Admin Messages

Why a Separate View?

The separation of admin messages from the regular GTNet setup exists for several reasons:

• Different purpose: The regular view shows technical system messages such as handshake requests, data requests, and status notifications. Admin messages, on the other hand, serve free-form communication between administrators.
• Conversations: Admin messages support replies, enabling ongoing conversations. Technical messages have fixed response types.
• Visibility control: Only admin messages have the option to restrict visibility.
• Clarity: The separation prevents administrative communication from getting lost among technical notifications.

Table Overview

The table shows all known GTNet instances with the following columns:

• URL: The address of the remote instance.
• Time Zone: The server’s time zone.
• Admin Messages: Total number of admin messages with this instance.
• To Be Answered: Number of incoming messages that have not yet been answered.
• Answer Expected: Number of sent messages still awaiting a response.

Rows can be expanded using the arrow icon to display the associated message threads.

Sending Admin Messages

Admin messages can be sent to one or multiple recipients. The system behaves differently depending on the scenario:

flowchart TD
    A[User wants to send admin message] --> B{Number of recipients?}
    B -->|Single| C[Reply in message thread]
    B -->|Multiple| D[Select domains via checkboxes]
    C --> E[Message sent immediately]
    D --> F[Context menu: Send admin message]
    F --> G[Messages queued for background delivery]
    E --> H[Confirmation: Message sent successfully]
    G --> I[Background task delivers messages]
    I --> J[List updates when complete]

Single Recipient

When you want to reply to an existing message in a thread, right-click on the message and select Reply. The message is sent synchronously. After successful delivery, the confirmation “Admin message sent successfully” appears.

Multiple Recipients

To send an admin message to multiple instances simultaneously:

1. Enable the checkboxes for the desired domains in the table.
2. Open the context menu with a right-click.
3. Select Send admin message.

The messages are processed asynchronously in the background. You will receive the confirmation “Admin message queued for X recipient(s)”. The list updates automatically after a few moments once the messages have been delivered. The delivery is handled by background task 26.

Message Visibility

Admin messages have a visibility setting that determines who can see the message on the recipient server:

• All Users: The message is visible to all users on the recipient server.
• Admin Only: The message is visible only to administrators on the recipient server.

Visibility Inheritance Rule

When replying to a message, the following rules apply:

This means: If the original message was marked as “Admin Only”, all replies in this thread must also remain restricted to “Admin Only”. A message that started as confidential cannot be made public retroactively.

The Edit Dialog

When creating or replying to an admin message, a dialog appears with the following fields:

• Message Code: The type of message. For admin messages, this is “Admin message” or “Admin broadcast message” when sending to multiple recipients.
• Message: The free-text content of the message.
• Visibility: Dropdown to choose between “All Users” and “Admin Only”. This field is only available for admin messages.