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Email Notifications with Embedded Maps

October 14, 2015

A while back we launched integration with Zapier, a service that allows you to connect web services together for things like push notifications, emails, and data automation.

Using Zapier with Fulcrum status fields, you can set up an email alert to trigger when a record status is changed. This is perfect for scenarios where a supervisor or administrator wants to be notified immediately of an issue in the field for rapid remediation.

Emails with map embeds

 

An example of status alerts in action

In this example, I’ve got a Construction Audit app for surveying issues observed on construction sites throughout the phases of a project — things like environmental violations, safety issues, or code enforcement problems. The app I’ve built has a status field for the inspector to log the current site status: “No Issues,” “Minor Issues,” or “Critical.”

I also want my email alert to show an inset map with the site location, to give the supervisor an immediate overview of where the issue is happening so they can respond as soon as possible. For embedding static maps, you can use Katy Decorah’s excellent Static Map Maker tool for quickly creating image URLs to embed in your email template. Then using Zapier, I’ve created a trigger to send out an email alert every time a user marks a site as “critical” from the field (check out this article on setting up Zapier with Fulcrum). The video above steps through the setup process, showing you how to configure email notifications with an embedded map preview.