Patriot Smart Phone App (Plink)

Patriot has a dedicated mobile app for end users. This app allows customers to view details about their own sites. With the optional First Response module, the users can also receive notifications about alarms, with options for responding directly from the app itself.

Prerequisites

Patriot Internet Client Access (ICA) configured

Setup

Before your users can access your ICA server through the smart phone application, you must contact patriot support and provide them with the URL for accessing your ICA server, and a registration code for your monitoring station. This code can be your monitoring name or a number (whatever you prefer). Patriot support staff will enter this information in our registration web server. When your users first run the app, it needs to register so it can connect with your ICA website. The user of the app will be asked to enter in your monitoring station registration code which you have given us. If you are using the SmartPhone task for message notifications, you will also need to provide additional information to patriot support (see below).

Installing and configuring the app

First, ensure that the user is registered for ICA access.

They will also need to be told your Monitoring Station Registration code which identifies your ICA server.

The first time that the end-user starts the Patriot 6 mobile app, it will ask them for the registration code.

Once this is entered, they will be able to log in to ICA using their standard username + password.

Using the Smart Phone task to send notifications to users

The Smartphone task can be assigned to the response plan, to trigger actions on the user's phone when certain signals are received. If your customers are only using the app to access ICA, then the following steps are not required.

Requirements

First Response module registered
ICA version 6.4.2.1 or later
First Response module required files copied in to the Patriot Task Service installation folder

Contact Patriot Support for a copy of these files.

Obtain authentication details

Visit the Google Developers website to request Plink task authentication details. You will require a registered Google account to perform this step.

Enter an App name or use the default: Plink. The package should already be correctly filled out with the package com.patriotsystems.patriot6

Continue to the next step, where Cloud Messaging should already be selected. Choose to enable cloud messaging, and your authentication details will be generated.

Record the Server API Key and Sender ID in a secure place. If you need to recover these details at a later time, visit the Google Developers Console. See the Developers Console help for how to view your API key and Sender ID (project number)

Once you have these details, you can close the Google Developers website. The remaining steps, including generating a configuration file, are not required.

You will also need to contact Patriot support and provide your Sender ID (along with your ICA server address and Registration Code if you have not already done so). Note: Your API key should be kept secret, as this is essentially your password.

Task Setup

Please read TASK SETTINGS for general information about adding tasks.

	Add a new task to the list in the Task Settings window. Double click on Smart Phone in the drop down list in the details area of the window.
	Click the next button to continue. The Smart Phone task settings form will appear.

Task Settings

User Name: Your Google Sender ID
Password: Your Google API Key
Subject: The title displayed on any notifications shown to the user.

Assignable Tasks Setup

Once the SmartPhone task is configured, it can be assigned to trigger when certain signals are received. See Assignable Tasks for more general information on how to configure this.

Once assigned, the message type can be selected, depending on what actions the user should be able to take.

Standard. Simply sends a notification to the user's device. When selected, the relevant client record is shown directly in the app.
Acknowledge Required (requires Advanced Messaging Module). As with Standard, a notification is shown on the user's device that displays the relevant client when selected. However this notification cannot be cleared except by acknowledging the alarm, which logs an additional signal in Patriot. This option is designed to work with Escalated Messaging, where additional steps can be taken if the user does not respond to the notification within the required time.
First Response. Allows the user the chance to respond to the activation before it is shown to the operator. The action plan being used must have the 'put to sleep' special option, to give the user a chance to respond. When the user selects the notification, they are taken to a page showing the specific details of the activation that has been generated. The User can select I Will Respond, which will acknowledge and clear the activation, or set temporary schedule changes for Late to Close activations. If the user chooses Request Operator Action, or does not respond before the activation awakens from sleep, then the operator will respond to the activation as per normal. There is more info on First Response under Instant Messaging Tasks.

Each message sent to the phone will display as a separate notification, so they can be individually tracked and responded to. If there are a number of similar notifications depending, these can be cleared in one step by using the Clear Notifications menu item from within the app.