AX2018

Creating alerts

Alerts can be created within any Axiom file, by adding an Alert Control Sheet to that file.

• Alerts should be added to a report file if you want to report upon some data and then alert based on that data. Report alerts can be processed at any time by using File Processing (to leverage multipass processing) or by using the Process Document List task in Scheduler.

Alerts should be added to a template (for use in plan files) if you want to alert based upon data within a particular plan file, and you want the alerts to be processed when running Process Plan Files.

Alerts are based on a condition defined within the file. Before starting to create alerts, you should take some time to consider exactly what condition you want to track, and what data you need to evaluate that condition.

Only administrators can enable a file for alerts. Once the Alert Control Sheet has been added to a file, any user with access to the file and access to the Alert Control Sheet can define alerts.

To enable alerts for a file:

• On the Axiom Designer tab, in the Developer group, click Tools > Add a Control Sheet > Alerts.

The Alert Control Sheet is added to the file as Control_Alert. All alerts for the file must be defined on this sheet. By default, the sheet is set up with a header row for the alert tags, and a couple of sample alerts (which you can delete or leave for reference as desired).

You can define alerts by adding rows to this sheet. Each row should start with an [Alert] tag (with brackets), and then complete each alert property (without brackets). For more information, see Alert properties.

The default format of the Alert Control Sheet is provided for your convenience. However, you can set up this sheet however you like; you do not have to use this format. For example, you may want to define alerts using an Axiom query instead of "hard-coding" them into the default grid. If so, then you can set up an Axiom query on the Alert Control Sheet. As long as each column has the appropriate alert header tag (as shown in row 1 above), and each alert row is flagged with an [Alert] tag, then alerts can be placed anywhere on the sheet. However, all alerts must be defined on the Alert Control Sheet—you cannot define them on other sheets in the file.

NOTE: Simply defining the alerts within the file does not cause any alerting actions to take place. It does not matter if a particular condition currently resolves to True or False within the file; the condition status only matters when the alerts are processed.

Setup considerations for File Processing

If you plan to process alerts using multipass File Processing, then many alert settings should be set up using dynamic formulas. This includes the alert ID, the recipients, the notification message and the notification title. For example, if you will be processing by department, then you definitely want to include the department number for the current pass in the ID, title, and notification, and you probably want to return different user or role names depending on the department. You can use GetCurrentValue() in these formulas.

If you specify the current file as the supporting document—the [NavigateTo] location—the multipass context will be automatically applied when the user opens the file from the alert notification. For example, if the alert was generated for the Dept 4200 pass, then when the user opens the file from that notification (whether from the task pane or the email link), the file will automatically be filtered for Dept 4200, and GetCurrentValue functions will return values as if it were currently processing that department. This allows the user to see the file using the same context as when the alert was generated.

NOTE: The filter will only be applied when the file is refreshed. You should configure the relevant Axiom queries to refresh on open if you want the user to see the data as soon as they open the file, without needing to click the Refresh button.

These features only apply when the alerts are processed using File Processing. If you process alerts in any other way, then GetCurrentValue will not return values during processing, and no filters will be applied when the file is opened from the notification. Generally, if you set up alerts to leverage File Processing features, then those alerts should always be processed using File Processing and not using any other alert processing option.