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Own warnings and the emergency override

Your own system should send warnings, or a warning should switch displays to an emergency scene.

4 min readUpdated Oct 30, 2026As Markdown
For
IT staff and Owners who connect a fire alarm system, a control center, or site security, and anyone who wants warnings to take over the displays
Prerequisite
the Manage data sources permission and, for own warnings, a system that sends CAP 1.2 messages in XML
Where in the portal
Data sources › Create source › Own warnings
On this page

Your own system can send warnings to Szenera, and a warning source can switch the displays in its area to an emergency scene. The override ends with the all-clear.

Steps

Send own warnings through the inbound address

A source of the kind Own warnings fetches nothing. It receives what your system sends to an address that Szenera creates for it.

  1. Click Create source and choose Own warnings. Enter the name of your system under Sender. Under From which severity, choose what should reach the displays.
  2. Click Create. The Inbound address window opens. You see the Secret only now.
  3. Copy Address and Secret with Copy into your system and close the window with Done.
  4. Set up your system to send each message by POST to the address. The body is a CAP 1.2 message in XML, the content type is application/xml, and the header is Authorization: Bearer <secret>.
  5. Send a test message. The address answers with the status 202 and says how many warnings the source holds afterward.

Three kinds of messages go to the same address:

Message type Effect
Alert A new warning is added.
Update The warning that the element references points to is replaced.
Cancel All clear: The warning that references points to disappears.

If a message names an area as a polygon or circle, it applies to the locations inside. Without an area, it applies to all locations of your organization. A message may be 512 KB at most.

If the secret is lost or has fallen into the wrong hands, open the source and click Renew secret. The view shows the new secret once, and the old one stops working immediately.

Turn on the emergency override

Official and own warnings can switch the displays in the area of a warning to an emergency scene.

  1. Turn on Emergency override when you create the source or later in its view.
  2. Under Emergency scene, click Choose scene and pick the scene. A scene with the Warning app in full screen works best.
  3. Under Override from, choose the severity: Minor, Moderate, Severe, or Extreme. Severe is preset.
  4. In the view of the source, click Save override. When you create the source, Create is enough.

A display is overridden while a warning is running for its location. The warning must be real, at least as severe as Override from, already in effect, and not yet expired. Messages with the status Test or Exercise do not count. Displays without a location stay out.

The override ends with the all-clear, when the warning expires, or when someone ends it by hand (Show something else now). It also ends when you pause the source or turn off Emergency override.

Check the result

The answer to your test message names the number of warnings. The view of the source shows them under What the source delivers. With the override on, the list shows “overrides all” under Used.

If something goes wrong

Symptom Cause Solution
Your system gets the status 401 The secret is missing, wrong, or was renewed. Send the current secret in the header Authorization: Bearer, or create a new one with Renew secret.
Your system gets the status 400 with a reason The message is not readable CAP 1.2 XML or is larger than 512 KB. Correct the message according to the reason given.
A warning you sent does not appear It is milder than From which severity, already expired, or marked as a test or exercise. Check the severity, validity, and status of the message.
The displays do not switch to the emergency scene No Emergency scene is chosen, the warning is milder than Override from, the display has no location in the area, or the source is paused. Check Emergency override in the view and click Save override.
4 min readUpdated Oct 30, 2026As Markdown

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