Creating and Using Tags

Tags are a way to group endpoints together so it's more convenient to assign them to notifications. Tags makes it easier to add and remove endpoints to notifications. For example, I have 20 teachers' phones that I assigned to 10 different notifications. I need to add another teacher's phone to those 10 notifications. Here's the workflow with and without user tags.

Comparison of notifications needed if not using tags

There are two main types of tags:

When a device registers with OneAlert, its unique endpoint is actually something like @Cisco:SEP0082FB6F040, which doesn't provide much information. System tags allow OneAlert to automatically create user-friendly tags based on the data received for the endpoints when they register.

For example, Paging Relays and IP speakers are automatically part of the IP Device tag, which is part of the Category tag. Phones are automatically part of the Phone tag, which is part of the Category tag, and a Cisco, Mitel, or Avaya tag, which is part of the Manufacturer tag.

You can assign system tags to notifications as endpoints. You can also assign system tags to user tags you create.

You cannot rename, edit, or delete system tags.

Unlicensed endpoints are not included in system tags.

There are two main types of user tags – standard and dynamic. Standard tags are static until you manually update them. Dynamic tags use Boolean operators to define matching criteria to create a list of endpoints on the fly. You can create dynamic tags for both endpoints and contacts. Dynamic tags can be nested in standard tags.

You create your own tags so you can group endpoints in ways that are applicable to your environment. For example, you may have an office (Building A) and a warehouse (Building B). You can create tags for each location, and then use those tags to create a company tag.

Hierarchical view of grouping tags

You can:

  • create as many user tags as you want
  • add system tags to user tags
  • copy an existing tag as a starting point to create a new tag
  • delete any user tag
  • assign tags to notifications as a group of endpoints

  • use tags to give custom names to your endpoints. For example, I have speaker Algo - 10.10.7.65 in the break room and Algo - 10.10.7.48 in the conference room. It would be easier to assign to notifications if these speakers have more descriptive names. So, I create a user tag called Breakroom Speaker and assign Algo - 10.10.7.65, and I create a user tag called Conf Room Speaker. Tags can be nested, so I also create a tag called All Speakers and assign my Breakroom Speaker and Conf Room Speaker tags.

Unlicensed endpoints are not available for inclusion in user tags.

Note: These instructions are for creating standard tags. See Dynamic Tags for how to create those.

  1. Go to Configuration > User Tag.
  2. Select New > Standard Tag.
  3. Enter a descriptive Name.
  4. Do one of the following:
    • Single-site organizations, leave Available in All Sites checked.
    • Multi-site organizations, do one of the following:
      • If you're an All Sites Admin – To assign this tag to a specific site, disable Available in All Sites and select a Site from the drop-down list. Alternatively, you can leave the tag Available to All Sites.
      • If you're a Site Admin – This tag is automatically assigned to your default site.
  5. Select any of the categories (such as Endpoints or User Tags) to select what should be part of your tag.

    6. Tip: See Searching for Tags below.

    • For Endpoints or Contacts, select the items you want to add, they will appear in the list on the right.

      • Result of selecting a tag as an endpoint

    • For User Tags, do any of the following
      • Select the top-level User Tag you want to add
      • Expand the tag (>) to select a sub-tag.
      • Expand the tags down to the endpoint level and select an individual item.

      • Selecting a second tag as an endpoint

    • Click System Tags, click > to the right of the tag name to expand it. You can then click on a nested System Tag to select it.

      • Tip: You can also click > to expand the nested tag and just click individual endpoints.

      Selecting a system tag as an endpoint

  6. Click Save when you've added all the endpoints you want for this tag.

You can now assign this tag to notifications as an endpoint.

Note: Site Admins can only copy a tag assigned to their site. All Sites Admins have full access.

  1. Go to Configuration > User Tag.
  2. Click Menu icon Menu and select Copy.
    The existing tag is copied using the same name and appended with Copy. For example, Building A - Copy 1.
  3. Click Edit IconEdit to change the name of the copied tag.
  4. Multi-site organizations only, do one of the following:
    • All Sites Admins – Enable Available in All Sites or set to a specific site.
    • Site Admins – This is automatically assigned to your default site.
  5. Add or delete tags, endpoints, and contacts.
  6. Click Save.

Managing tags:

Tip: Site Admins will only see endpoints, contacts, and tags assigned to their site or all sites.

  1. Select any of the tabs: Endpoints, Contacts, User Tags, or System Tags.
    • For Endpoints and User Tags, you have a single Search criterion which will find all tags containing the text you enter.
    • For Contacts and System Tags, there are multiple criteria (Type and Search) you can use to refine your search.

  2. For all searches, the list will filter as you type in your Search string.

    Tip: When searching by Destination Code, type in the actual code. The list does not filter as you type. See Destination Codes for more information.

Note: Site Admins can only delete a tag assigned to their site. All Sites Admins have full access.

  1. Go to Configuration > User Tag.
  2. Locate the tag you want to delete.
  3. Select Menu icon Menu and then Delete.
    The tag is automatically removed from all notifications to which it is assigned.

Tip: This could leave a notification with no endpoints assigned to it if the tag deleted was the only tag or endpoint assigned to the notification.

The User Tags page shows the number of Endpoints in the tag.

OneAlert updates this value every 12 hours, as defined in the Global Settings (Endpoints > Tag Update Timer).

(Admins only) You can manually update the value by selecting the Refresh endpoint count icon next to the value in the Endpoints column. Site Admins can only refresh tags that belong to their site.

Redundancy:Closed The Refresh endpoint count icon is not available on secondary servers.