Setting Up Alarm Notifications via SMS and E-mail

In this tutorial you will configure Fentrica to send an SMS to the on-call technician and an e-mail to the facility manager whenever a Fault-priority alarm is raised on a site. By the end you will have:

• A General Automation Template for SMS (short, one-line summary)
• A General Automation Template for e-mail (formatted, with subject and HTML body)
• A site-level Alarm Notification rule that fires both actions when a critical alarm becomes active and again when it resolves

What you will build

Requirements

• Manager access to an organization and at least one site
• A site with at least one active alarm source (a device alarm from a connected BMS or PLC, an analytic alarm, or a Smart Alarm)
• A recipient phone number (with country code, e.g. +372555555) and e-mail address for testing

System Overview

The notification engine watches every alarm created on the site and dispatches a message for each enabled rule whose triggers match. For background on what triggers are available and how rules are evaluated, see Alarm Notifications.

Step 1 — Create the SMS message template

SMS is billed per segment (typically 160 characters), so this template stays short and information-dense.

1. Open Organization in the main menu.
2. Scroll to the Message Templates section and click New.
3. Fill in the fields:

[{{property.name}}] {{alarm.state}}: {{#if deviceAlarmDefinition.name}}{{deviceAlarmDefinition.name}}{{/if}}{{#if analyticAlarmDefinition.name}}{{analyticAlarmDefinition.name}}{{/if}} (prio {{alarm.priority}}) at {{alarm.activatedAt}}

4. Click Save. The template now appears in the organization template list.

What the placeholders do

For the full list of available variables and Handlebars helpers, see Message Templates.

Step 2 — Create the e-mail message template

The e-mail template can be much richer — subject line, HTML body, sender details — because there is no length penalty.

1. Still under Organization → Message Templates, click New.
2. Fill in the fields:

3. Set the Body (plain-text fallback for clients that strip HTML):

An alarm was raised on {{property.name}}.

Alarm:       {{#if deviceAlarmDefinition.name}}{{deviceAlarmDefinition.name}}{{/if}}{{#if analyticAlarmDefinition.name}}{{analyticAlarmDefinition.name}}{{/if}}
Priority:    {{alarm.priority}}
State:       {{alarm.state}}
Activated:   {{alarm.activatedAt}}
{{#if alarm.resolvedAt}}Resolved:    {{alarm.resolvedAt}}
{{/if}}Source:      {{alarm.source}}

Description:
{{#if deviceAlarmDefinition.description}}{{deviceAlarmDefinition.description}}{{/if}}{{#if analyticAlarmDefinition.description}}{{analyticAlarmDefinition.description}}{{/if}}

Open the site in Fentrica to acknowledge or investigate.

4. Set the HTML Body for clients that render HTML:

<p>An alarm was raised on <strong>{{property.name}}</strong>.</p>
<table>
  <tr><td><strong>Alarm</strong></td><td>{{#if deviceAlarmDefinition.name}}{{deviceAlarmDefinition.name}}{{/if}}{{#if analyticAlarmDefinition.name}}{{analyticAlarmDefinition.name}}{{/if}}</td></tr>
  <tr><td><strong>Priority</strong></td><td>{{alarm.priority}}{{#if (compare alarm.priority "==" 2)}} (Fault){{/if}}</td></tr>
  <tr><td><strong>State</strong></td><td>{{alarm.state}}</td></tr>
  <tr><td><strong>Activated</strong></td><td>{{alarm.activatedAt}}</td></tr>
  {{#if alarm.resolvedAt}}<tr><td><strong>Resolved</strong></td><td>{{alarm.resolvedAt}}</td></tr>{{/if}}
  <tr><td><strong>Source</strong></td><td>{{alarm.source}}</td></tr>
</table>
<p>{{#if deviceAlarmDefinition.description}}{{deviceAlarmDefinition.description}}{{/if}}{{#if analyticAlarmDefinition.description}}{{analyticAlarmDefinition.description}}{{/if}}</p>

5. Click Save.

More about message templates — fields, the full variable catalogue, Handlebars syntax (conditionals, loops), and every custom helper (compare, or, and, between, split, trim, toNumber, index, last).

Step 3 — Create the notification rule on the site

Now switch from organization-level templates to the site where alarms originate.

1. Open the site you manage.
2. Navigate to Automation.
3. Click Alarm Notifications.
4. Click New and give the rule a descriptive name:

5. Click Save. The rule opens in detail view with empty When (triggers) and Then (actions) columns.

Step 4 — Add the trigger (When)

The trigger controls which alarm events fire the rule. We want the rule to fire when a Fault-priority alarm becomes active, and again when it resolves, so the on-call technician hears both the start and the end of the incident.

Trigger A — Fault activated

1. In the When column, click Create Automation Trigger.
2. Fill in:

3. Click Save Trigger.

Trigger B — Fault resolved

1. Click Create Automation Trigger again.
2. Fill in:

3. Click Save Trigger.

Step 5 — Add the SMS action (Then)

The first action sends a short text to the on-call technician.

1. In the Then column, click Create Automation Action.
2. Fill in:

3. Click Save Action.

Step 6 — Add the e-mail action (Then)

The second action sends a richer message to the facility manager.

1. Click Create Automation Action again.
2. Fill in:

3. Click Save Action.

Step 7 — Verify the rule

Back on the rule detail page you should see:

• Summary — Name, Status Enabled, Site
• When — two trigger cards (Created with Fault/Active, Created with Fault/Resolved)
• Then — two action cards (Send SMS, Send e-mail)

Trigger a test alarm

The cleanest way to verify the rule end-to-end is to use a Smart Alarm you can force into the active state:

1. Create a temporary Smart Alarm with Priority = Fault and a trivially-satisfied condition (e.g. count >= 0 within 5 min on any active sensor).
2. Wait one evaluation cycle (5 minutes) — the alarm should fire.
3. Confirm the SMS arrives on the on-call phone and the e-mail in the manager's inbox.
4. Edit the Smart Alarm condition so it no longer matches (e.g. flip the operator) — the platform marks the alarm resolved.
5. Confirm a second SMS and e-mail arrive announcing the resolution.
6. Delete the temporary Smart Alarm.

More about alarm notifications — rule anatomy, trigger types, priority and state filters, action types, the OR/AND combination semantics, enable/disable behavior, and how messages are dispatched end-to-end.

Variations

Once the basic rule is working, the same pattern extends naturally:

For each scenario, create a new rule under Automation → Alarm Notifications — the templates from Step 1 and Step 2 are reusable across all of them.

Troubleshooting