We are completing the integration of an Access Control System with Xprotect by implementing an ACM MIP Plugin.
We’d like to use the Rule and associated Notification Profile functionality to allow an end-user the ability to be be notified via email, when a specific event sourced from an Access Control System occurs. As an example, a roaming security professional may wish to be notified if an employee holding an access control card attempts to use the card to gain access to a restricted area. In this case, we’d like to route the occurrence of this event through a Rule (this is easily accomplished in the core product) and use the Notification Profile to include details of the card transaction, the card holder using the card along with any associated video. Some of these features are available in the core product Rule and Notification Profile feature. What’s not available is the ability to include details about the card holder, the name of the door being accessed and the event that caused the firing of the Rule. To include this customized card and person data in the email resulting from the event, it appears that an update to the Notification Profile will be required each time the rule is fired so we can include specific card transaction details in the email generated via the Notification Profile.
Is this the correct approach to accomplish this?
If so, how can we gain access the the message body of the Notification Profile prior to the Rule completing this action so it can be modified?
The notification profile (NP) is currently not supported in the MIP SDK or any of the APIs, so you can only create and modify these in the Management Client.
Even if you could modify the NP, these are meant to be static and configuration used when rules are triggered and send emails. I believe that even if/when better support for handling NP is added by Milestone Development what you suggest will still not be feasible.
Thank you for the quick response regarding NP accessibility and customization support in both MIP and API platforms.
Any plans to allow for NP customizations? In our MIP ACM Plugin implementation, we’d like to send notifications that include information about the credential holder that may have created the running of a Rule that fires a notification through a configured NP. As an example, when access is denied on a secure door, we’d like to use the standard NP to send information about the Cardholder that attempted access along with the standard video available by using the NP. At present, this is not possible by using the $System_Variable$ available in the standard NP messaging.
Yes. When I asked Milestone Development they disclosed that notification profiles will be available in 2024R2 for Rest API and Configuration API. There is currently no release date or similar information on 2024R2. Plan is subject to change without notice, please keep an eye on the announcements by Milestone.
Let me clarify.
In 2024R2 Milestone Development will make it possible to create, read, update, delete notification profiles (NP) using Rest or Configuration API. This will enable you to do the same operations on NP as today is possible using the Management Client.
The part about including information from Access Control is currently not present in NP, and this will not be there in the upcoming release either. Milestone Product Management has included this in there collection of good ideas for future enhancement development work. This feature might be prioritized and implemented in a future version, it is not possible to say when, or even if, it will be implemented.
Bo-Thank you for providing additional information regarding the upcoming release. The ability to customized the NP will be helpful.
Question -
When ‘Actions’ in a rule are configured to use an NP and the calling of a webhook, can we control what sequence these actions take place? In other words, can we have the webhook run and terminate prior to Xprotect launching the NP functionality? I’m assuming these Actions are both run asynchronously so this may not be easily achievable.
When running 2 rules, one rule can have a time delay before executing the action – so 2 rules triggered by same event, can have a delay in between.
But if multiple events are happening with 1 second in between – the result might be unpredictable.
Also, with this new functionality or in a future release, after customizing the NP, can it be invoked via either API methodology without the running of a Rule.
No, currently NP is solely for rules and cannot be used in plugins.
The idea of NP for other purposes is not a bad idea and I will send the idea to Product Management.
Not ideal, but a workaround would be to create a user-defined event, create a rule that when the user-defined event happens will send a notification, then from a plugin you can trigger the user-defined event.