I’m trying to create a button that could be on the dashboard and when pressed could send a notification or message to a user.
I’ve thought create an automation to do this … or a sensor but not sure what would work here then a button for the view so another user can press it to send the message.
No… That is not what you did.
You created an automation when what you needed was a script
An automation is triggered by something, a script is triggered by someone.
Subtile difference but it will be confusing if you start mixing things like this. And depending on the trigger of your automation it might trigger when you don’t want.
I do this regularly. I create a binary sensor and use the change state node in nodered to fire the automation. You can also use the change state node to turn the binary sensor off when it gets turned ON Or use ‘tap action’ / ‘toggle option’ to turn it off.