Sending notifications from a web page

The NetSupport Notify Web Console can be used to send notifications via the internet.

The Web Console contains much of the functionality available in the Notification Console application, including notification settings such as; notification expiry timeout, locking the notification so that it cannot be closed by the user, sounding an audible alert, and ensuring that the notification is always visible at the front of a user’s desktop. Message severity levels can also be set, from low-level severity messages to high importance critical messages.

The Web Console does not support the scheduling of notifications, the customisation of notifications, or the historical viewing of previously sent notifications.

Your NetSupport Notify installation comes with a ‘Web’ folder located in the installation folder. The Web folder contains an ASP and an ASP.NET version of the NetSupport Notify Web Console, which can be placed on a web server and accessed via the internet.

Install the NetSupport Notify Web Console on your web server
First, you need to install the Web Server (IIS) server role with Classic ASP enabled.

1. Log onto the Windows Server machine.
2. Open the Control Panel.
3. Open the Server Manager.
4. Click Add Roles.
5. Under Installation Type, select Role-based or Feature-Based Installation.
6. If you haven’t configured IIS yet and this is the first time on your Server, click Next and enter the required details.
7. Click the Server Roles option on the left-hand menu.
8. Under Roles, scroll down and open the Web Server (IIS) option.
9. Expand the Web Server option.
10. Find and expand the Application Development option.
11. You will see the option to enable ASP. Click the ASP checkbox.
12. Click Next until you reach the confirmation screen and click Install.

Next, you need to configure NetSupport Notify.

1. Install the NetSupport Notify Console and Gateway on the web server machine you want to run the Web Console from. You can choose to install the Gateway on another machine on the network, as long as it is accessible from the web server machine running the Console.
2. Open the Control Panel on the web server machine and open Administrative Tools. Select Internet Information Services (IIS).
3. In the Tree view, select Application Pools and in the Actions pane, select Add Application Pool.
4. Enter a name for the Application Pool and change the .NET CLR version to No Managed Code. Click OK.
5. In the Actions pane, select Basic Settings for the new Application Pool, set the Managed pipeline mode to Classic and click OK.
6. Highlight the new Application Pool, select Set Application Pool Defaults and in the (General) section, change Enable 32-Bit Applications to be True. Click OK.
7. Right click on Default Web Site and go to New -> Add Application -> Next.
8. In the text box, type an alias for ‘Notify’ (or whatever you wish to name the Notify Web Console) and click Next.
9. Browse to the installation folder of your NetSupport Notify installation and select the Web folder. Click Next -> Next -> Finish.
10. By default, the Notify Console application you create under the Default Web Site will use the Default Application Pool. Right click the Notify Console application and select Manage Application > Advanced Settings. Select the Application Pool field and change this to the Application Pool you created in step 4.
11. Expand the Default Web Site Tree in IIS and locate the Notify application (or what it was named in step 8). Right click and select Browse.
12. If the setup was successful, you will be presented with the Gateway connection page.

Configuring the default.asp file to pre-populate the server connection details
It is possible to edit the default.asp file within the Notify Web folder in the NetSupport Notify installation to populate the server connection details automatically.

Note: Please make a backup of the default.asp file before editing it.

The only three items you need to modify within the default.asp file are highlighted in red below:

<tr><td>Gateway Address:</td><td style=”WIDTH: 147px”><input class=”formfields” id=”GWAddress” name=”GWAddress” value=”Server IP” /></td></tr>
<tr><td>Gateway Port:</td><td style=”WIDTH: 147px”><input class=”formfields” id=”GWPort” name=”GWPort” value=”Port Number” /></td></tr>
<tr><td>Gateway Key:</td><td style=”WIDTH: 147px”><input class=”formfields” id=”GWKey” name=”GWKey” type=”password” value=”GatewayKey“/></td></tr>