the current filter preset on the top of the **Alarms Pane**; single-click on the *Bin* icon will delete the current **Alarm Tab** (Deleting **Alarm Tab** does not delete any **Bookmarks** and only removes the particular filter configuration from the **Alarms Pane**).
The next row allows you to navigate via multiple **Bookmarks**, change their **Severity** and **Status** in bulk, personalize **Alarm Tab** presets, and duplicate them.
#### Alarms (Bookmarks) Bulk-edit (Select Multiple) Options
You can use the *Select Multiple* button if there are a lot of **Alarms** (bookmarks) in the particular **Alarm Tab** filter preset.
* *Select Multiple* icon : A single click on the icon will bring up checkboxes from the left side of each **Bookmark** in the list and expand additional interface:
* *Select All* button: Marks all the checkboxes from the left of each **Bookmark** (You also can mark **Bookmark** checkboxes by hand picking only relevant **Bookmarks**).
* *Select New* button: Marks checkboxes from the left of each **Bookmark** with the **Status** New.
* *Update Severity* dropdown menu: Change severity for all the marked bookmarks *(Do Not Change, Info, Low, Normal, High, Critical).*
* *Update Status* dropdown menu: Change **Status** for all the marked **Bookmarks** *(Do Not Change, New, In Progress, Closed, Hidden).*
* *Cancel and Apply* buttons: Cancels not applied changes or Updates **Severity** and **Status** for all the marked **Bookmarks**.
#### Alarm Tab (Alarm Filter Preset) Quick Search
The *Search bar* input field allows **Quick-search** through all the **Bookmarks** by any textual information they contain.
The *Search* is registry-insensitive and works as soon as you begin typing. By adding the + sign between the keywords, you can match your search results more precisely and exclude all the entries that match search parameters only partially and do not contain both keywords (for example: "in progress" will return all the entries that contain in or progress words. "in+progress" will return matches that have both keywords). You can clean your *Search* input field by deleting your entry or by clicking on the x icon on the most-right side inside the input field.
#### Alarm Tab (Alarm Filter Preset) Filtering Settings
*Settings* icon  : right next to the S*earch Bar* is an icon with a pencil. Single-click on the icon brings the **Alarm Tab** filter preset settings. Let's start from the top:
***Title***** input field:**
you can change your **Alarm Tab** filter preset name here. By default, it will be the **Alarms.**
***Icon*****:**
pick a new **Icon** by clicking the *"Change..."* button to pop up a new window with all the available pictograms, select one you prefer, and then click *OK*. To bring a **color-picker** for the filter icon, click on the square with the current color and pick the color you want to use from the pop-up window.
***Text***** input field:**
Allows filtering the **Bookmarks** by their description. Input the word or phrase you are looking for, click the *Apply* button, and then click the *Refresh* button to see the changes. To remove this parameter from the filter **results** - clean the Text field, click the *Apply* button again, and then click the *Refresh* button to align the filtered **Bookmark** list.
***Severity***** input field:**
contains all the **Severity** tags. You can exclude entries with disabled tags from the filter results by clicking on them. By default - all the values are enabled (*Info, Low, Normal, High, Critical*).
***Status***** input field:**
contains all the **Status** tags. You can exclude entries with disabled tags from the filter results by clicking on them. By default - all the values except *Closed* and *Hidden* are enabled (*New, In progress, Closed, Hidden*).
***Channels and groups***** field:**
The default field value is *Any*. To filter **Bookmarks** by the channels, click on the input field. It will pop up a **Custom Source selection** window. You can add multiple Channels to your selection by clicking on the + sign right of the channel name. Click on the - sign to remove the channel from the selected Channels. Click on the *Save* button to accept changes, the *Reset Selection* button to start all from the clean list, or the *Cancel* button to cancel any adjustments and close the pop-up window;
You can *Apply, Cancel*, or *Reset* changes you made by clicking on the matching button. The *Refresh* button allows you to align your **Bookmark** list according to the current settings configuration.
#### Alarm Tab (Alarm Filter Preset) Duplication
The *Copy* icon  is in the most-right position, behind the *Settings* icon. It looks like two intersected squares and allows you to make a copy of the selected **Alarm Tab**. After clicking the *Copy* icon, your presets will be duplicated and shown as a separate tab in the **Alarms Pane**. By default, your new **Alarm Tab** will inherit the name from the source tab and add the word *(copy)* in the round brackets.
#### Alarms (Bookmarks) Export
You can find the *Export* button at the bottom-left corner of the **Alarm Tab**. A single click on the *Export* button will bring up export options: *As XLS...;* *As PDF...; As CSV...*
Pick a format from the appearing list and click on it to export your **Bookmarks**. You can find your **Export results** in the **Library** tab from the Main menu.
#### Alerts Tab
The Alerts section of Macula Monitor acts like a temporary client audit log that is purged after the app is closed. It features:
* automatic server notifications: logon/logout, channel events etc.
* pre-configured server notifications (via E\&A)
* local client events - layout popup, user button triggered, etc.
* miscellaneous errors that arise during operation and are related to the current client instance: stream errors, server connectivity issues, device connection errors and others.
These messages have three severity levels: **info, warning**, and **critical**. Critical level is assigned to the most important messages like connection failures. Notifications from Macula E\&A (pre-configured notifications) are displayed as warnings. Regular notifications are informative and are therefore marked as Info. For example, if archive is corrupt or has been altered with third-party tools, a critical warning will appear in the Alerts tab. Whenever there are new alerts, a red counter will appear next to the tab name.
Use the *Search* field in the upper-right-hand corner to filter alert messages.
Along with type and source, alert message and time are shown for each entry. If the message is too long to be displayed in full, hover the mouse cursor over it to read full message text.
#### Popup Notifications
This kind of alert only appears when triggered from Macula Events & Actions (action type: send event to client + *display a warning message box setting*). The popup dialog box stays on top and prevents user from accessing any controls in the background until closed. When pre-configuring the action in Macula Console, you can also specify a timeout in seconds, after which the message box will disappear automatically.
If there are several notifications in the queue, they will appear on top of each other (oldest first), and you will have an option to close them all at once by clicking the *Close All* button.
#### "Toast" Notifications
You can increase *Alerts* visibility by enabling "*Toasts*" notifications. The *Toasts* are the over-the-top colored notification messages that will appear for a short period inside the Macula Monitor, duplicating the content of the *Alerts* tab. You can enable this type of alert directly inside the Macula Monitor.
{% hint style="danger" %}
If the *Archive Backup Wizard* or *Administration Tool* is open, *Toast notifications* will not appear unless the *Archive Backup Wizard* or *Administration tool* windows are closed.
{% endhint %}
1. In the menu (top-right side of the screen), find *Edit -> Settings* to bring the *Monitor settings* pop-up window.
2. Inside the pop-up window, in the left subsection, find the *Usability* tab and scroll to the bottom.
3. At the bottom of the window, you will find the *Snackbar notifications* section.
There are three possible options:
* *ON with a toggle control in Alerts Section* - this option adds the switch inside the *Alerts* tab, for the quick *Toast* notification control.
* *Always ON* - Allows *Toast* notifications without any conditions.
* *Always OFF* - disables *Toast* notifications completely.
You also can adjust *Alert levels* by clicking the corresponding *Alert* type, and select between the left and right screen corners for the *Snackbar notifications* to appear.
