The Alarms Daemon (System) in Notes/Domino 4.5x, 4.6x and 5.x
Abstract
This technical paper defines the Alarms Daemon (System) in Notes Client and Domino Server. It is divided into the following sections: I. The Alarms Daemon Defined
II. Enabling the Alarms Daemon
III. How the Alarms Daemon Works
IV. How to Set an Alarm
A. For an Individual Calendar Entry
B. For all Calendar Entries of a Particular Type
V. Responding to Missed Alarms I. The Alarms Daemon Defined: In order to free up the Notes workstation program from constantly checking for alarms in the user's ma
Content
This technical paper defines the Alarms Daemon (System) in Notes Client and Domino Server. It is divided into the following sections:
I. The Alarms Daemon Defined
II. Enabling the Alarms Daemon
III. How the Alarms Daemon Works
IV. How to Set an Alarm
A. For an Individual Calendar Entry
B. For all Calendar Entries of a Particular Type
V. Responding to Missed Alarms
I. The Alarms Daemon Defined:
In order to free up the Notes workstation program from constantly checking for alarms in the user's mail file, a background process was developed, a Notes addin program, called the Alarms Daemon. The Alarms Daemon keeps track of alarms that are set, and sends a request to Notes when an alarm needs to be displayed. This Alarms Daemon is initiated once you have enabled alarms through the Calendar Profile or the NOTES.INI. This setting is turned off by default.
II. Enabling the Alarms Daemon:
To enable alarms from within the Notes Client, open your mail file and select Actions, Calendar Tools, Calendar Profile. In the Scheduling Options section, select the "Enable alarm notifications" checkbox. Select the OK action button to save the change in your mail file's Calendar Profile document. This change is also stored in Notes workstation's NOTES.INI file as $EnableAlarms=1 (when $EnableAlarms=0, the Alarms Daemon is off).
Note: Since the Alarms Daemon process is started by a setting in the NOTES.INI, you must exit and restart the Notes client whenever you change the "Enable alarm notifications" setting. Simply changing this setting without restarting will not turn the Alarms Daemon on or off; you also need to restart the Notes client.
III. How the Alarms Daemon Works:
* When Notes is initialized, it checks the NOTES.INI for the $EnableAlarms setting. If this is set to $EnableAlarms=1 the Alarms Daemon will start.
* Notes reads the Location document in the personal Name and Address book to find the location of the user's mail file. It then checks the mail file to make sure the user has selected "Enable alarm notifications" in the Scheduling Options section of the Calendar Profile (if "Enable alarm notifications" isn't selected, then this process terminates).
* The Alarms Daemon then checks the "($Alarms)" hidden folder to see if any alarms were scheduled to go off prior to TODAY. If so, the missed alarms will display in a Missed Alarms dialog box. The Alarms Daemon will process missed alarms only once during the session. If you set an appointment for yesterday you will not be notified unless you exit and restart the client.
* For the rest of the session the Alarms Daemon process will run and notify the user according to alarms set for meetings, appointments, etc. These are current alarms and should display to the user at the specified time. By default, the Alarms Daemon polls the user's mail server every 10 minutes to check for upcoming alarms that will need processing. This polling interval can be modified by an undocumented Notes.ini parameter:
AlarmCheckFrequency=<# in minutes>
Normally, this value should not be set below the default value, as the polling actually opens a session on the server, and can cause a slight increase in load on the server, depending on how many clients have the Alarms Daemon enabled.
IV. How to Set an Alarm:
Alarms can be set individually in each calendar entry, or for all Calendar entries of a particular type.
A. For an Individual Calendar Entry:
1. Either select Create, Calendar Entry to create a new entry, or double-click the desired existing Calendar entry and select Edit Document from the Action bar.
2. Select Alarm Options from the Action bar. (If you haven't enabled the alarm system, the message "You have not enabled alarms in your Calendar Profile. Do you want to enable them now?" displays. Select Yes.)
3. Do one of the following:
- Select Before or After and specify the number of minutes before or after the entry that you want to set the alarm for.
that you want to set the alarm for.
4. (Optional) Change the message in the Alarm Message field. Notes uses the Calendar entry's brief description as the alarm message by default. You can change the Alarm Message text if desired.
5. Select OK.
6. Select Save and Close from the Action bar to save the calendar. This sets the alarm.
When the Alarm dialog box displays at its designated time, you can select OK to clear the alarm, or Snooze to keep the alarm active and have it display again at a later time (i.e., 10 minutes later).
B. For all Calendar Entries of a Particular Type:
Alarms can also be set for all Calendar entries of a particular type, such as for all meetings, all appointments, etc.
1. In 4.5x/4.6x select Actions, Calendar Tools, Calendar Profile.
Or in 5.x select Actions, Tools, Preferences; select the Calendar tab, then select the Alarms sub tab.
2. If the "Enable Alarm Notifications" checkbox ("Enable Alarms" in 5.x) is not selected, select it.
3. Select "Automatically set alarm(s) for" (<-- in 4.5x/4.6x only) and set an alarm for all Calendar entries of a particular type. For example:
- To set an alarm for all appointments and meetings, select Appointments/Meetings and specify the number of minutes in advance that you want to set the alarm for.
- To set an alarm for all events, select Events and specify the number of days in advance that you want to set the alarm for.
4. Once you have set all desired alarms, select OK.
When an Alarm dialog box displays at its designated time, you can select OK to clear the alarm, or Snooze to keep the alarm active and have it display again at a later time (i.e., 10 minutes later).
Note: If you set an alarm for an individual Calendar entry, it will override the alarm defaults that you set in the Calendar Profile.
V. Responding to Missed Alarms:
When you start Notes, the Alarms Daemon checks the "($Alarms)" hidden folder to see if any alarms were scheduled to go off since you last exited Notes. If alarms are set prior to Notes startup, the message "You missed x alarms. Do you want to display them now?" displays.
1. When Notes asks if you want to display missed alarms, do one of the following:
- To clear the missed alarms, select No.
- To display the missed alarms, select Yes.
If you select Yes, Notes displays the Missed Alarms dialog box, which shows a description of the calendar entry associated with each missed alarm.
2. If you selected Yes, do one of the following:
- To repeat some of the alarms 10 minutes later and clear the rest, select the alarms you want to repeat and select Snooze.
- To repeat some of the alarms a different number of minutes later and clear the rest, specify the number of minutes in the Snooze for field and then select Snooze.
- To clear all of the alarms, select Done.
Note: If you select Snooze and exit Notes before the selected alarms go off again, Notes clears the alarms.
Related Documents:
Troubleshooting Script for Calendar Alarms in Notes 4.5x/4.6x/5.x
Document #: 163373