Expanding the Alert feature

[GlynH]

Hi there,

I use the Alert feature a lot hence have a quite a bit of info in there.

I like the new pop-up that came with RB2009/2.0 as it gives more info and enables you to scroll backwards/forwards through your alert notifications

The info window under the Alert tab is of little use to me as it stands.

However the data that is recorded through Alerts is lost for good when you restart RB and I don't know if I am alone on this but I for one would like to 'hang on' to this data for a while.

For example some military contacts will give altitude, aircraft type or Lat/Lon as part of the Alert but this data seems lost for ever.

The Vulcan for example usually gives altitude as part of the Alert but when I look in MyLog this data is never shown.

Would it be possible to take the Alert data and make it into a log of some sort?


Continuing the expanded Alerts feature it would be a great idea (for me again so I would be interested to hear the opinions of others) if there were a way to trigger a different notification for a particular type of Alert.

For example I have Alerts set to notify me to a contact within 5 miles of my house.

Great for those times I am sat out in the garden, look up at the shining object in the sky and wonder what aircraft it is, how high & how fast it is travelling and wondering where it has come from & where it is going to.

I also have the Vulcan XH558 in my Alerts list as G-VLCN / 40109F because I always want to know when she is up wherever I may be.

Currently I can only toggle all Alerts either on or off.

So when I am away from home I am obviously not interested whatsoever in what is flying over my house but I am still interested in when XH558 is airborne.

As it stands I can only continue to have all or nothing so it would be great to choose for example to be notified by way of pop-up on the local PC for everything, email only for XH558, execute a file for a military contact etc. etc.

Also a user-configurable email using custom text and variables to only email what you need/want to know.

Example - there is not the ability built-in to send an Alert to SMS Text message.

That would be a great feature to have but I would not expect AirNav to program this in for many reasons.

Now one could configure a second email address to go to an Email/SMS gateway for example but most text messages are limited to 160 characters including spaces so this precludes this option.

A custom or short email message should be able to overcome this limitation.

Also the ability to choose a different sound for a different type of Alert would be good.

Imagine every time an USAF contact is spotted you could hear an excerpt of the iconic theme Ride of the Valkyries from Apocalypse Now.

Or the Star Spangled Banner for AirForce One or other US Diplomatic Aircraft.

Maybe the Dambusters theme for an RAF contact.

Even Paddy McGinty's Goat for RyanAir...OK...that last one was a joke but you get the idea! :-)

I can think of a few more things but I don't want to make this post too long especially if I am the only one who is interested in expanding the function of the Alert feature.

Opinions? Ideas?

Thanks for listening.

Kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[RodBearden]

Hi Glyn

Totally agree with your ideas here - I have already suggested to Development that an alert system similar to the conditional formatting routine in MS Excel, or message rules in Outlook Express, would be good, with named alerts having a combination of conditions to be met, and a range of options for the alert itself, so that each alert could perform different actions, and of course that could include the alert details being written to a log file, and chosing different email addresses and different sounds.

Rod

[Terry]

Damn brilliant ideas chaps,remind me Glyn to put you both on my xmas pressie list,and AirNav could you put this on yours for us?(Please?)

[AirNav Support]

Suggestion noted.

[testmonkey]

I for one would certainly be interested in a seperate log to store alerts in. The details in the pop-up are fine but as you say Glyn the info window is pretty pointless - there's nothing in there of any use. In fact when I first turned on alerts I didn't set the pop-up to activate so when I checked the info window and saw what was recorded I was a little dissapointed to say the least.

It would be interesting with a seperate log to see who was the first to spot the same aircraft sending out 2 seperate 7700's!

[bailey_uk]

I definately think the Alert section of RB is ripe for expanding...

Primarily for me, i'd prefer an alert that depends on more than one criteria being true.

I.e an aircraft within a certain distance of my home location that is either squarking 7700 or of a certain airline.

I think it would be easier to setup too - the dialog box being exacly how it is now, but have a seperate dialoge box for each 'Alert Environment'. You could then select how many of your seperate alert environments you'd want one at any time.

Any thoughts?

[RodBearden]

Tootally agree, Bailey that's why I suggested "having a combination of conditions to be met" for each named alert.

BTW another option that I hope will be available for alerts is to start recording - which will need to have a set of "turn off recording" parameters too.

Rod