Working with broadcasts

This topic describes the following tasks:

Creating broadcast messages

This section describes how to define a broadcast message. To define a broadcast, you must have the Broadcast Submitter functional role.

To create a broadcast message

1. On the application console, click the View broadcast link or the New broadcast link.
2. In the View broadcast dialog, click Create, which appears below the Broadcast table.
3. Enter information in the required fields.
   Required fields appear in bold on the Broadcast Details tab.

   • Company — Select the company where this broadcast will be sent. Only users with access to this company see the broadcast. To send the broadcast to everyone, select Global from the Company list.
     The Company field is mandatory. To specify a specific part of the company, fill in the other location fields. For example, you can specify the site, organization, or department.

     Note

     Out of the box, you can only define broadcast messages for the Global company.

   • Subject — A short description of what the broadcast is about
   • Broadcast Message — The text of your message
   • Broadcast Type — Select a broadcast type from the list
   • Broadcast Start Date and Broadcast End Date — To start the broadcast now, click in the Broadcast Start Date field, and then press Enter. To select a date from the calendar, click the Browse button next to the field. Select a date from the calendar on which to start the broadcast and the date to end it. You can also specify times of the day using the Time feature at the bottom of the calendar.
   • Broadcast Originated From — This is automatically filled in. The contents depend on where you are creating the broadcast. If you broadcast from an investigation, the value is set to Problem Investigation.
   • Broadcast Originated From ID — When you define a broadcast from within a record, this field is automatically filled in. If you define a broadcast from the main console, the field is unavailable.
   • View Access — To make the broadcast visible only to members of your organization, select Internal. To make the broadcast visible from the Requester console, select Public.

   • Send to Twitter? — To post the broadcast message using the configured Twitter account, select Yes. For additional information on receiving broadcast messages using Twitter, see Receiving BMC Remedy ITSM broadcasts on Twitter.

     Note

     This option is available only when you select Global in the Company field and set the View Access value to Public.

   • Notify — Select Yes to broadcast notification automatically sent to an individual or group.
     If you select Yes, an Emailbutton and the Notify Support area appears.
     • Use the Manual Email button to manually send an email about the broadcast. On the Email System form, enter the recipient's email address in the Internet Email field, and then click Send Email Now.
     • Use the Notify Support area to indicate which group to notify of the broadcast. You must complete all three fields--Support Company, Support Organization, and Support Group. The notification is sent at the time and on the date specified in the Broadcast Start Date field.
   • Priority — Select a priority level for the broadcast. The choices are Low, Medium, and High.
4. To add an attachment to the Broadcast, right-click inside the table and select Add from the menu.
   In the Add Attachment dialog box, click Open to attach the indicated file. Only one attachment is allowed for each broadcast.
5. If you want members of another group to be able to modify the message, follow these steps:
   1. Click the Authoring Groups tab, and then click Manage Authoring Groups.
   2. On the Authoring Group dialog box, select the group to have authoring rights, and then click Add.
6. Click Save.

Viewing broadcast messages

While viewing broadcasts, you can modify the message (if you belong to an authorized authoring group), define a new broadcast message, and under some circumstances (when viewing the message from the current record) relate the broadcast message to the current record.

To view broadcast messages

1. On the application console, click the New broadcast link that notifies you when there are new, unread broadcast messages. If there are no new or unread broadcasts, a View Broadcast link is displayed instead.
2. In the View broadcast dialog, select the message to view from the Broadcast table, and then click View.
3. To view another message, close the View Broadcasts dialog box, select the broadcast message to view, and then click View.

Limiting the number of broadcasts

 When viewing broadcasts from the current Asset, Change, Problem or Incident record, you can limit the number of broadcasts that appear in the Broadcast table. 

To limit the number of messages

1. From the Quick Links area of the Navigation pane, click View Broadcast.
2. On the View Broadcast dialog box, click the Broadcast Search Criteria tab, and then complete the fields in the tab.
   To return the smallest number of broadcasts, complete as many of the fields as possible.
3. When you finish specifying the search criteria, click Search.

Controlling the timing of broadcast pop-up messages

From the BMC Asset Management, BMC Change Management, BMC Service Desk:Incident Management, and BMC Service Desk Problem Management consoles, you can control the timing of broadcast pop-up messages. Broadcast pop-ups alert you to the presence of broadcast messages.

The options are:

• Never — Broadcast messages do not automatically pop up on the screen. You must click the View Broadcast link to view them.
• On Console Open — New broadcasts messages display on the screen when you open a console for the first time after login. Once you view the broadcast from any console, the pop-up does not appear unless there is a new broadcast message.
• On Console Refresh — New broadcast messages display only when you refresh the console by clicking the Refresh button available in the top right corner of the console.

The On Console Open and On Console Refresh options display the broadcast pop-up alert only in certain scenarios. In the following table which lists those scenarios, the sign represents that the pop-up alert is displayed, and sign represents that the pop-up alert is not displayed for a particular option:

In scenarios where you do not see the broadcast pop-up alert, you must click the View Broadcast link on the console to view the broadcasts messages.

To set the timing of pop-up messages

1. From the application console, choose Functions > Application Preferences.
2. In the Request Preferences form, click the Broadcast tab.
3. In the Broadcast Auto Popup field, specify one of the following default settings:
   • Never
   • On Console Open
   • On Console Refresh

4. Click Save.

   Note

   For the changes to take effect, you must close the application and log on again.