channels
about channels
Channels are an integral part of messaging in the OutReach platform. A channel is a collection of end users. When messages are sent to/on a particular channel, it is the members of the channel that will receive that message.
A channel has a name, an optional icon, reply email address, and a list of users. The channel name and the channel icon appear in the header of the message. In the screenshot here, the name of the channel the message was sent to is underlined with red.
If you would like to create a channel for all of your organisation's users, simply leave the channel membership list empty. A channel with no members will send its messages to all users in the organisation.
To begin, login to the OutReach administration portal. Start by going to https://www.outreach.dev, then click the Login link in the page header.
You'll be taken to the administration portal login page, shown below. Enter your login email address and password, then click Sign In.
After login you will see the system dashboard, which displays statistics about your organisation. The navigation menu will appear at the left. To create a new channel, click the Channel menu option.
The Channels page shows all of your organisation's channels. A channel is a list of your users, and can be used as a destination for messaging. A channel has a name, and may also have an icon and a default email address.
To make changes to the channel, click the channel's name in the channel list. To create a new channel, click the New Channel button at the top right.
Enter a name for the new channel, which must be unique. You can also provide a default email address. When users respond to messages on this channel, their responses will go to this email address.
Once the channel has been created, the Icon and Channel Membership regions will appear. To assign an icon to this channel, click the Select Icon button.
The Image Selector window will appear. Click an image in the list to select it as this channel's icon.
The final step is to add members to this channel. Channels represent a group of users; messages sent to a channel are delivered to all of the channel's members. To add members to the channel, click the Add Members button in the Channel Membership region.
The Channel Membership popup window will appear. To add a user to the channel, click the green plus icon beside their name. You can enter a search pattern in the Search field to refine the listing.
The Channel Membership region will refresh with the list of currently assigned users. To remove a user from the channel, click the red trash can beside their name.
