Conversation panel
The conversation panel allows iRASFF users to exchange information related to the main notification without the need to create a new follow up. The conversation is designed for asking clarifications and providing responses.
There are two types of conversations based on the participants involved.
If the moderator wants to involve participant organisations that are one level down hierarchically, then he/she should choose a parent conversation. E.g. Germany starts a conversation and invites certain German Federal States into it. If is the conversation concerns an exchange between moderator and participants at the same hierarchical level, then it is called a “peer” conversation.
The conversation module inside the notification is used for the purpose of the AAC workflow: by adding a participant to a conversation you provide access to the notification for that organisation. You can then make requests to it if necessary.
In a conversation there are two main roles:
Moderator: The organisation that starts the conversation is called the moderator. The moderator is responsible for the management of the conversation. He/she can open the conversation, add one or more participants and decide the appropriate flag.
Important
Only the moderator can close the conversation.
Participants: The participant(s) is/are the organisation(-s) who are added to the conversation by the Moderator.
They can be flagged for attention or for follow-up:
For attention: if you only wish to share the message for information, no reply is expected in this case.
For follow-up: if feedback/reply from the participant is expected.
Create a conversation
Click on Create Conversation.
A window will be displayed with the newly created conversation reference number.
Add a subject in Topic and select the preferred network (AAC/RASFF, Food Fraud, Plant Health, Pet animals or Animal Welfare), then click on Create.
Note
The European Commission (EC) is added automatically for attention once another Member State is added to the conversation.
Once the conversation is open, add the information or the request you want to submit and click Send.
In the Participants box, click on add + to add the organisation(s) to the conversation.
Choose the appropriate flag for follow-up or for attention. If the flag for follow-up is selected, a countdown of 10 days begins.
If you wish to change such deadline, update the number of day(s) left from the dropdown list underneath and click confirm. The organisation(-s) appears in the Participants box on the right side of the conversation.
Important
It is recommended to act in this order, first add your message and then add participants. It avoids the participants from being notified that the conversation has started before you add your message.
When a participant that is flagged for follow-up provides an answer, the countdown ends and the flag is automatically closed.
If the information is not sufficient, the moderator can open the flag for follow-up again and set a new deadline.
Once all the organisations are flagged out, the moderator can close the conversation by clicking on the Close button next to the conversation.
It is always possible to reopen a closed conversation (click on Open), or create a new one (click on Create Conversation).
The overview of the conversations can be found in the conversations of the notification.
Note
No documents can be added in the conversation. If the user wishes to add any attachment, he may do so by creating a new follow-up.
Note
Shared pool is a list of country flags that are concerned by the notification and are participant in one of the conversations.
Submit countdown change
A participant flagged for follow-up can submit an update to modify the countdown (e.g., updating to 15 days instead of the default 10).
In the conversation, the participant has the additional option to "Submit countdown change".
After the participant clicks on "Submit countdown change", a new window appears, where they can add the new countdown and a justification (optional). The maximum number of days that can be requested is 200.
The moderator receives the email with submitted countdown change by the participant.
The moderator verifies the changed countdown and justification by the participant and can:
Accept the updated countdown (do nothing), or
Decline the updated countdown (automatically restore original countdown), or
Override the request by setting a different countdown period (update button).
The moderator can decline or update countdown:
If the moderator declines the countdown request, the system provides a new pop-up to add a justification of declining:
Justification of declining of the submitted countdown change is visible in the conversation.
If the moderator wants to update the countdown by clicking Update countdown, the system shows a new pop-up. Update the countdown and click Confirm:
Notify participants or the moderator
This feature allows a participant, but also the moderator, to select a participant within the conversation and send a targeted message.
Example:
The participant wants to ask or receive an answer from the moderator for clarification on a specific topic. Instead of creating a new conversation, the participant sends a message addressed to the moderator via the new ‘’Add’’ function.
To send a message:
Click on ‘’Add’’ button at the bottom of the conversation window:
Select a participant from the drop-down list, add a message and confirm:
Note
Is not possible to select multiple participants. If the message is addressed to several participants, you must add them one by one.
An email is sent only to the selected recipient.
The message is saved in conversation thread.
The message is not considered an answer and does not change the status of the flag.
Copy a conversation
The moderator or participant (validator role) of a conversation can copy the conversation into a peer or a parent conversation by using the “Copy” button. The new conversation can have a new topic but any messages in the original conversation are copied into the new conversation with a reference to the conversation Id.
If a peer conversation is chosen for the copied conversation, the copied conversation stays on the same level as the original. However, if a parent conversation is chosen, then the national level conversation is copied to the regional level, and a regional level conversation is copied to the local level.
Important
Only participants of parent conversation can copy a conversation into lower level (the moderator already can add lower-level participants as it is parent conversation). Therefore, the button for copying the conversation is NOT visible for the moderator of a parent conversation.
A window to create the new conversation will appear (the network cannot be changed):
The participant becomes moderator and can add regional users as participants.
Messages are copied into the new conversation with original conversation id number in brackets (in the messages). This allows to track from which conversation these messages are coming.
Monitor a conversation
The main objective for monitoring a conversation is to allow users for their own organisation to indicate the status of a conversation by marking it as monitored (in progress) or completed.
When ‘’Monitor this conversation’’ box is checked:
It is marked for monitoring by the user (organisation)
Users of the organisation to which the user who ticked the checkbox belongs will receive email notifications for each new message in that conversation.
When unchecked:
Monitoring stops by the user (organisation)
Email notifications go back to standard - no email for each message
Conversations within the notification as well as in the conversations dashboard can be filtered for "monitored conversations":
Draft messages
Draft messages in the conversation prevent a conversation from being closed, but they are visible only to their author.
When a draft message exists, the moderator sees the "Close conversation" button disabled (gray colour) and a message will appear indicating that the conversation cannot be closed because a draft message is in progress.
For the first and second week after the draft message was saved, the author receives a reminder to either submit or delete the draft message.
The third week the system automatically deletes the draft message.
The "Close conversation" button is immediately re-enabled for the moderator.
A filter for draft messages has been added in the conversation dashboard. When you as moderator or participant select it, the system displays the conversations that have the draft messages that you wrote but have not yet sent.
