Warning

The Warning app shows official warnings or messages from your own system, so large and clear that they can be understood from ten meters away. The same display runs full screen as an emergency scene.

What the app shows#

The app comes with one widget: Warning. It shows the warnings of a source of your organization: official warnings (the NINA warning app, the German Weather Service, flood, police) or your own messages in CAP format. The whole surface takes the color of the severity. It also shows the event with the name of the severity, the headline in large type, the text of the notice, the recommended action highlighted under “What to do now”, the area and how long the warning is valid, such as “valid until 18:00”. The source of every warning is always shown. Nothing flashes.

You do not choose the color, the severity determines it:

When several warnings are active, they alternate at the pace Seconds per warning, the most severe first. What has expired disappears by itself. Without a warning, the display shows a calm surface or the sentence “No official warnings”, depending on what you choose under Without warning.

The app fetches nothing itself. Szenera fetches the warnings once for all displays, see Where do your apps get their data?. The widget knows neither provider nor access. In the Data & access tab, the store therefore says under Reads existing data: “Data sources you choose for the app”.

The widget arranges itself to fit its frame. Making it wider never removes anything.

• Full screen: the whole surface in the color of the severity, for the emergency scene and large displays.
• Portrait: the same warning for a display standing upright, stacked.
• Bar: one line with the headline as a ticker for the edge of a scene.
• Tile: a corner of the scene with headline, recommended action, area, and validity.

If not everything fits the frame, the text of the notice drops out first, in steps, then area, validity, and recommended action, after that the headline gets smaller. Headline and source stay. The settings window reports under the preview what is switched on but does not fit.

Two examples: A business with public traffic shows the official warnings for its location in the Bar at the bottom edge. An administration creates an emergency scene with the Full screen template that takes over all displays in the area during a severe warning.

Set up the source#

1. For official warnings, check under Settings › Organization › Locations that each location has an address or a position, and assign the displays to their location (Create locations and assign displays to them). With an address in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland, the location already has its position, from the postal code.
2. Under Data sources, use Create source to create the Official warnings source and choose the Services and From which severity. Messages from your own system you receive with Own warnings through an inbound address.
3. Place the Warning widget in a scene in the scene editor. In the Data tab of the settings window, choose your source under Source.

The steps in detail are in Create a data source and show it in a widget. How your system sends its own warnings is described in Own warnings and the emergency override.

Set up the emergency scene#

A warning source can switch the displays in the area to an emergency scene during a warning, until the all-clear. The same display then shows the warning full screen.

1. Create a scene that contains only the Warning widget with the Full screen template, choose your source in it, and publish the scene.
2. Open the source under Data sources, turn on Emergency override, choose the scene under Emergency scene and the severity under Override from.
3. Click Save override.

When the override applies and when it ends is described in Own warnings and the emergency override.

Settings#

Open the settings with the gear icon on the toolbar above the widget. They are on the tabs Content, Appearance, Data, and Playback. The toolbar also offers Template and Colors, plus From which severity.

Limits#

• Not a warning system. The app replaces neither a warning system nor an official notice. We give no guarantee for the correctness, completeness, or timely arrival of the warnings. The Owner agrees to this at installation.
• The source is always shown. The display carries the source of every warning, and you do not remove it.
• Read-only. The app reads the warnings of your data source and transmits nothing to third parties.
• Only for locations with a position. Official warnings apply to the locations of your displays. The position comes from the postal code of the address or from a position you enter. A location with neither gets none.
• Only real, valid warnings. The display shows no expired ones, none milder than From which severity, none without a severity rating, and no test or exercise messages.
• At most 8 warnings taking turns. The area names the first 6 names, the rest appears as a number, such as “and 3 more”.
• Fetched at the interval of the source. Official warnings arrive at the interval of the source, every minute by default. Own warnings arrive as soon as your system sends them.
• Without a network, the last state. The display shows the last state and removes expired warnings by itself. If the source delivers nothing new for a while, “As of” with the time is added, and a very old state carries the note “outdated”.
• The display never shows an explanation. Why nothing runs is told only by the editor.

If something goes wrong#

Related#

• Own warnings and the emergency override — inbound address and emergency override.
• Create locations and assign displays to them — position and assignment of displays.
• Show something else now, such as an urgent notice — start and end an override by hand.