Alerting Properties

SQLTags have the ability to define both digital and analog alerts- conditions of particular interest that can be used to generate emails, store records in the database, and more.

Digital Alerts

Digital alerts define a specific value that represents the "active" state, as opposed to Analog alerts, which define a range.

Alert Name

The name of the digital "state". Will be shown in the alert log and status systems.

Severity

The relative "importance" of the alert. Can be used for filtering purposes later.

Value Mode - Equal/Not equal

Alert is active when the tag's value matches the specified value.

Value Mode - Any change

Alert occurs any time the tag's value changes, subject to the alert deadband. "Any Change" alerts are instantly clear, as well, as there is no defined clear state.

Time Deadband

The alert is only considered active once the "active state" has been true for the given amount of time. If the state changes before the time deadband clears, no alert is generated.

Analog Alerts

Analog alerts define any number of "states" - each of which defines a range, severity and name. The settings for a state are similar to those for a digital alert, with a few differences:

Low and High Setpoints

Define the range in which the alert state is considered "active". Outside of the range the state is "clear". May be "infinite" in order to have unbounded state ranges. For example, an alert state range with a lower bound of 50.0 and an upper bound of infinite will be active for any value greater than 50.0.

Setpoint Mode

Dictates how the state acts when the value is on the boundary of the state. "Inclusive" means the setpoint is included in the range of possible values, and the state will be active if the tag's value equals the setpoint value. "Exclusive" excludes the setpoint value from the range.

Tag Driven

Both the low and high setpoint values can be driven by a separate tag. The values of the referenced tags will be latched each time the state is evaluated, and will otherwise act like static values.

Alert on any change

An alert will be generated for any value change while the value is inside the boundaries of the state.

General Settings

Ack Mode

Dictates how acknowledgement works for the alarm.

Timestamp Source

Specifies which timestamp should be reported for the active/clear times- the time coming from the system, or the time coming from the tag value.

Alert Deadband

Defines a deadband that is only used when evaluating the alerts. This setting is used primarily with analog alerts to prevent many alerts from occurring for analog values that constantly "float".

An alert with a deadband will become active immediately after the tag's value crosses the active threshold. The tag will not clear, however, until after the alert has gone outside of the active range by more than the deadband. In most cases, the deadband is added or subtracted to/from the setpoint to determine clear. In any change mode, the tag will only generate a new alert when the value has changed by more than the deadband from the last alerted value.

Time Deadband

Defines an amount of time that the tag value must remain in the numeric region considered "active" before the alert is considered active. Once the alert has become active (after the time deadband specified has elapsed and the value is still in active range), the alert will clear as soon as the value leaves the active region.

For example, suppose you had a digital alert that became active when the tag value is 5 with a 1 minute time deadband. Suppose the tag's value becomes 5 at 3:15 pm. The tag's alert will only be considered active at 3:16 pm, as long as the value remained 5 that entire time.

Display Path

This is an arbitrary path that can be used for querying and display purposes later. For example, if this path is not empty, it will be used by default to identify the alert by the Vision module's built-in alert status table instead of the path to the tag itself.

Notes

Freeform text field that can be used to record information about the alert. Can be used for display purposes later.

Notification Settings

These settings are used for sending email alerts in association with Alert Notification Profiles that are configured in the Gateway.

Send Clear

Indicates that a message should be send when the alert clears, in addition to when it becomes active.

Message Mode

How the message should be generated for the alert.

Custom Subject

The subject of the email that will be sent for the alert. Can include references to other tags and alert properties, as outlined below for the message.

Custom Message

The message to be sent for the alert.

Custom messages can reference other tags, and several properties of the alert. The following alert properties may be referenced:

 0x1 - Register - Indicates that the tag has just been loaded and is being registered with the system.

 0x2 - Active - The alert is active

 0x4 - Cleared - The alert is clear

 0x8 - Acknowledged - The alert has been acknowledged

 0x10 - Deregister - The alert is being de-registered, likely due to tag deletion.

To reference a property, put the name inside of square brackets, inside of the curly braces normally used for references. For example, {[ALARM_TYPE]}

To reference a tag, use the standard curly brace syntax. For example, {North Area/Compressor1/State}. The path may be wrapped in square brackets as well, if using formatting as described below.

Referenced value number formatting

Values referenced in the subject or message can be formatted for display. To do this, the variable name or tag path must be followed by a pipe "|" symbol and a format pattern. The format pattern can be for a date or a number (as described in the documentation for dateFormat and numberFormat, respectively). In order to use formatting with tag references, tag paths must be enclosed by square brackets. For example, the following would display only two decimal places:

 {[North Area/Compressor1/Amps|#0.00]}

To format a date tag:

 {[North Area/Compressor1/LastChange|MMM d, yyyy]}

Default Messages

If not using custom messages, the default will have the following format:

Subject: {[ITEM_PATH]} {[ALARM_TYPE]}

Body: Alert {[ALARM_TYPE]} {[TIME]} - {[ITEM_PATH]} {[STATE_NAME]} {[VALUE]}