{"id":10,"date":"2006-09-11T15:34:11","date_gmt":"2006-09-11T14:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/technologies.kmi.open.ac.uk\/msg\/?page_id=10"},"modified":"2007-11-23T09:32:58","modified_gmt":"2007-11-23T08:32:58","slug":"msg-alert","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/technologies.kmi.open.ac.uk\/msg\/msg-alert\/","title":{"rendered":"MSG Alert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/h3>\n

MSG Alert is an application designed to support use of the MSG Web Client. The application sits quietly in the background in your system tray to alert you when chat messages arrive. It also allows you to maintain a connection to MSG without requiring you to keep the web client open in your web browser.<\/p>\n

The MSG Alert application is designed to be as lightweight as possible, so it should not have any noticeable impact on your computer.<\/p>\n

Installation<\/h3>\n

This application is currently only available for the Windows platform.<\/p>\n

Download and run the setup program: MSG Alert setup v2.2 (327 Kb)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Please note that since v2 of MSGAlert, .NET runtime v2 is required on your machine.<\/p>\n

User Guide<\/h2>\n

Starting the program<\/h3>\n

You will find a shortcuts to the MSG Alert application on the Windows Start Menu and Desktop. If you chose the option to ‘run on startup’ when you installed this application, it should start automatically after you logon to Windows.<\/p>\n

Logging in<\/h3>\n

If you are using MSG Alert to connect to a user ID on the msg.open.ac.uk server, the default options for this application should be correct, so all you need to do is login using your MSG user name and password.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(Note that you can use this application to connect other Jabber servers. See ‘options’ section for details)<\/p>\n

If your logon was successful, the window above will disappear and all that will remain visible on your screen is a small green circular icon in the Notification area of the Windows Taskbar. You can left-click on this icon at any time to launch the MSG Web Client.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Whilst you are logged in, if any new chat messages arrive, a red exclamation mark will appear on the notification icon and a notification balloon will also be displayed (in the options you can set how long to display this balloon for, or turn it off completely)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Popup Menu<\/h3>\n

To access the MSG Popup Menu, right-click on the MSG Alert notification icon.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Status<\/strong><\/td>\nAllows you to change your presence status.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Open MSG Client<\/strong><\/td>\nOpens the MSG web client in your default web browser.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Open MSG Map<\/strong><\/td>\nOpens the MSG presence map page - integration with Google Maps.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Options<\/strong><\/td>\nOpens the MSG Alert options window.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Login<\/strong><\/td>\nIf you are logged out, this option opens the login window.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Logout<\/strong><\/td>\nIf you are logged in, this option logs you out of MSG.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Exit<\/strong><\/td>\nLogs you out of MSG and terminates the MSG Alert application.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

\n

Options<\/h3>\n

Clicking on the ‘Options’ button displays a form that allows you to change various parameters that control how connection is made to servers when you login. The options shown are the default parameters. You should not need to alter them unless you are connecting to a different Jabber server or notification server.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Host<\/strong><\/td>\nThis is the name of the Jabber server that you wish to login to. Currently only connections to msg.open.ac.uk and msg-openlearn.open.ac.uk are supported.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Notify Host<\/strong><\/td>\nThis is the host name of the notification server. MSG Alert opens a connection to this server. All network communication of the MSG Alert application goes via this server. Usually the notify host and host would be the same.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Auto login<\/strong><\/td>\nWhen checked, MSGAlert will attempt to login when the program starts.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Show ‘away’<\/strong><\/td>\nWhen checked, MSGAlert will automatically set your presence to ‘away’ if your screensaver becomes active, then returns you to online when your screensaver stops.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Play sound<\/strong><\/td>\nWhen checked, MSGAlert play a sound when a new message arrives.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Show notification balloon<\/strong><\/td>\nUse the drop down to select how long the notification balloon will display for when you receive a new message. Set to ‘never’ if you don’t want the notification balloon to appear at all.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Unblocking popups to allow MSG to launch smoothly<\/h3>\n

Here is the summary of the menu sequence you need to go through to allow MSG to launch in your browser even when you have popup windows blocked:<\/p>\n

1. Internet Explorer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tools…
\nInternet Options…
\nPrivacy [x] Block pop-ups … [Settings]
\nAddress of Web site to allow:
\n*.open.ac.uk [Add]
\n[Close]
\n[OK]<\/p>\n

2. Firefox <\/strong>
\nTools….
\nOptions….
\nContent
\n[x] Block Popup Windows [Allowed Sites]
\nAddress of web site:
\n*.open.ac.uk [Allow]
\n[Close]
\n[OK]<\/p>\n

Troubleshooting<\/h3>\n

If you encounter any problems whilst using MSGAlert please let us know. It would be very helpful if you include full details of any error messages you receive and the operating system version you are using \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction MSG Alert is an application designed to support use of the MSG Web Client. The application sits quietly in the background in your system tray to alert you when chat messages arrive. It also allows you to maintain a connection to MSG without requiring you to keep the web client open in your web […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/technologies.kmi.open.ac.uk\/msg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/technologies.kmi.open.ac.uk\/msg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/technologies.kmi.open.ac.uk\/msg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/technologies.kmi.open.ac.uk\/msg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/technologies.kmi.open.ac.uk\/msg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/technologies.kmi.open.ac.uk\/msg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/technologies.kmi.open.ac.uk\/msg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}