Tag: http request

I’m by no means an HTTP request expert, but the requirement of being able to integrate business applications is common and, in this case, important. I took some time to figure out how we could implement Alertus integration and am sharing what worked here.

Background

Alertus is a program we use at LMH Health to push mass-notification desktop and mobile alerts to the organization during times of severe weather, evacuation procedures, or just software downtime.

We use SharePoint as a supplement for “breaking news” by adding a banner to the top of our site during times of urgency. We wanted to integrate Alertus with SharePoint so that when an alert fired, it created a breaking news banner in SharePoint as well. This makes sure users who aren’t on a managed device, such as working from a home computer, are still able to get important news if they happen to be on the intranet.

In times of emergency, it’s best to utilize as many channels as possible to inform your users. Integration of these two services meant there’d be minimal delay in broadcasting a single message through all available channels.

How it works

To send the Alertus alert data to SharePoint, we needed something capable of receiving an HTTP request so Flow came to mind first. Once configured, your Alertus administrators will just send alerts as usual, being sure to include SharePoint in the alert profile.

1. Create and send an alert in Alertus
2. Flow receives HTTP request with alert data
3. Flow creates item in SharePoint list used for breaking news

And, of course, with Flow we could then do any number of actions including additional HTTP actions, sending to email or phone, etc.

Note: This works for SharePoint server and SharePoint online. If using server, you’ll need the on-premises data gateway so that Flow can connect to your environment.

Setting it up

We need to do a few things to get this working:

1. Start creating a Flow (to get the HTTP POST URL)
2. Create the Alertus Service for “SharePoint”
3. Add the Alertus Service “SharePoint” to any Alert profiles for which you want to include SharePoint for distribution
4. Finish the Flow
5. Test

Start creating a Flow

1. Create a new Flow with the When a HTTP request is received trigger

2. Paste the following into the Request Body JSON Schema

{
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
        "Content-Type": {
            "type": "application/json"
        },
        "id": {
            "type": "string"
        },
        "clientName": {
            "type": "string"
        },
        "clientVersion": {
            "type": "string"
        },
        "sender": {
            "type": "string"
        },
        "message": {
            "type": "string"
        },
        "sentDateTime": {
            "type": "string"
        },
        "expires": {
            "type": "string"
        }
    }
}

3. Expand Show advanced options and make sure method is POST

4. Copy the HTTP POST URL at the top of the step using the copy icon

Create an Alertus alert service for SharePoint

1. Go to Alertus, then click Configure System > Alert Services

2. Click +Add Alert Service

3. Select HTTP Request for Service Type, then name and describe the service.

4. Configure the rest of the alert service as follows, pasting in the content provided below

Accept: application/json, text/plain
Content-Type: application/com.alertus-v1.0+json

{ "id":"${alert.originId}",
 "clientName":"${alert.clientName}",
 "sender":"${alert.sender}",
 "message":"${alert.text}",
 "sentDateTime":"${alert.sentDate.yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm}",
"expires":"${alert.expirationDate.yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm}"
}

5. Click Save Alert Service

Add the service to alert profiles and/or preset alerts (optional)

Your service is now available to be added to alert profiles (pre-selected sets of services to notify under certain circumstances, such as an evacuation) and preset alerts (customized alerts and notification groups).

You could, alternatively, choose not to include it in anything preset and only use it manually upon creation/configuration of an alert.

Finish the Flow

1. Go back to the Flow you started.

2. Add a HTTP Response step and make sure the Status Code is set to 200. This lets Alertus know the request was received and prevents an error from occurring on the Alertus side.

3. Add a SharePoint: Create item step and connect to the site and list for which you want to create an item from the alert details.

Test

From Alertus, do a Custom Activation of a test message just for the SharePoint service/delivery method.

In the example below, I also threw in an email alert as a step but you can see the whole process in Flow’s run history still only took 2 seconds.

Check in SharePoint that the item was added. In my case, we use custom script to display the most recent list item as an active alert.

Additional Configuration (optional)

Now that you’ve done the basics, you may wish to make adjustments.

• Check out Alertus’ Knowledgebase (must be a customer with login credentials) at https://my.alertus.com/ .
  • Search for HTTP Request (Documentation) where you’ll find additional placeholder variables you could use in the Activation Body and JSON Schema fields to send additional details.
• Add additional steps in Flow
  • An approval process before posting the details
  • An email or text message to a person or group
  • Update a spreadsheet/log
  • Post a message to Teams