Message outputs

When Totara needs to notify the user of something it sends a message, directed through one or more of the enabled and configured message outputs. These message outputs control how a user receives their notification.

Some you will be familiar with, and some you may not have encountered before. The email message output, for example, takes the notification and emails it to the user, whereas the web notification takes the notification and displays it within the webpage to the user.

Message outputs allows you to configure Messaging settings across your Totara site. You are able to turn on/off available outputs and set default outputs, and configuration options for the available outputs. These options are generally set during the initial installation of your site and do not usually require any further maintenance. 

Manage message outputs

This area can be accessed by a Site Administrator via the quick-access menu within Plugins > Message outputs > Manage message outputs.

There are seven default types of output methods for messaging:

• Task block notifications: Displays within the Tasks block
• Alert block notification: Displays within the Alerts block
• Totara AirNotifier: Pushes notifications via the Totara Mobile app
• Web notifications: Displays the notification within a webpage, and in-app notifications in the Totara Mobile app
• Microsoft Teams: Sends the notification through the bot channel in Microsoft Teams (requires Totara Engage)
• Jabber messages: Send the notification via Jabber
• Email messages: Sends the notification to the user's given email address
• By default all outputs (except Jabber notifications) are enabled as they need to be configured before activation. To Disable/Enable an output, use the corresponding eye icon. The Settings link opens the corresponding configuration page for Jabber and Email notifications.

Totara AirNotifier

The Totara AirNotifier message output plugin was created to work with the Totara Mobile app.

If your users use the standard Totara Mobile app you can request an App Code that allows your site to send push notifications to your users' devices. Here are the requirements:

• Your users must be using the app published by Totara Learning Inc.
• Your site must be registered
• You must have the default settings for AirNotifier Server URL and AirNotifier App Name

If these requirements are met and the AirNotifier App Code setting is empty, you will see a link to Request an app code token from push.totaralearning.com. Clicking this link will request a new token. If the above requirements are met, the new token will be saved as the AirNotifier App Code and you will be able to use Totara AirNotifier as a message output.

You can find more information in the Totara AirNotifier developer documentation.

If your users use a custom mobile app based on the Totara Mobile app source code, you will need to host your own AirNotifier server and configure the message output plugin as required.

Microsoft Teams

In order to send notifications through Microsoft Teams you will need to configure your Microsoft Teams integration setup.

Jabber

In order to use Jabber (jabber.org) alongside your Totara site, you will need to enter the details of your Jabber server so the LMS can connect.  

Email

A range of options are available around email-based messages sent by the system.

Default message outputs

This area can be accessed by a Site Administrator via the quick-access menu within Plugins > Message outputs > Default message outputs.

The page summarises those Messaging outputs available within your Totara site, whether they are Enabled, the permissions against each output type and the default setting for Online/Not online for each.

Users can change their personal preferences to be something other than the site defaults, however the settings for disabled message providers are not visible to end users on the notification preferences page.

The default preferences menu for each item is identical and allows a Site Administrator to select the relevant permission and default setting when the user is Online (logged-in) or Not Online (offline). 

The possible preferences are:

• Disallowed: The message of chosen type will never be delivered through the chosen output, the user is not allowed to change the personal preference for this combination of message type and output
• Permitted: The message of chosen type is allowed to be delivered through the chosen output, the default preferences can be set by the administrator using the checkboxes below and the user can control this preference on the messaging preferences page (and change the suggested defaults to their preference)
• Forced: The message of chosen type will be delivered through the chosen output, the user is not allowed to change the personal preference for this combination of message type and output

Configuration for users

Once the default message outputs have been configured within the site, a user can configure their specific Messaging preferences in their profile settings by selecting their name in the top-right corner, then Preferences > Notification preferences. 

For users to be able to access notification preferences from their profile you will need to ensure that the profile includes a User profile block with the Display User Profile category setting set to Administration. As a Site Administrator you can add this block by configuring the default user profile.

If the particular combination of Message type and Output has been permitted by a Site Administrator, the user may change and customise their preferences by setting the corresponding boxes to On. For example, if online task block feedback notifications are allowed, the user can decide whether this is enabled or disabled.

Importantly users can choose to receive notifications across multiple outputs, including email, web, the task block and the alert block (depending on which methods have been allowed by the Site Administrator for different message types) to help ensure they don't miss anything.

Next steps

• Totara Air Notifier settings
• Jabber settings
• Email message output settings
• Enable a message output
• Disable a message output
• Message outputs
• Configure default message outputs