Overview of Alert Rules

In the Tango Tango system, Alerts come in from an Alert Source and are then routed to Feeds. Users join or are added to Feeds to be notified about those alerts. You can read more about this system in our article on Managing Feeds.


To configure alert routing, click on Alerts > Sources in the top-level navigation, select the Source you want to configure, then go to the Rules tab. This screen is where you configure how incoming alerts from your Sources are directed to specific Feeds.


For First Response Tones: Configuration for Tones is straightforward. All alerts originating from a single Tone source are always routed to the same Feed. Once routed, the members of that Feed will always receive incident calls for those tone events.


For CAD Events: Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) sources require more granular routing. Because a single CAD source generates diverse alerts, you can use Rules to automatically route specific events to the appropriate Feeds based on the data within the alert.


How CAD Routing Works

Before building your rules, it is helpful to understand the basic logic the system uses to process an incoming CAD event:

  • Multiple Matches: A single alert can match multiple rules. If this happens, the alert may be routed to multiple different Feeds simultaneously.
  • Duplicate Prevention: If an alert matches multiple rules that route to the same Feed, the users in that Feed will only receive one notification. The system will use the highest priority assigned by any of the matching rules.
  • Unmatched Alerts: If an incoming alert does not match any of your configured rules, and no Default Rule is set, the alert is dropped and will not be forwarded to any Feeds.
  • Priority: Although the options are limited for now, users can use priority to influence how they want to be notified when an alert is received. This feature will provide more options in the future.


Building Your Rules

You have three options for configuring rules on a CAD Source:


1. Create a New Rule (Manual)

Use this option to build a rule from scratch based on known field names and values.

  1. Click Create a new rule.
  2. Under the If section, define your conditions by specifying a field name, choosing a matching operator (e.g., "contains" or "does not match exactly"), and entering a value.
  3. Click Add Condition to add additional criteria to the same rule if needed. You can configure the rule to trigger if any or all of the conditions are met.
  4. Under the Then... section, assign the desired Priority and select which Feed to Route To.
  5. Click Save.


2. Generate a Rule (Guided)

If you want to base a rule on an alert you have already received, the system can help generate it for you.

  1. Click Generate a rule.
  2. A side panel will appear showing your recent alert history; select the specific alert you want to base your rule on.
  3. Check the boxes next to the specific data points (e.g., Address, City, Code) you want the rule to match against.
  4. Click Generate alert rules. This will populate a new rule form for you.
  5. Make any modifications needed, then click Save.


3. Create a Default Rule

A Default Rule acts as a catch-all. It defines what happens to alerts that do not match any of your specific rules. If no default rule is provided and an alert does not match any other rules, the alert will be dropped.

  1. Click Create a default rule.
  2. Assign a priority and select a destination Feed for unmatched alerts.