Oracle® Business Activity Monitoring Architect User's Guide 10g (10.1.3.1.0) Part Number B28992-01 |
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This chapter describes how to use Alerts.
This chapter contains the following topics:
Alerts are launched by a set of specified events and conditions, known as a Rule. Alerts can be launched by data changing in a report or can be used to send a report to users daily, hourly, or at set intervals. Events in an alert rule can be an amount of time, a specific time, or a change in a specific report. Conditions restrict the alert rule to an event occurring between two specific times or dates. As a result of events and conditions, reports can be sent to users through email.
Alerts can be created in Active Studio also. See Oracle Business Activity Monitoring Active Studio User's Guide for more information about Alerts.
To build an alert rule:
Select the Alerts tab in the Architect function list.
Click Create A New Alert.
The Rule Creation and Edit dialog displays.
Click Create A Rule.
Enter a name for the alert rule.
Select an event that will launch the alert. See "Events" for descriptions of each event.
Click Next.
Select one or more conditions, if needed. See "Conditions" for descriptions of each condition.
Select one or more actions. See "Actions" for descriptions of each action.
In the rule expression, click each underlined item and specify a value to complete the alert rule. For example, click select report, and choose a report in the dialog that displays. Other values you define include user names receiving reports, dates and times, time intervals, and filter expressions for a specific field. To continue adding conditions or actions, click the last line in the expression and then select another condition or action.
You can click the Back and Next buttons to navigate between the Events page and the page containing actions and conditions, and make changes to those parts of the alert rule expression already constructed.
You can click the Frequency Constraint button to set a limit to how often an alert can launch. The default frequency constraint for alerts is five seconds. Type a number and select a time measurement such as seconds, minutes, or hours, and click OK. To turn off the frequency constraint, uncheck the Constraint Enabled checkbox. For more information about frequency constraint see "Frequency Constraint".
Click Delete this expression to remove lines from the alert rule.
Click OK.
The alert rule is added to list and is active.
The following are the options for creating alert rules.
Events
Events launch the rule and trigger the action. Each rule contains only one event.
In a specific amount of time. Select a time interval in seconds, minutes, or hours.
At a specific time today. Select a time.
On a certain day at a specific time. Select a specific date and a time.
Every interval between two times. Select a time interval and two times.
Every date interval starting on certain date at a specific time. Select a date interval such as day, week, month, or year, and a specific date and time.
When a report changes. Select a report to monitor.
When a data field changes in data object. Select a data object and a data field to monitor.
When a data field in a report meets specified conditions. Select a report, the data object, and create a filter on the field to monitor.
When a data field in a data object meets specified conditions. Select a data object and create a filter on the field to monitor.
When this rule is launched. No options to select. When this rule is launched is the event to create dependencies between rules.
Conditions
Conditions are optional. You can select any number of conditions.
If it is between two times. Select two times.
If It is between two days. Select two dates.
If it is a particular day of the week. Select a day of the week.
Actions
Actions are the results of a launched alert. You can select any number of actions.
Send a report via email. Select a report, select to send the report as a report link or as a rendered report, and select a recipient.
Send a report via Active Messenger. This option is not supported.
Send a report via the recipient's alert delivery settings. Select a report and select a recipient. Recipients can configure their own alert delivery settings and delivery order through the personalize link.
Send a message via email Create a message to send and select a recipient.
Send a message via Active Messenger. This option is not supported.
Send a message via the recipient's alert delivery settings. Create a message to send and select a recipient.
Send a report via Active Messenger and escalate to another user after a specific amount of time. This option is not supported.
Send a report via email and escalate to another user after a specific amount of time. Create a message and send to a recipient. Select a secondary recipient to receive the message if the first recipient does not respond within the specified time period.
Send a parameterized message. You can use this option to send reports to other users under the conditions specified. This action is available for the events When a data field changes in data object and When a data field in a data object meets specified conditions. See "Parameterized Alerts" for more information.
Launch a rule. Select a dependent rule that includes the when this rule is launched event.
Run a Plan. Select a plan to run.
Launch rule if an action fails. Select a dependent rule to launch if any of the actions included in the rule fail.
Frequency Constraint
Frequency Constraint can be edited only if it is appropriate for the event selected. otherwise it will be disabled. It can be set to a value of time which could be in seconds, minutes, or hours.
Rules have a five second frequency constraint by default. This limits the amount of times the rule will launch in a period of time. With real-time data, transactions can occur every millisecond, so alerting frequency must be controlled. If the rule is satisfied many times within five seconds, users would not want alerting more than once in five seconds.
Alert rule templates are a convenient preselected group of events and conditions based on some common use cases.
To create an alert rule from a template:
Click Create A New Alert.
The Create Alert Rule dialog displays.
Click Create A Rule From A Template.
Enter a name for the alert rule.
Select a template from the list.
In the Rule Expression box, click each underlined item and specify a value to complete the alert rule. For example, click select report, and choose a report in the dialog that displays. Other values you define include user names receiving reports, dates and times, time intervals, and filter expressions for a specific field.
You can click Frequency Constraint to specify how often an alert can launch. The default frequency constraint for alerts is five seconds. Enter a number and select a time measurement such as seconds, minutes, or hours, and click OK.
You can click Modify this rule to modify the rule without using the template. This provides more options for creating rules.
Click OK.
The alert rule is added to list and is active.
You can create alert rules that send messages. The messages can contain information such as report names, links to reports, and user names. Messages can also include variables that are set when the alert is launched, such as the time that an event occurred and the data that launched the event. To use data variables, the event must be based on data.
To create an alert rule that includes a message:
Start building an alert rule.
Select one of the following actions:
Send a message via email
Send a message via the recipient's alert delivery settings
Click create message in the rule expression.
The Alert Message dialog displays.
Enter a subject in the Subject line.
Enter the message in the Message Text box.
Include special fields into the message.
Special fields are listed in the box in the lower left corner of the Alert Message dialog. The special fields listed change when reports are selected on the right side of the dialog.
To insert a special field into the message:
Select a special field from the list.
Click Insert into subject or Insert into text.
You can insert multiple values of the same type, for example, multiple links to different reports.
Send Report Name inserts name of selected report.
Send Report Owner inserts owner name of selected report.
Send Report Link inserts link to selected report.
Changed Report Name inserts name of the changed report.
Changed Report Owner inserts Owner Name Of Changed Report.
Target User inserts user name of message recipient.
Date/Time Sent inserts date and time of message sent.
Click OK.
You can create nested rules with many actions and chained rules that launch other rules.
You can chain rules by creating two types of rules:
A dependent rule that must be launched by another rule.
A rule with an action to launch a dependent rule.
To create dependent rules:
Create a rule that includes the event When this rule is launched. There is no value to specify for this event.
Create a rule that includes the action Launch a rule or Launch rule if an action fails. The Launch rule if action fails applies to any of the actions contained in the rule.
Click select rule in the action.
The Select Dependent Rule dialog displays.
Select a dependent rule. Only rules that include the When this rule is launched event display in the list.
Click OK.
To handle a failing action, add the action Launch rule if action fails. For example, if a rule is supposed to send a message, and for some reason the message does not send, you could launch another rule to notify you.
You modify alert rules from the Alerts tab.
To modify an alert rule:
Select the alert rule to edit.
Click Edit in the Alert Actions list.
The Rule Creation and Edit dialog displays.
Make changes to the alert and click OK.
When you modify alert rules created from a template, you can add new lines and select conditions and actions the same as when you build alert rules without templates.
When you create an alert rule, it is automatically active. If you want an alert to be temporarily inactive but you do not want to delete it, you can turn it off by deselecting the Activate checkbox.
To change the activity status of an alert rule:
Select Alerts from the Architect function list.
Select the Activate checkbox for the alert rule.
A checked box means the alert rule is active.
An unchecked box means the alert rule is inactive.
Checking the Activate checkbox does not cause an alert to launch, it only enables the rule so that if the specified event occurs, the alert will launch.
An exclamation mark on the alert icon indicates it has launched and will not be valid again or because items that it references are missing and it cannot launch.
You can use the alerts web service to manually launch alerts. For more information, refer to:
http://<host>:<http_port>/oraclebam/services/manualrulefire.asmx?op=FireRuleByName
You define the rule name using the format:
DOMAIN\username.alertname
To delete an alert:
Select the alert to delete.
Click Delete in the Alert Actions list.
A dialog displays to confirm that you want to delete the alert.
Click OK.
The alert is deleted.
When creating a parameterized alert, you must populate the set parameters section. In this section, populate the User, Delivery, and Report fields with either predefined values or dynamically from a Data Object field.
User field
If you populate this field with predefined values, the value that appears must follow a format such as MY-DOMAIN\myhost-pc
. If you populate this field from a Data Object field, the value also follows a format such as MY-DOMAIN\myhost-pc
.
Delivery field
If you populate this field with predefined values, the value that appears in this field is Email
(or something similar). If you populate this field from a Data Object field, the value must be smtp
.
Report field
If you populate this field with predefined values, the value that appears in this field is Emp_Report
(or something similar) If you populate this field from a Data Object field, the value must be the report ID of that report, and not the name. To get the report ID, click the report (for example, Emp_Report
) and click the Copy Shortcut link. A window displays with a link such as:
http://SERVER1/oraclebam/ReportServer/default.aspx?Event=ViewReport&ReportDef=1&Buttons=False.
In this link the ReportDef value, 1
, is the report ID of the report Emp_Report
. Every report in Oracle Business Activity Monitoring has a unique report ID.