Using Notification Manager › Notification Manager Concepts › REXX Programs › Telling and Asking

Telling and Asking

Notification Manager supports the following basic types of communication with personnel using the NMFIND program:

• Telling them something (specify using the TELL parameter of the NMFIND program)
• Asking them a question and then giving them a set of options from which to choose (specify using the ASK parameter of the NMFIND program)

Note: Notifications issued from the Notification Website are TELL only. For more information, see How You Use the Notification Website.

When you define a method, you tell Notification Manager which of these capabilities the underlying REXX program has. For example, a method that sends a FAX can tell, but it cannot ask because there is no way to get a response back from the person by a FAX machine.

For each method you define, you tell Notification Manager that you want to allow the method to be used to tell or both tell and ask. Notification Manager then enforces this selection when the method is used by a time block. In other words, if the method is defined as only supporting the TELL parameter of NMFIND, Notification Manager does not allow the method to be specified as the ask method for a time block.

If the method is specified as supporting both the TELL and ASK parameters of NMFIND, you are allowed to specify it as just the TELL method for a time block, or as both the TELL and ASK methods.