Setting Alerts for Tasks
Alerts can be set for all computable Rulex tasks.
They are very helpful in quickly detecting problems in a process, and pinpointing where the problem occurred.
Alerts can either be set:
in the Alert tab using the guided user interface, or
in the Parametric Alert tab via parametric options. This option allows the use of process variables indicated with the "@" character. For example, a list of recipient e-mail addresses could be indicated by "@recipients".
If you created alerts in a process developed in Rulex 3.2, when these processes are imported into Rulex 4.0, the individual alerts are displayed in the Alerting tab, with the following name assigned to them: <name of task>_<event type>.
Alerts are available for export tasks only of the if the data is exported as a TXT file in the Write as text file option.
Alert emails
Alerts can be configured to send e-mails when either specific tasks, or the overall process, meet the conditions configured in the alert.
Specified recipients receive the following information:
Option name | Description |
|---|---|
Alert name | The unique name assigned to the alert |
Alert type | Corresponds to the type of alert configured. |
Severity | The severity label assigned to the alert when it was created. |
Target process | The name of the process which contains the task |
Computation type | The computation mode used to compute the task. Possible values are normal or in-memory. |
Description | Information on the task/process where the alert was raised. |
Triggered by task | The name of task that triggered the alert. |
Trigger time | The time when the trigger was sent, which may correspond to when a specific task was computed, or the whole process, according to the type of alert set. |
Machine/User | The machine name and user name of the person who computed the task. |
Setting Alerts in the Alert tab
Click the Alerting icon in the command bar.
Click on the plus icon, enter a unique name to identify the alert, and click OK.
Configure the new alert options, as described in the table below.
Click Save to save the current alert, or Save All to save all the alerts you created in this session. If you do not want to apply your changes click Restore.
Alerting options | ||
Parameter Name | Available options | Description |
|---|---|---|
Event type | Task started | A message is sent when the specified tasks start. |
Task ended | A message is sent when the specified tasks ends. | |
Error raised | A message is sent when an error is generated in the process. If selected, you can decide whether to include computational warnings in the alert. | |
Task duration | A message is sent when a temporal threshold is exceeded in the specified tasks. If selected, you can enter the required threshold to be monitored (in seconds), and an alert email is sent dynamically, as soon as the threshold is exceeded. This option, to check where a delay may be occurring in the process, is particularly useful when Rulex is integrated with third-party software, as it easy to see exactly how much time each individual task is taking to compute, and understand the source of the delay. | |
Task rows | A message is sent when a condition is satisfied for the number of rows included in the specified task. If selected, you can define the condition using an operator specifying the number of rows. The number of rows is calculated and the alert message is sent after the task has been computed. | |
Task list | Select which specific tasks you want to monitor. This option is not available for Error raised event types, as they apply to the whole process. | |
Category list | Select which type of task you want to monitor. This option is not available for Error raised event types, as they apply to the whole process. | |
Severity | Information | Adds a label to the alert email sent to specified recipient, indicating the severity of the alert. |
Warning | ||
Error | ||
Recipients for email alert | The list of people who will receive the alert email. Email addresses should be separated by commas. | |
To modify an alert, select it in the left-hand list and make the required modifications.
To delete an alert, select it and click the minus button or press DELETE.
To disable an alert, without deleting it, so you can re-enable it at a later date if required, select the Disable check box.
To disable all alerts, select the Disable all check box.
Setting Parametric Alerts
Click the Alerting icon in the command bar.
Click on the Parametric Alert tab.
Enter the alert values as a list of key-value pairs, which correspond to the options defined above for the Alert tab, as follows:
Key | Type | Corresponds to alert option | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
recipients | String containing comma separated email addresses | Recipients for email alert | "my@email.com, your@email.com" |
warning | Boolean value | Error raised with Include computational warnings | Possible values: True, False |
thr_val | Numeric value | Threshold in Task duration and Task rows | 0, 0.1, etc. |
the_op | String representing a logical operation | Condition in Task rows | Possible values: "=", "<", "<=", ">", ">=", "" |
tasks | List of strings for task names | Task list | ["dataman1","dataman2"] |
type | String representing an alert type. | Event type | Possible values: "tsk_start", "tsk_end", "tsk_error", "tsk_threshold", "tsk_record" |
enabled | Boolean value | Disable (check box) | Possible values: True, false |
cats | List of strings for category names | Category list | ["datamanager","join"] The mapping between tasks and categories can be found in the page Mapping Tasks to Categories. |
severity | String representing severity status | Severity | Possible values: "Information", "Warning", "Error" |
Parametric Option example
{
"recipients":@mail,
"warning":False,
"thr_val":@thr,
"thr_op":">=",
"tasks":["dataman1", "dataman2"],
"type":"tsk_record",
"enabled":True,
"cats":["datamanager", "join"],
"severity":"Information"
}