In response to a camera trigger or other alert, you may define a set of actions to be executed.

Action items on this list are executed in order from top to bottom. Alerts of different type
may execute simultaneously however. That is, push notifications, sounds, and emails
execute in order, but these all have separate queues and threads.
The action set will be executed only if the Enable box is checked. Each action item also has
an associated profile control, and that action will only be executed if the active profile
matches one of the control’s selected profiles. See the profile control in the main window
UI and the chapter on Schedules and Profiles.

SOUND
Perhaps the most basic action, play a sound file. The file should be in standard Windows
WAV format, but the sampling rate and channel layout should not be a concern.

Output
For camera trigger alerts, you may choose to send the sound to the camera speaker instead
of the PC speakers. This is only possible if you have “talk” to the camera working
beforehand. Talk is not a standardized camera function, so it is supported for only a subset
of cameras.
For playback to the PC speakers, the device setting should generally remain “not specified.”
You may attempt playback to another audio device connected to the PC by selecting it from
the device list.
Use the volume setting to change the playback volume by percentage. A value of 100 is full
volume.
Timer
You may select to loop the file for a specified time. Otherwise, the sound will be played just
once.
PUSH NOTIFICATION
Push notifications require either an iOS or Android device with the installed and configured
Blue Iris app.

Although you may override the default text format, the apps are designed to parse the text
in this format using the apostrophes and parentheses.
You may specify any of the 50+ sounds that have been pre-installed on both the PC
software and the apps.
If you would like to send this notification to only a subset of connected mobile devices, you
may specify one of more “tags.” Separate multiple tags with semicolons. A mobile device must have any one of the specified tags in order to receive the alert. Please see Mobile
devices tab in Settings.
As the notification is sent via contact with either an Apple or Google web server, you must
insure that the BlueIris.exe file has access through any firewall or other security software.

RUN A PROGRAM OR SCRIPT
You may select any executable (generally .EXE) or batch (Windows .BAT script) file to be
executed.

Parameters may be used as required by the file that you specify. For example, you may send
the camera’s short name to a script by specifying &CAM.
The Windows interface of the program or script may either be hidden or displayed as
desired.
When Blue Iris runs as a service, the window will always be invisible as the service runs “in
the background” without UI. You should also be mindful that the service may not have
access to your file’s drive specification or access to run it. To overcome this, you should run
the service with your own Windows login rather than “local service.”

WEB REQUEST OR MQTT
This action is really two-in-one. Select HTTP to request or post to a specified web address.
Select MQTT to send a payload of text to an MQTT server.

Please see the list of macros at the end of this chapter which may be used in the payload.

SEND EMAIL
Use an SMTP server such as Gmail to send yourself a message.

Outgoing server
You may configure multiple SMTP email servers. Please see the chapter on Email and FTP
servers for more information on how to properly use Gmail or another service. There is no
need to “enable less secure apps” when using these services if properly configured.
Message
As you may be familiar with other email clients, you may specify Priority, Recipients, a
Subject and Body for your message. In order to send a message to multiple people or
devices, you may either specify multiple recipients here each separated by a semicolon, and/
or add multiple email actions to the action set.
Please see the list of macros at the end of this chapter which may be used in the subject or
message body.

Attachments
Including images or a video from a camera is only applicable for camera trigger action sets.
Otherwise, you may include group images.
A pre-trigger image is only available at the leading edge of a trigger, where the camera is
transitioning from a non-triggered to a triggered state. Subsequent triggers while the
camera is already triggered (called “re-triggers”) do not have associated pre-trigger images.
“Inline” images are an alternate way to attach images to email messages. They should
appear in the body of the message rather than as attachment icons.
You my select image quality and scale (in percentage) as well as advanced video encoding
properties such as bit rate and key frames.

SEND SMS
This action is like a hybrid between the Email and Push notification actions. It’s not
necessary if you are using one of the phone app available for iOS or Android—use Push
notification instead.

To send an SMS, Blue Iris must send an email to your phone carrier’s “gateway” address,
and not all carriers have such a feature. You must first configure and have working an
outgoing email server, please see the chapter on Email and FTP servers.
The email that is sent goes to (your phone number)@(your carrier’s gateway). Using any
other email client, you may test this outside of Blue Iris to verify function and compatibility.
Many popular carriers are are preconfigured for you, however if your carrier not listed, you
may select “other” and manually specify the gateway domain which you have obtained from
them.
Please see the list of macros at the end of this chapter which may be used in the subject or
message body.
Although more limited, you may choose to attach images of specific quality and scale as you
may with the Email action.

MAKE A PHONE CALL
This action is somewhat deprecated, as it requires specialized hardware which may be
difficult to source and configure. A PC modem with a connection to your sound card and a
TAPI hardware driver are required. Such hardware is used for “answering machine”
applications as well as “robo calling.”

Connection
The TAPI device will appear only if properly configured in hardware and OS. The phone
number may include special formatting characters as used by your modem to indicate
pauses for example. A second alternate phone number may be specified—the software will
alternate between the two numbers until a connection is established.
Message
If you would like to hear a message when the call is connected, you may specify a standard
Windows WAV sound file. The option is provided here to record a compatible file using
your default Windows microphone.
The device specified is for your sound hardware which will have a cable (internal to the PC)
running from the sound card to the modem.
Timer
You may specify the duration of the phone call, as well as the number of total attempts
made to make a connection. If the line is busy, a pre-set 30 second timeout is used between
re-dials.
SET DIO BITS
DIO or Digital Input and Output provides a powerful way to interact with external
hardware. The DIO device may be connected by USB, Ethernet, or may be internal to a
camera. Please see the Digital I/O and IoT topic in the More Options chapter.

The output device may be set to Global or Camera. The Global DIO device is set on the DIO
and IoT page in Settings. Many cameras however also offer DIO input/output terminals
which may be used instead. Blue Iris must support the use of camera DIO based on its
PTZ/control setting.
When the DIO device offers multiple output terminals, each output is addressed as a “bit.”
The first output will have a value of ‘1’. Subsequent outputs follow in powers of 2, that is,
2, 4, 8, 16, and so on. When setting multiple outputs simultaneously, the bit value will be
the total of these powers of 2. For example, to set the 1st and 4th outputs, specify a bit
value of 9 (1+8).
Specify the duration in seconds to hold the output active. When the timer expires, the
output(s) are reset.

POPUP TOAST
Recent versions of Windows include “notification popups” otherwise known as “popup
toast” messages.

You may specify the text to be displayed along with the inclusion of a current camera image.
It is only possible to display these images if the console is open—when running as a service
the software does not otherwise have a UI. However if you are connected to a server using
remote management, that server’s popups will be displayed locally.

FTP UPLOAD
You may use a pre-configured FTP server to send a specific file, a camera image or a group
image.

If a destination folder is not specified, the FTP server’s default folder is used. If you the
folder specified begins with a / is considered a root or absolute folder. Otherwise, the folder
is appended to the server’s default folder.
Please see the chapter Email and FTP servers for more information on configuration of the
FTP server.

CHANGE SHIELD
The Shield icon at the top of the main window UI may be set here. In general a green shield
indicates normal operation, recording and alerts. A red shield indicates and inactive state—
no recording or alerts. Yellow is a transition state from red to green. The specific function
of the Shield may be configured on the Other page in Settings.

CHANGE SCHEDULE/PROFILE
The current schedule and profile are also displayed at the top of the main window UI
alongside the shield icon. Please see the chapter on Schedule and Profiles for descriptions of
these settings.

The profile may be set to Hold, Temp, or Run. When set to Hold, the profile will not change
again until it’s done manually or the schedule is changed—a red square icon appears to the
right of the profile selector at the top of the UI. When set to Temp, the profile will reset to
the scheduled profile after a time specified on the Profiles page in Settings—a yellow pause
icon appears to the right of the profile selector. When set to Run, the selected active profile
is determined by the active schedule and time, not by the profile selection here.

DO COMMAND
Many commands and functions available as buttons throughout the software are available
for selection here. For example, you can take a snapshot on a camera or move its PTZ preset
position.

WAIT
This action exists to provide some synchronization between other items on the action set
list. As execution queues exist separately for each action type, they may execute
simultaneously. If you want to send an email message and then wait before a push
notification is sent, it will be necessary to add a Wait action in-between the other two.

The time is specified in milliseconds or 1/1000 second units—use 2000 for 2 seconds.

TIMECODE AND OTHER MACROS
Several actions allow the use of macros—variable text that is substituted based on context
or pre-set elsewhere.

Standard time formatting macros

You may place a # character immediately following the % to eliminate leading zeros in many
of the formatting codes. For example, %#H will show 9 at 9am instead of 09.
Time Zone Correction
For time zone correction in a text object overlay, add the special sequence {+n} to the
beginning of the string, where n is a number 1-23, and the sign is either + or -. For
example, a text overlay of {+3}%c will display the time 3 hours ahead of local time.
Additional special macros

TESTING THE ACTION SET

Use this icon to test your action set. Upon completion, status and error conditions are
displayed in sequence.

Note that when testing, the action set runs in the console UI process. If you are running Blue
Iris as a service in the background, “real” action sets run in the service process, and this can
create discrepancies in what you experience:

• The service has no access to the Windows UI, meaning there are no visible windows.
• The service may have limited access to some hardware, which in some cases will include access to the sound card to play sounds.
• Popup toast actions will only appear when the console is open.
• The service by default runs as a user called “local service” which does not have the same access to the system as your user account. For most action types, it’s recommended that you run the service with your own user account instead. This is changed by opening the Windows service manager (search for services) and edit the Blue Iris service entry Login page.
• The service may not understand your file system designations like “H:” etc. as these are user-specific. You should always use UNC names where possible (\\server\share).