AX2019

Processing alerts

Once alerts have been defined within a file, they can be processed in several different ways, depending on the type of file. When you process alerts, each alert condition in the file is evaluated to be True or False. If True, then an alert notification is delivered to the designed recipients using email and/or the Notifications task pane.

NOTE: At the time of processing, the alert ID is used to determine whether a particular alert is "new" or "existing." If the ID matches an existing alert ID in the database, then no action is taken for that alert. For more information on this process, see Controlling the frequency of alert notifications.

Alerts can be processed in the following ways:

• File Processing: You can set up alerts in a file and then use File Processing to process the alerts using multipass processing.
• Process Document List: You can set up alerts in a report file (or a driver file) and then use the Process Document List task in Scheduler to process the alerts.
• Process Plan Files: If alerts are defined within plan files, these alerts are processed automatically when the file is processed using Process Plan Files.
• Process Alerts: You can process alerts directly within the file, by using the Process Alerts action.
• Save: You can configure a file so that alerts are processed automatically as part of a save.

You should perform alert processing as frequently as you need the alert condition to be evaluated. For example, maybe you are checking budget to actual variances for the current period, and you only need to check the condition once per month, after the actuals data for the current period has been imported into the system. It is not necessary to process these alerts more frequently, because the data will not change over the course of the month.

On the other hand, maybe you are monitoring budget data for the current planning cycle, while users are actively working in their budgets. In this case you want to process alerts more frequently, because the data is continually changing, and you want to alert users of a problem condition in their budgets as soon as possible. You might choose to process these alerts weekly, daily, or even hourly.

Processing alerts using File Processing

File Processing supports a processing type of Alerts. The only action performed by this processing type is to refresh the file using the current pass filter, and then process the alerts defined on the Alert Control Sheet.

You can process alerts using File Processing manually within the file, or schedule it using the File Processing task for Scheduler.

The advantage of using File Processing to process alerts is that you can define an alert once and then process it multiple times at different levels using multipass processing. For example, imagine that you want to alert department managers if their department exceeds a variance threshold for a particular area. You could set up a report that brings in data for each department and calculates the variance, and then define an alert for each individual department value. However, it would be much more streamlined to use file processing to process the report by department. In this case you would set up a report that brings in the consolidated data and then define one dynamic alert against that value. Then you would set up the report for multipass processing by department. For each pass, it will automatically apply the department-specific filter for the data and then process the alert against that data. The alert settings would need to dynamically change for each pass—for example you could set up the alert ID, message title, etc., using GetCurrentValue() so that the current department number is reflected for each pass of alerts.

When an alert is generated using multipass File Processing, the current pass information is stored within the alert notification. If the supporting file for the alert—the [NavigateTo] location—is set to the current file, then 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 alert notification, 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.

Processing alerts using Process Document List

The Process Document List task in Scheduler allows you to schedule processing of a report file or a driver file. To process alerts as part of this task, select the Process alerts in selected workbooks option. All formulas in the file will be recalculated before alerts are processed.

You can configure the remaining options as desired. For example, if your alerts are dependent on an Axiom query within the file, then you should select Perform all enabled Axiom Queries in selected workbooks. If you want to perform a save-to-database and/or save the file after alerts are processed, you can enable those options as well.

Processing alerts using Process Plan Files

If alerts are defined within a plan file, then those alerts will be processed any time the file is processed using Process Plan Files, whether it is run manually from the ribbon menu or by using the Scheduler task. There is no way to disable this processing. Alerts are processed after formulas are recalculated and after any Axiom queries are run, based on the Process Plan Files configuration.

Processing alerts using Process Alerts

You can process alerts directly within the file, without using file processing:

• On the Axiom tab, in the Advanced group, click Process Alerts.

This approach is primarily intended as an alert testing tool, and not as a regular method of processing alerts. When you first set up alerts within a file, you should use this feature to test the alerts by sending them to yourself or to a designated testing group. After confirming that the alerts work as expected, you should finalize the alert setup and then process them using the primary means listed above.

When you use Process Alerts, the file is recalculated but Axiom queries are not refreshed. If your conditions depend on data from an Axiom query, you may want to perform a refresh before processing the alerts.

This option is only available to administrators and to users with the following permissions to the file: Read/Write and Unprotect.

Processing alerts on save

You can configure a file so that alerts are processed automatically when a save is performed: either a save-to-database, or saving the document. For example, you might have alerts set up in a plan file to track certain conditions in the plan file, and you want those alerts to be processed automatically on save.

To enable alert processing on save, use one of the following options on the default Control Sheet for the file, in the Workbook Options section:

• Process alerts on save data
• Process alerts on save document

You can choose one behavior or the other, but not both—if both are enabled then only the save-to-database processing will occur. Once you have decided which behavior you want to enable, you can select one of the following options for that behavior:

• Process: When alerts are processed, the normal alert processing results dialog is shown. This is typically only used when the alert author is testing the alert setup for the file.
• ProcessSilently: Alerts are processed silently in the background; the user performing the save will not be aware of the alert processing (unless, of course, the user receives an alert as a result of the processing). This is the intended setting for production-ready files.

If you want to use save processing in a form-enabled file, then you must use the "save data" option, because the file is not saved when in the Axiom forms environment. Also, in the Axiom forms environment both Process and ProcessSilently will behave in the same way (processing silently), because Axiom forms do not support the ability to display the alert processing results dialog.