Send website news, events and alerts to the Smart Parents app
Your school website can send three things to parents in the Smart Parents app:
- News: posts in the categories the website chooses become notices for every parent, with a button back to the post. The app's home screen already shows your latest website news, so only the categories you send here become notices.
- Events: events from the website calendars it chooses appear on the app's calendar.
- Smart Alert: when your website's Smart Alert goes up, every parent gets an urgent notice and a push notification.
You choose what the app accepts on the Website tab of Smart Parents (open Smart Parents in the sidebar, then choose the Website tab; it has no sidebar shortcut of its own). You need to be an admin who holds Manage Smart Parents. The website chooses which categories and calendars to send under Smart Plugins → Smart Parents app in WordPress (on a site without the Smart Plugins menu it's under Settings → Smart Parents app).
Smart Parents itself must be Enabled. If it isn't, the tab says "Smart Parents is switched off for this school, so nothing from the website reaches parents. Turn it on on the Settings tab."
Connect the website
- Open Smart Parents and choose the Website tab.
- Choose Connect website and confirm ("Notices from the website will be sent to parents as you."). A Website token is shown once, with a Feed address under it. Copy the token, then select I've copied it.
- In WordPress, open Smart Plugins → Smart Parents app, paste the token into ADAdmin token and save. The website already knows the feed address.
Notices from the website are sent as you, the admin who connected it. If you leave or stop being able to send parent notices, nothing more is sent until another admin connects the website again: the tab shows Needs reconnecting and "The admin the website sends as can no longer send parent notices, so nothing will go out. Connect again to send as yourself."
To replace the token, choose Make a new token and confirm. The old token stops working straight away, so the website stops sending until you paste the new one in.
Choose what parents get
- Turn on News as notices, Events in the app calendar and Smart Alert as an urgent notice as you need. Let news buzz parents' phones appears under News as notices once that is on.
- Choose Save changes ("Website feed settings saved.").
All of these start off. Events can only be turned on when the app calendar uses events (Calendar source on the Settings tab), not Google Calendar: otherwise you see "Switch the app calendar to events on the Settings tab first. Website events would not show while it reads Google Calendar." Nothing is saved when you see that message, including your other switches, so change the calendar source first (or leave Events in the app calendar off) and save again. Website events never buzz phones, never take sign-ups, and also appear on the Events tab (see Smart Parents events and sign-ups).
Website news and alerts are notices like any other: they're sent within about a minute of the website sending them, and they show in Smart Parents → Notifications, written by the admin who connected the website (see Parent notices list and delivery numbers).
When phones buzz
- News arrives silently unless you turn on Let news buzz parents' phones and the website marks that category with Buzz phones. Even then, a school's phones buzz for website news at most twice a day, and never between 8pm and 7am: a post that would buzz phones and is published in the evening waits, and goes out as a notice with its push at 7am (until then the list shows Waiting to send and Pushed in the morning). A post over the daily limit still lands in parents' notices, silently.
- Smart Alerts always push, at any hour, up to five a day. An alert over that limit still lands in parents' notices, silently.
- Editing a post or alert changes what parents see, but never buzzes them again.
Taking things down
Unpublishing or deleting a post on the website, or switching the Smart Alert off before it ends, removes it from the app. An alert that simply reaches its end date stays in parents' notices. To stop the website sending anything, choose Disconnect and confirm ("It can no longer send anything to parents. What it has already sent stays.").
The Sent from the website list shows the latest 50 items. For each it shows What (News, Event or Smart Alert), the Title, a Status (Sent, In the calendar, Waiting to send, Not sent with the reason underneath, or Taken down), Phones (Silent, Pushed, Pushed in the morning or Silent (daily limit)) and Last update.
If something doesn't work
The website's own Smart Parents app page shows a status for each of these. What each means and what to do in ADAdmin:
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| "ADAdmin has news turned off for this school, so posts aren't reaching the app…" (or events, or Smart Alerts) | Turn on News as notices, Events in the app calendar or Smart Alert as an urgent notice on the Website tab and save |
| "The Smart Parents app is turned off for this school, so nothing reaches parents." | Set Smart Parents to Enabled on the Settings tab |
| "The school's app calendar doesn't use app events, so website events can't appear in it." | Set Calendar source to Events created here on the Settings tab, or untick the calendars on the website |
| "Nobody can send these notices at the moment: the ADAdmin admin who connected the website has left or lost access…" | An admin with Manage Smart Parents chooses Connect website and pastes the new token into WordPress |
| "ADAdmin didn't accept the token…" or "This token has been replaced by a newer one." | Paste the newest token from the Website tab (use Make a new token if you've lost it) |
| "This token belongs to a different school." | Copy the token from this school's own Website tab |
| "Not connected. Paste the token from ADAdmin to start sending." | Follow Connect the website above |
| Not sent in the Sent from the website list | The reason is under the title, for example "The person who scheduled it can no longer send notices at this school." Reconnect the website as above |
If the Website tab says "The website feed isn't set up on this server yet.", ask Realsmart support.
Related
Was this guide helpful?
We read every response — it decides what we rewrite next.
Thanks for your feedback.