Every email and text message sent by an Alert Rule combines alert details generated by Asset Tracker with the Subject and Message configured in the rule. Knowing which part comes from where makes it easier to configure a Message that adds information rather than repeating what the notification already carries.
The three parts of a notification
| Part | Source | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Alert details | Generated by Asset Tracker | Identifies the alert, which asset triggered it, and where |
| Subject and Message | Alert Rule settings | Instructions the alert details cannot supply |
| Response link | Generated by Asset Tracker | Lets the recipient acknowledge or resolve the alert without signing in first |
The parts arrive in that order: alert details first, the action's Message next, then the link. Subject applies to email only.
The alert details Asset Tracker supplies
Alert details are built from the alert itself, so they are always current and cannot be edited. They identify:
- The Alert Name from the rule, so recipients can tell which rule sent it
- Which asset triggered it — its name, and its Asset ID where the two differ
- Where it happened, as a location path: campus, building, floor, and room
Asset Tracker's rule types do not add an opening sentence of their own, so the notification begins with the Alert Name. A name that states the situation — IV Pumps Leaving Tower B — tells a recipient what happened before they read anything else, while Location Rule 3 does not.
Examples by rule type
The examples below show the alert details only. The action's Message follows, then the response link.
Location
IV Pumps Leaving Tower B triggered by IV Pump 214 (ID: CMMS-88421) in Main Campus > Tower B > Floor 1 > Corridor.
PAR Levels
Clean Room IV Pumps Below Par triggered in Main Campus > Tower B > Floor 3 > Clean Room 3B.
Note: A PAR Levels notification identifies the rule and the location, not the current and target quantities. To see the counts behind the alert, open PAR Levels in Asset Tracker. See Track and monitor PAR Levels.
How each action delivers it
| Action | What the recipient gets |
|---|---|
| Emails | The action's Subject as the email subject. The body carries the alert details, the action's Message, and the response link. When Subject is empty, the email is sent without one. |
| Text Messages | One message containing the alert details, the action's Message, and the response link. A short Message is better — long text is split by the recipient's carrier. |
| Webhooks | The alert as structured data for the receiving system to process. The payload is defined by the webhook itself in Company Settings, not by the Alert Rule — it carries whichever built-in variables the webhook's template uses. See Webhook built-in variables reference. The action sets only which webhook to call, so a Subject or Message written on another action never reaches it. |
What makes a useful Message
A Message belongs to the action it is set on, not to the rule as a whole — Emails and Text Messages each take their own. Whichever action carries it, the same text is sent for every alert that rule triggers. The alert details change with each alert; the Message does not. It therefore has to hold true for every asset and every location the rule covers.
That rules out anything specific. A Message naming one asset, room, or quantity will be wrong for most of the alerts it is sent with, and it duplicates what the alert details already provide.
What works instead is a standing instruction — the procedure to follow, and who to contact:
- Effective: "Locate the asset using the link, return it to its assigned location, and report anything that has left the building to Biomed on extension 4460."
- Less effective: "An IV pump has left Tower B — return it to Clean Room 3B." — the alert details already identify the asset and where it is, and the specifics are wrong for every other asset and location the rule covers.
A rule scoped narrowly can support a more specific Message, because fewer assets and locations are in play. The broader the rule's scope, the more general the Message has to be.
Alert Rules are commonly created and maintained by several administrators, and read by responders who did not configure them. A Message therefore needs to make sense on its own:
- Name teams, departments, and extensions rather than individuals, so the Message survives staff changes.
- Avoid shorthand that only the person who wrote the rule would recognize.
- Point to a procedure the recipient can follow without knowing which rule sent the alert or who set it up.
The same reasoning applies to the Alert Name, which recipients see first and other administrators rely on when reviewing rules. A consistent naming convention — location, alert type, and who it covers — makes both the notification and the Alert Rules list easier to work with.