External events

BlackBerry AtHoc improves emergency managers' situational awareness by providing alerts for external events that impact their organization and employees. External event categories include: Earthquake, Fire, Hurricane, and Flood.

When external events are enabled, Organization Administrators can define the locations and external events they want to monitor. When an external event occurs that impacts a selected location, it appears in the Inbox in the BlackBerry AtHoc management system and on the live map. Operators can also receive notifications on their chosen devices (email, SMS, and mobile app) when events that impact their selected locations appear in the Inbox.

IsExternalEventSupported must be enabled by a System Administrator in Settings > Feature Enablement.

  1. In the navigation bar, click The Settings icon.
  2. In the Basic section, click External Events.
  3. On the External Events screen, in the Your Organizational Area section, click The Edit icon.
  4. On the map, do any of the following:
    • Click Create Custom Locations, and then select a shape. Click and drag on the map to draw a shape.
    • Click Select Predefined Locations, and then select a location from the pull-down menu.
    You can create multiple custom locations and select multiple predefined locations. You can select a combination of custom and predefined locations.
  5. Click Apply.
  6. In the External Event Types section, select the types of external events to receive in the Inbox.
    If the external event type you need is not listed, you can submit a request to add it. Go to the BlackBerry AtHoc support portal at: https://www.blackberry.com/us/en/support/enterpriseapps/athoc/support-request. Include the Event Type keyword and region in the support request form. If available, provide the external event feed source. For example: COVID-19, United States, https://tools.cdc.gov/api/v2/resources/media/404952.rss.
    RSS, Geo-JSON, CAP, and ATOM formats are supported. Each requested feed type must have consistent location data and event type information. Requested feed types should be applicable to a regional (for example U.S. West Coast), national, or international area. For more information, see "Request a new external event type" in the BlackBerry AtHoc External Events guide.
  7. Optionally, in the Setup Admin Notifications section, click Select Targets.
  8. On the Users dialog, select the operators to notify when an external event occurs in the selected organizational areas. All external events that impact the organizational area appear in the Inbox in the BlackBerry AtHoc management system and on the live map. The operators you select will receive an alert about the event on the selected devices.
  9. Click Apply.
  10. From the Devices pull-down menu, select the devices (email, SMS, and mobile app) that the targeted operators will receive notifications on. You can select more than one device.
  11. From the Frequency pull-down menu, select the interval to send the event notifications at. Choose 24 Hrs or 48 Hrs. One notification is sent for each event category. For example, Earthquake.
  12. Click Save.