Controlling Messages
QraOnline tells students, teachers, and admins about things that matter to them — a class was moved, a payment is due, a meeting is starting. This page is how you turn those messages on and off, and choose which way they're delivered.
If you're here because people are getting too many messages, start with the worked examples.
Placeholder. See how to silence a reminder for your whole center, and how one person can opt out for themselves.
Two levels of control
There are two separate switches for every message. Both have to be on for a message to arrive.
| Level | Who controls it | What it decides |
|---|---|---|
| What your center sends | You, the admin — for everyone at once | Whether a kind of message is sent at all, and over which channels. |
| What each person receives | Each student, teacher, or admin — for themselves only | Whether that one individual accepts web, email, or WhatsApp messages. |
The center's switch is checked first. So:
- If you switch something off, nobody gets it — no matter what they've chosen personally.
- If a person switches a channel off for themselves, they stop getting it, but everyone else carries on as normal.
- A person can never turn on a channel you've turned off.
Where each level lives
- Center-wide: My Center → Notifications. This is your page.
- Personal: any signed-in user opens their own Notifications → My Preferences. It's a simple "send me email / web / WhatsApp — yes or no" per channel, not per message type. Everything is on until they change it.
The three channels
| Channel | What it is |
|---|---|
| Web | The bell icon inside QraOnline, plus push notifications in the app. |
| Email to the address on the person's profile. | |
| A WhatsApp message. Only possible once WhatsApp is connected and active. |
An SMS option appears on screen but is greyed out — SMS isn't available yet.
The notification groups
Open My Center → Notifications and you'll see collapsible groups, each showing an "X of Y enabled" count. Click a group to expand it.
| Group | What's inside | Channels possible |
|---|---|---|
| Schedules | Class created, changed, cancelled, starting soon; calendar events like exams, holidays and announcements. | Web, Mail, WhatsApp |
| Meetings | Meeting created, starting soon, cancelled. | Web, Mail, WhatsApp |
| Courses | A course assigned to a student, a new course created. | Web, Mail, WhatsApp |
| Payments | Student payment due soon, overdue, received. | Web, Mail, WhatsApp |
| Salaries | Staff salary due soon, overdue, paid. Goes to admins. | Web, Mail, WhatsApp |
| System | Subscription expiring and other platform notices. | Web, Mail, WhatsApp |
| Episodes | Reserved for future use — nothing in here yet. | — |
What you can change for each message type
Expand a group and every message type inside it shows these controls:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Enabled / Disabled switch | The master on/off. Off means nothing goes out on any channel. |
| Audience | On some types only: Students, Teachers, or Both. Types with a fixed audience (like salary notices, which always go to admins) don't show this. |
| Web / Mail / WhatsApp chips | Turn each delivery method on or off independently. |
| Reminder timing | On timed reminders only — how far ahead the reminder goes out. See below. |
notifications-settings-grid.pngWhat to capture: The Notifications tab inside My Center with one group (for example Payments) expanded, showing several message-type rows. Each row must clearly show its Enabled switch on the left and its Web / Mail / WhatsApp chips on the right.
Add an arrow/highlight on: A box around the Web / Mail / WhatsApp chips on one row — this is what an admin clicks to stop a specific kind of message.
Save as static/img/docs/notifications-settings-grid.png
Every click saves immediately. There's no Save button.
When you switch a message type off and later switch it back on, it returns to its standard channels rather than the custom combination you had before. Re-check the channel chips after switching a type back on.
Two worked examples
Stopping WhatsApp payment reminders for everyone at your center
- In the left sidebar, click My Center.
- Open the Notifications tab.
- Click the Payments group to expand it.
- Find the Payment Due Soon row.
- Click its WhatsApp chip to switch it off. Leave Enabled on and leave Web and Mail as they are.
notifications-whatsapp-chip-off.pngWhat to capture: A close crop of the Payment Due Soon row after the change: the Enabled switch still on, the Web and Mail chips still active, and the WhatsApp chip visibly switched off/greyed.
Add an arrow/highlight on: An arrow pointing at the switched-off WhatsApp chip.
Save as static/img/docs/notifications-whatsapp-chip-off.png
From that moment, no student gets a WhatsApp message for that reminder — even students who have WhatsApp switched on personally. They'll still see it in the app and get the email.
Repeat for Payment Overdue if you want those silenced too. They're separate types.
Stopping one specific student's WhatsApp messages
You don't do this from your page — the student does it themselves.
- Ask the student to sign in and open Notifications → My Preferences.
- They switch WhatsApp off.
They stop receiving WhatsApp entirely; every other student keeps getting payment reminders as normal.
Silence it for everyone → your My Center → Notifications page. Silence it for one person → that person's own My Preferences.
Setting how far ahead a reminder goes out
Some message types are timed reminders rather than instant announcements. They carry an alarm-clock badge, and you can choose their lead time.
| Reminder | Group | Standard lead time |
|---|---|---|
| Class Starting Soon | Schedules | 2 hours before |
| Meeting Starting Soon | Meetings | 15 minutes before |
| Payment Due Soon | Payments | 3 days before |
| Payment Overdue | Payments | 3 days after |
| Salary Due Soon | Salaries | 3 days before |
| Salary Overdue | Salaries | 3 days after |
To change one:
- Go to My Center → Notifications and expand the group.
- Find the reminder row and open its timing dropdown.
- Pick a value. The choices match the reminder's unit — days offer 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 14 and 30; hours offer 1, 2, 3, 6, 12 and 24; minutes offer 5, 10, 15, 30, 45 and 60.
The sentence on screen tells you which way it reads: "due" reminders say before the date, "overdue" reminders say after it.
If you never touch a reminder's timing, the standard lead time above applies.
If something goes wrong
Someone still gets a message I switched off. Check you switched off the right type, not just the group. Each type in a group has its own switch. Also make sure you clicked the channel chip you meant — turning off Mail doesn't touch Web.
The WhatsApp chip won't switch on. Your center's WhatsApp connection isn't active. Set it up in Connecting WhatsApp, then come back.
A student says they get no emails, but Mail is on for the whole center. Their own My Preferences → Mail switch is probably off, or the email on their profile is wrong. Check their record in Managing Students.
A reminder never arrived. Confirm the type is Enabled and check its lead time. A reminder set to 15 minutes before won't go out two hours ahead.
Turning a type off also removed it from WhatsApp sending. That's expected. The same switches control which templates appear when you send a message by hand — see Sending Messages.
Who can change these settings? Only admins with permission to manage notification settings. Others see a "no permission" message on the tab. See Roles & Permissions.