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

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.

Parameter Name	Available options	Description
Alerting options
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

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"
}