User Guide
First Time Setup
The first time you access the Lamlha app, you’ll be asked to register. Enter your email address and a password, click save, and you’re all set.
You’ll see an onscreen message (and receive a confirmation email) before being taken to the home screen.
You’ll see an onscreen message (and receive a confirmation email) before being taken to the home screen.
Preferences & Settings
Tapping on the small ‘gear’ icon (top right of screen) will take you to Settings. The User Guide, About, Feedback and Upgrade screens are self-explanatory, but the Preferences screen (with eight key settings) is worth a little further explanation.
Name:
You can enter any name that you like but it makes sense to make this something recogniseable to friends and family. Note that: (a) in social media alerts, the name field is truncated to 30 characters, and (b) if you don’t add a name, your registration email address will be used instead.
Country:
Initially this is prepopulated with information pulled from your mobile device but can be changed to whatever you want.
Phone #:
Phone number is your main contact number. It’s recommended to make this your mobile number but you might prefer to make this a landline number.
Gender:
You can choose any one of three gender options, ‘M’ for male, ‘F’ for female or ‘X’ for any other gender (or no gender specified).
Age:
The age field is not mandatory, but differentiates over- and under-eighteens.
Email:
Email address is the main identifier for your Lamlha account. You should keep this up-to-date since it is a unique identifier and allows access to any future services developed by the Lamlha team.
Password:
If you would like to change your password, type a new password into the first password field then re-enter immediately below, before tapping save.
Overdue Alert Tolerances:
Overdue alerts are an important concept to understand. When an activity becomes overdue, alerts are not sent immediately to Sentinels but are first sent (as notifications) to your mobile device. If you do nothing, after the period designated by the overdue alert tolerance, alerts are sent to Sentinels and (if selected) posted to social media. Overdue Alert Tolerances can be changed to any time period and are defined for low-, medium- or high-risk activities.
I’m OK/not OK:
Beyond the first eight settings are those exclusively associated with the “I’m OK/I’m not OK” feature. There are check boxes to select to alert Core Sentinels or post to social media … or both. You can also choose (from your contacts list) those individuals that you’d like to designate as Core Sentinels.
Name:
You can enter any name that you like but it makes sense to make this something recogniseable to friends and family. Note that: (a) in social media alerts, the name field is truncated to 30 characters, and (b) if you don’t add a name, your registration email address will be used instead.
Country:
Initially this is prepopulated with information pulled from your mobile device but can be changed to whatever you want.
Phone #:
Phone number is your main contact number. It’s recommended to make this your mobile number but you might prefer to make this a landline number.
Gender:
You can choose any one of three gender options, ‘M’ for male, ‘F’ for female or ‘X’ for any other gender (or no gender specified).
Age:
The age field is not mandatory, but differentiates over- and under-eighteens.
Email:
Email address is the main identifier for your Lamlha account. You should keep this up-to-date since it is a unique identifier and allows access to any future services developed by the Lamlha team.
Password:
If you would like to change your password, type a new password into the first password field then re-enter immediately below, before tapping save.
Overdue Alert Tolerances:
Overdue alerts are an important concept to understand. When an activity becomes overdue, alerts are not sent immediately to Sentinels but are first sent (as notifications) to your mobile device. If you do nothing, after the period designated by the overdue alert tolerance, alerts are sent to Sentinels and (if selected) posted to social media. Overdue Alert Tolerances can be changed to any time period and are defined for low-, medium- or high-risk activities.
I’m OK/not OK:
Beyond the first eight settings are those exclusively associated with the “I’m OK/I’m not OK” feature. There are check boxes to select to alert Core Sentinels or post to social media … or both. You can also choose (from your contacts list) those individuals that you’d like to designate as Core Sentinels.
creating an activity plan
To create a new activity plan, tap the plus (+) sign on the home screen and you will move to the Add An Activity screen, which has eleven fields.
Activity Name (mandatory):
It’s best to give the activity a meaningful and descriptive name.
Location (optional):
Although optional, it’s a good idea to enter something so that if an activity becomes overdue, Activity Sentinels will have an idea of where to begin searching for you.
Duration (mandatory):
All activities must have a duration. This can be anything from 1 minute to 9,999 days.
Risk (optional):
It’s useful to select an appropriate value so that Activity Sentinels have an idea of how critical it is if an activity is overdue. The risk level also determines how long to wait before sending out overdue alerts (as defined in the overdue alert tolerances in preferences).
Activity Sentinels (optional):
It is not necessary to define any Activity Sentinels but since the purpose of the service is to alert people when/if an activity is overdue, it’s a good idea to add at least one. They are selected from the contact list on your phone.
Note that Lamlha has two kinds of Sentinels. Core Sentinels are defined in preferences and are those that you select to receive “I’m OK/I’m not OK” alerts. Activity Sentinels are defined in an activity plan and only receive alerts for a specific activity.
Note (optional):
In this field you can add any additional information about an activity, for example your proposed route. While this field is optional, it’s a good idea to add additional information so that if an activity becomes overdue Sentinels have a starting point for trying to locate you.
Alert Sentinel When (optional):
You can choose to alert Sentinels when an activity plan is activated, extended, completed and/or overdue.
Post to Social Media When (optional):
Posting to social media adds another dimension to monitoring an activity. Lamlha can be configured to post to social media when a plan is activated, completed and/or overdue.
At this time, only Twitter is covered but it is hoped that other social media platforms will be added in the future.
Activity Name (mandatory):
It’s best to give the activity a meaningful and descriptive name.
Location (optional):
Although optional, it’s a good idea to enter something so that if an activity becomes overdue, Activity Sentinels will have an idea of where to begin searching for you.
Duration (mandatory):
All activities must have a duration. This can be anything from 1 minute to 9,999 days.
Risk (optional):
It’s useful to select an appropriate value so that Activity Sentinels have an idea of how critical it is if an activity is overdue. The risk level also determines how long to wait before sending out overdue alerts (as defined in the overdue alert tolerances in preferences).
Activity Sentinels (optional):
It is not necessary to define any Activity Sentinels but since the purpose of the service is to alert people when/if an activity is overdue, it’s a good idea to add at least one. They are selected from the contact list on your phone.
Note that Lamlha has two kinds of Sentinels. Core Sentinels are defined in preferences and are those that you select to receive “I’m OK/I’m not OK” alerts. Activity Sentinels are defined in an activity plan and only receive alerts for a specific activity.
Note (optional):
In this field you can add any additional information about an activity, for example your proposed route. While this field is optional, it’s a good idea to add additional information so that if an activity becomes overdue Sentinels have a starting point for trying to locate you.
Alert Sentinel When (optional):
You can choose to alert Sentinels when an activity plan is activated, extended, completed and/or overdue.
Post to Social Media When (optional):
Posting to social media adds another dimension to monitoring an activity. Lamlha can be configured to post to social media when a plan is activated, completed and/or overdue.
At this time, only Twitter is covered but it is hoped that other social media platforms will be added in the future.
Editing/Deleting a Stored Activity
Planned activities can be edited from the Activity List on the main screen. Tap the relevant plan in the list and then select Edit.
Activating a stored activity plan
Activities are activated from the Activity List on the main screen. Tap the relevant plan in the list and then select Activate. If you have selected that Activity Sentinels be alerted and/or a post made to social media when a plan is activated, this will be done immediately.
Closing an activity plan
Activities are closed either from the Activity List or from the device notification which is generated when a plan is active. Tap the plan (or device notification) and select Close . If you have selected that Activity Sentinels be alerted and/or a post made to social media when a plan is closed, this will be done immediately.
Extending an activity plan
Activities are extended either from the Activity List or from the device notification which is generated when a plan is active. Tap the relevant plan (or tap the device notification) and then select Extend. Enter the amount of time you would like to extend the activity plan, and tap save.
Note:
If an activity it not already overdue, the extension of time is from the ending time of the activity. If an activity is overdue, the extension of time is from the current time (regardless of the end time of the activity).
Note:
If an activity it not already overdue, the extension of time is from the ending time of the activity. If an activity is overdue, the extension of time is from the current time (regardless of the end time of the activity).
A pdf version of this user gude can be downloaded here.
