messaging

About messaging

OutReach delivers an organisation's messages to its members' smartphones. The messages appear in a scrolling list, the most recent at the top. By default, the messages are collapsed, with the message's graphic appearing as a thumbnail to the left, and the message body occupying the rest of the space.

The user can scroll the message list by swiping up or down. Tapping a collapsed message expands it, which displays the graphic in full size, and also reveals the entire message body.

A message may have an associated action, which may be a survey, or a link to an external service. If the message has such an action, when the user taps the expanded message, the action will be activated.


Message format

In addition to the content body and graphic, a message consists of the following:

  1. A title

  2. The organisation's name

  3. The channel the message was sent to

  4. The channel's icon image

  5. The age of the message

  6. "Reply" button

  7. "Rating" button

  8. A "Collapse/Expand" button

  9. An "Activate Action" button

composing a message

Two compose a message, login to the OutReach administration portal, click the arrow beside Messages in the navigation pane, then click the Message menu option.

composing a message

The compose message pane lets you enter the message details. The fields are:

  1. The title of the message.

  2. The select channel button. A popup will appear, allowing you to select a channel for this message.

  3. The select image button. A popup will appear, allowing you to select an image for this message.

  4. The image height selector. This determines the height of the image.

  5. The image scale factor. Select Zoom to scale the image to fill all of the available space. Select Full to display the complete image within the available space.

  6. The expiry date for this message, after which the message will no longer be available to the users.

  7. The type of action to be associated with this message. The options are:

    • None.

    • Action Link: A fully formed web URL.

    • Survey: A predefined survey.

  8. The response email. This is the destination email address that will receive any response to this message by the users.

  9. Keywords. These words are included in the search action.

  10. The content body of the message. The message body requires plain text; formatting is not supported.



As you start filling in the form fields, a preview pane will appear to the right, giving you an idea of how the message will look.

In this example, a title, response email and message body have been entered.

Every message requires a channel. Click the Channel button, and a popup showing your organisation's channels will appear. Click the name of a channel to assign it to your message.

If your channel list is long, you can filter the channels to be displayed by entering a search string in the Search field.

Similarly, to assign an image to your message, click the Image button. A popup will appear, displaying the images currently available to you. If you would like to upload a new image, click the Upload button.

If you wish to assign an action to your message, you the Action Type select list. In the example here, we have chosen an action link, and have pasted a youtube URL into the Action URL field.

When your message is ready, click the Save button. This queues your message in the message list, ready to be sent.

Click the Messages icon in the navigation menu to return to the message list. Your new message will appear at the top, with a green Send icon beside it. To send you message, click this icon. A popup will appear, giving you the option of simply sending the message now, or sending the message with a notification.