Message Threads are currently (April 2024) being introduced to Plait, and are not yet ready for proper documentation.  This FAQ aims to give users an idea of what the current capabilities are, as we introduce more functionality.  A video (or playlist) will be created once everything is finished.


Threads start with a form being filled in, to describe what the thread is about.  Custom forms are created from the Setup menu (normally only available to Admin users, but this depends on RBAC setup).

The Form setup has two tabs.  The first tab (Setup).  

You can see an example form here which you can see has the Not For Direct Use box checked.  To use this form you will first need to copy it by selecting the Copy Form option from the context menu, and then unchecking the Not For Direct Use flag on the copy.  Note that forms cannot yet be filled in from Plait Point of Care, so that field has no effect at the moment.


The second tab is very similar to the corresponding tab in the careplan structure form.


Once your form has been set up you can make it available within an organisation (you will be prompted to do this as you save a new form). This is done on the new Forms tab of the organisation form.

Once the form has been added to the organisation then there will be an option to create a thread based on that form from the relevant context menu.  Our form applies to a contact event so the option appears on the context menu for a materialised event that has a careworker and client.  

When filling in the form from the back office (the only option currently) the form has two tabs.  The first tab (generated by the system) allows you to specify the system user assigned to the thread:

In the case of a once client, one care worker booking the system doesn't need to prompt for those data.


The second tab has the fields set up in the Custom Form definition:

Once the form has been saved the thread can be updated from a new option in the context menu for the event.

The thread form is in the early stages of development and currently looks like this:


In addition to being able to access a thread through the associated entity, the assigned user will have an alert about all their open threads.  There is also an alert for all unassigned open threads.


Where is this going?

The short answer to this is wherever users want it to go, but the next few steps could be (in no particular order):

  • Support for receiving emails directly into the system.  We can see two use cases for this: in response to outgoing emails generated as a thread stage; to open a new thread.
  • Support for populating forms / opening threads from within the point of care system (only when online).
  • Improvements to the thread form - especially for small devices, which are currently not supported.
  • A messaging system.