The message function in the group portal makes it possible to send information to the individual local portals. This feature can be very useful in larger group portals where contact with the individual local portals is not necessarily close. As in the example below, the message function can be used, for example, to send news from the DPO out to the local portals and gather these messages into manageable categories.

How to enable the message function

If using the message function is desired, you must turn this on in settings. Below is a guide for turning on the message function. 

1. Messages are enabled under settings, so you should start by clicking on “settings” in the menu bar on the left.
2. When you click on “settings” the menu item will unfold with subitems. In the submenu, click “Account Settings”.
3. “Account Settings” are divided into a few different categories. Here you need to click on the category “Group Settings”, which will open some additional fields.
4. To enable messages, you must click on the icon to the right next to messages. When the icon is clicked on, it will turn dark blue. 

Navigation for messages

1. Here you will find messages in the menu bar. When you click here, you will open the overview of message categories. The overview could look like the picture here.
2. Here you need to click if you want to create a new message category. How to fill out the window that opens when you click here will be discussed further down.
3. Here you can see the different categories created. You will be able to see the title of the category and a brief description of the individual categories.
4. Here you can edit the category by clicking the blue icon and delete the category by clicking the red icon.
5. When you click here, you enter the category itself, where you can read the messages created in the category. How this works will be reviewed further down.
6. This is your inbox. When new messages are created and reach your user, you will get a notification here where you will also be able to read the message. The inbox will be reviewed further down.

Create a message category

When clicking on create message category, the following window will open.

1. Give the category a title. Choose a title, that you will recognize the category from. It’s completely up to you, what the title should be and what the category should contain.
2. Write a description of the category. This will help you quickly get an overview of what messages can be found in each category.
3. Here you can control access to create messages and comment on them for the users in the portal. In addition, you can choose whether users receive notifications when new messages are created. These notifications will be visible at the top of the portal, by the inbox icon, which is point no. 6 in the top image of this guide. Please notice, that the settings are for each category. You can therefore easily have several categories where the settings are different.
4. Choose which members, the category should be assigned to. Here you can select all, or choose the ones, that should be allowed access to the category. You do this by clicking the icons next to each member on or off.

Create messages and navigate in message category

To access messages in a category, click the dark blue icon in the right corner of that category. You can see the icon under point no. 5 in the top image of this guide. When you click on the icon, you open a summary of all messages in the category, and such a summary may look like this:

1. Here you should click if you want to create a new message. When you click here, you will open a short form. In the form, you should start by giving the message a title. It’s also possible to give the message a subtitle. After giving the message a title there is a field for writing the content of the message. If you have any files, that you need to attach, you do this at the last field in the short form.
2. This is a message. You can click on the message and thereby open a small window. If there are files attached to the message, you can download them from here. In addition, it is also here you have the function of writing a comment to the message. Please notice, that if there has been made any comments to the message, they will show in this window. You won’t be able to see comments from the overview of the message category. Once a comment has been added, it will be possible to see the username of the user who added the comment as well as the time the comment was created.
3. This icon indicates that one or more files are attached to the message.
4. This icon gives you access to edit the message.
5. Here you can see the username of the user that has created the message.

Inbox

The inbox gives you access to see new messages and comments if the message category is set up to sent out notifications. You get to the inbox by clicking on the inbox icon in the top right corner of the portal. The icon is shown as point 6 in the top image of this guide. An inbox could look like this:

1. Here you can choose between viewing your inbox or viewing the notifications you’ve archived.
2. Here you have a few different actions. From left to right, you can select all notifications, archive, and delete. When you want to archive or delete a notification, you need to click on the small box to the left of the notification itself, then select the action you want to make. As an example, you can click on the first icon, where you select all notifications and then click on the archive icon if you want to archive all notifications.
3. When clicking here, you can choose between mark as read or mark as unread. If a notification is in bold print, it indicates that it is unread. If it is in plain print, it indicates that it has been read. To mark as read or unread, click the square box to the right of the notification and choose the action you want.
4. With this feature, you can choose to see unread notifications only.
5. Here you can choose if you want a reminder on notifications sent to your email. You can click on the field, and choose between weekly, daily, immediately or disabled. At the bottom of this guide, you can see an example of a daily notification email.
6. Here you have an overview of all notifications. If you want to see the full information form the notification, click on the notification you want to open. This will open a small window, with the message or comment and information about where it’s published. If you click on the category name, in which the message is published, it will lead you directly to the message category. When the window is open it’s possible to choose to archive or delete the notification.

Example of a daily email notification

If you choose to get a daily email notification, as described in point 5, you can here see an example of the e-mail you could receive:

It is possible to click on the blue links and get directly to the message category in the portal.