censhare comes with its own internal messaging system, allowing the exchange of text messages.

Messaging types

  • user-to-user: A message application is integrated with the censhare Clients and allows users to send, receive, forward and answer text messages between each other or user groups, very much like in an email application. There are visual and acoustic notification features and a history of messages. Messages remain in the system for a customizable safekeeping period. The user-to-user message feature is intended for casual communication between system users without the need for long-term archiving of the messages. It is not supposed to replace email communication.

  • system-to-user: Messages can be generated and sent to users by the censhare system itself. System-to-user messages can be triggered by any internal event in the context of asset or system activities and are used for notification purposes like errors, changes in production states, outcome of user-ordered asynchronous server tasks and the like. System-to-user messages are highly customizable.

  • system-to-asset: The system can also generate messages that are getting attached directly to assets. This functionality is used as a notification tool for fully automatic server processes (like for example the PDF generation), which perform tasks on assets that were not ordered by users, but rather by system rules. As there is no one to notify in case an error occurs, the information is attached to the asset itself and notification icons appear in the asset query of the censhare clients.

Details

All messages are kept within the censhare database in the table "message". Messages can be purged manually with the server module "admin.cleanup.cleanup-database-action" in "Modules>Administration>Cleanup>Cleanup Database" or automatically with the server module "admin.cleanup.cleanup-database" in "Modules>Administration>Cleanup>Cleanup Database (automatic)". The corresponding setting is named "Cleanup message table" and allows different safekeeping periods for messages of high, normal and low priority. By default, messages of all priorities are purged from the database after 30 days.