Defining monitors

Specify the name and description of the new monitor.

Complete these steps:

In the Monitors modeling page, click Add to open a new Monitor detail page.
Specify this information:

Name

Specify a unique name that identifies the monitor. The name must contain the characters a-z, A-z, 0-9 and ‘_’ (underscore). The maximum length is 255 characters. Multibyte characters are not supported in the name of a monitor.

Description

Specify the description of the monitor. The description is used in ION Desk, to describe the purpose of the monitor to the business administrator.

Select the documents the monitor must evaluate.

In the Documents tab in the Monitor detail page, click Add to display the Add Documents window.
Select the document to be monitored.
To filter the list of documents:
- Select a type, when applicable, from the Type list.
- Select a level, when applicable, from the Level list.
- Specify a text in the Filter field.
If you selected the document type BOD, then you can also filter by document level Custom and Standard. Filtering by level is not applicable for the types JSON and ANY, as the documents of these types are always custom.
Click OK to add the selected documents to the monitor.

If you selected multiple documents, then specify references.

Specify how these documents refer to each other. Documents that are not logically linked through a reference cannot be used in the same monitor.

Complete these steps:

Expand the References section of the Documents tab and click Add to display the Select References window.
Select the references to be used in the monitor.
Points of attention:
- Multiple references can exist between two documents. Select only 1 reference.
- If you selected more than two documents for a monitor, the references between these documents must not be circular. For example, if you selected documents A, B, and C, only one of these possible references is allowed:
  - {A->B->C}
  - {A->B and A->C}
  See References.
Click OK. The selected references are displayed in the References section.
Click Save.

Note: To use monitor conditions to define document relations, select the Use conditions to define document relations check box and proceed with the rest of the monitor configuration. When you define the monitor conditions, define document relations based on Attribute Comparison conditions, using the equals operator, between attributes of monitored documents.

See References.

Select document attributes.

Select at least one attribute of the monitor’s documents. You can use the selected attributes in the monitor rule, the monitor conditions, or the alert message.

Complete these steps:

In the Attributes tab, click Add to display the Select Attributes window.

Expand the tree and select the desired attributes. The selected attributes are displayed in the tooltip of the “Selected” count at the top of the window.

This table shows the attribute types that can be selected in the Select Attributes window.


Attribute type	Icon	Description
Data Element		An element in a business document that can have a value. For example, an Amount element. A data element can be selected. Note: If the data element is contained in a repeating group, then the data element can exist multiple times in a business document. A data element can contain attributes. To view the attributes, expand the data element node.
Repeating Element		A special type of data element that can exist multiple times in a business document. For example, a Note element. A repeating element can be selected. A repeating element can contain attributes. To view the attributes, expand the repeating element node.
Attribute		An attribute in a business document that can have a value. For example, a `currencyID` that is linked to an Amount element. An attribute can be selected. Note: When the data element is contained in a repeating element or in a repeating group, the attribute can exist multiple times in a business document.
Group		A grouping element in a business document that does not have a value, but contains other group elements or attributes. For example, a `SalesOrderHeader`. A group has children, such as data elements, attributes, or other groups. To view the children, expand the group node.
Repeating Group		A special type of group that can exist multiple times in a business document. For example, a `SalesOrderLine`. A group has children, such as data elements, attributes, or other groups. To view the children, expand the repeating group node.

Click OK. The selected attributes are displayed in the Attributes tab.
Optionally, change the names of the attributes in the Attributes tab. For example, you can specify the name of the document, to which the attributes belong, as a prefix. This is useful if you selected attributes from multiple documents. The attribute names are used as labels for the alert details when they are displayed to the end user.

Note:

You can select these predefined attributes from the document header information:
- AccountingEntityID
- LocationID
- actionCode
Use these attributes to model that the generation of alerts must depend on the document characteristics instead of on the business data.
For example, to monitor alerts that are only sent for documents coming from a specific accounting entity. You must include a comparison condition based on the AccountingEntityID attribute in the monitor.
The actionCode attribute can have these predefined values:
- 'Add'
- 'Change'
- 'Delete'
- 'Replace'
To model that alerts are created only for new records, include this comparison condition in the monitor: actionCode=Add

Optionally, specify filters for selected attributes.

Data Elements and Attributes that are part of a repetitive structure can require additional filtering to be used in a condition. For example, the Location from the ShipToParty information on a Contract document can exist several times. To specify what Location address details to use in the condition evaluation, add a filter on the attribute type of the Location element.

To specify a filter:

In the Attributes tab, add one or more attributes that belong to a repeating group. For example: Contract/ContractHeader/ShipToParty/Location/Address/StreetName.
Select the attribute. The Filter button becomes enabled.
Click Filter to display the Edit Filter window.
The xml-attributes of the selected element and the xml-attributes of its repeating parent elements are displayed. Specify the attribute to use for filtering. For example, specify type.
Click in the Equals Value column and specify a value. For example, specify Office.
Click OK.
The path of the monitor attribute is updated with the filter condition.
For example: Contract/ContractHeader/ShipToParty/Location/Address[@type=”Office”]/StreetName.

Optionally, mark some attributes as Hide in Alert. The attributes that are not marked as hidden are visible in the alert details. These attributes can be used in the alert message or to start a workflow from the alert.

In the alert details, the attribute label and contents for the hidden attributes are not displayed. The path to a hidden attribute and the sequence number of the parent node are still displayed in the alert data tree view.

There are some limitations when filtering the standard Infor BODs PulseTask and PulseNotification.

Each BOD contains, among others, these sections:

Parameters = name/value pairs with types such as string, integer, etc. Each parameter has a Parameter/@sequence attribute that can be used for filtering.
TreeParameters = structures with nested levels and several fields per level.

If the BOD contains both sections, for example the workflow task contains parameters and structure, then you cannot filter by Parameter/@sequence.

Optionally, create conditions.

Create the conditions to use in the monitoring rule.

In the Conditions tab, click Add to display the Condition Builder window.
Specify this information:

Name

Specify the name of the condition. For example LateShipment or TargetDeliveryDateExpired.

Type

Specify the condition type. Select the desired type from the list.

See Monitor rule - condition only.

Note: The condition types you can select depend on the attributes selected for the monitor.
Specify the remaining fields.
The pop-up dialog box is dynamic, the displayed fields depend on the selected condition type. For example:
- For a condition of type Attribute-Value Comparison, you must fill in these fields: Attribute, Operator, and Value.
- For a condition of type DateTime Check, you must specify these fields: Time offset, Operator, and Attribute.
Note:
- For details on the condition types and the information you must specify, see this section:
  Monitor rule - condition only
- For a condition of type Combined, you must combine the existing conditions that are using AND or OR.
  See Defining combined conditions.
Click OK. The condition is displayed in the Conditions tab.

Specify the monitoring rule.

Specify the monitoring rule that the monitor must use to verify incoming documents.

Complete these steps:

In the Rule tab, specify this information:

Rule Type

Specify the rule type. Select the desired type from the list.

See Monitor rules.
Specify the required information for the selected rule type. The displayed fields depend on the selected rule type.
See Monitor rules.
In the Occurrence section, specify how often an alert must be generated.
A monitor can send an alert each time the monitor rule evaluates to True. Or when the monitor rule evaluates to true several times within a specified period of time.
Complete one of these steps:
1. Select Alert each time the monitor rule evaluates to true. The monitor sends an alert each time the evaluation result of the monitor rule is true.
2. Select Alert if rule evaluates to true [number] times within and specify this information:
  
  Times
  
  Specify the number of times the monitor rule must evaluate to True, before an alert is sent.
  
  Within
  
  Specify a period of time. You must specify a number and a unit of time, such as 5 Minutes or 24 Hours. An alert is generated if the monitor rule evaluates to True the specified number of times within in this period of time. For example, you specify this information: 5 times within 24 hours. An alert is sent if the monitor rule evaluates to true five times within 24 hours.
  Note:
  - The first time the monitor rule evaluates to true, a counter is set to 1 and a timer starts. The counter is increased each time the rule evaluates to true.
  - If the counter reaches the specified number of occurrences (Times) within the specified period, an alert is generated. The counter and the timer are reset.
  - If the counter does not reach the specified number of occurrences (Times) within the specified period, no alert is generated. The counter and the timer are reset.

Specify the alert message.

In the Alert Settings tab, specify this information:

Message: Specify the alert message that must be displayed by the monitor. You can specify a string up to 255 characters for the Alert message or its translations. You can use document attributes that are not marked as "Hide in Alert", surrounded by square brackets, in the message text.; When you press Ctrl+Spacebar, a list of available attributes is displayed. To select an attribute, use the arrow keys and press Enter, or use the mouse. To leave the list without selecting an attribute, press Esc. If there is no value/attribute available, then the Alert shows [?] in the message.; For example, a monitor contains attributes SO_ID and StandardDiscountPercent. You specify this alert message: Sales order [SO_ID] with standard discount [StandardDiscountPercent] has lines where discount given is not within 5% of standard discount.; When an alert is generated, the attributes are substituted with the appropriate values. For example, an alert with this description is generated: Sales order SO1100359 with standard discount 3.0 has lines where discount given is not within 5% of standard discount.
Note: The attribute values of type string can contain up to 4000 characters. This can expand the length of the message. There is no technical limit on the number of attributes that are allowed in a message. Although, depending on the resources available on the used system, an error can happen at runtime. We recommend that you use a maximum of 10 string attributes with placeholders in one message, if all these strings are potentially long.; You can use a special ## delimiter at the end of the alert message to define a category name. The string after ## is removed from the alert message when this is displayed in Infor Ming.le. This string is listed in the Filter drop-down in the Alert List widget configuration and can be used to filter alerts by category. When a parameter placeholder is used after ##, the value of the parameter is used as the category name. Comparison of category names is not case-sensitive.; You can specify a different message text for several languages. Click the translation button next to the input text box. Specify a new message for each language that must be supported. To use categories, you must specify a category name in each message, for each language, using the ## delimiter. When an alert is displayed, the translation corresponding to the specified language in the user settings in Infor Ming.le is shown to the end user. If there is no translation text for the language selected, then the message that is specified in the Message box is displayed. Additional language messages can be added, see Adding translations.

Distribution

An alert is distributed to the groups or persons that are specified in the Distribution tab.

In the Distribution tab, click Add. The Select Distribution Data window is displayed.
Specify the required information.
See Adding distribution elements.

Optionally, specify drillbacks.

See Specifying monitor drillbacks.

Optionally, specify workflow settings.

Only perform this step if the user who receives the alert must be in a position to start a workflow to handle the alert.

Sometimes the user wants to start a predefined workflow to handle an alert. To enable this, link a workflow definition to the event monitor.

Before you link a workflow definition to the monitor, create the workflow definition to be used. See Creating a workflow definition.

To link a workflow definition to the monitor, perform these actions on the Parameter Mapping tab:

Select Start Workflow from Alert.
Select the workflow to be used.
Select the monitor attributes to be mapped to the workflow input parameters.

Note:

Only workflow definitions that do not contain structures can be started from an alert. When editing the monitor, the list of available workflow definitions is filtered. You can only select workflow definitions without structures. When the configuration is changed and you click Resolve and try to start a workflow that has a structure, an error is reported.
You cannot use output parameters of the workflow definition. To start a workflow that returns information to an application, use an activation policy instead of an event monitor.
If you selected Alert if rule evaluates to true [number] times within in the Rule tab of the monitor, you cannot start a workflow from the alert. This is because the alert does not contain data to start a workflow with.

Note: Only attributes that are not marked as "Hide in Alert" can be mapped to workflow input parameters. For the input parameters, do not select attributes that are repeating or attributes that are part of a repeating structure in the document. For example, attributes of a sales order line. Otherwise the starting of the workflow does not work, because the BOD can contain multiple values.

When the monitor generates an alert,and this alert is handled in Infor Ming.le a Resolve button is shown. Click Resolve, the workflow is started based on the selected workflow definition and the alert is closed. The data from the selected attributes in the alert is used as input for the workflow.

Specify distribution details.

Optionally, specify escalation details.

You can specify escalation rules. When an alert is escalated, the managers of the users from the current distribution list are informed. If the alert is unassigned during an escalation, the managers can assign it to themselves or to another user from the distribution list.

You can define several escalation levels. If no action is taken in the time interval specified in the escalation rule, the alert is escalated to the next management level.

To specify escalation details, in the Escalations tab, specify this information:

Escalate when unassigned for ...: If you select this check box, you must specify a time interval. An alert is escalated if no user has been assigned to it for the specified time interval.
Escalate when not finished within ...: If you select this check box, you must specify a time interval. An alert is escalated if it is not marked as Done within the specified interval of time after its creation time.
Number of Levels: Specify the number of management levels to which the alert must be escalated. The escalation rule is applied for each management level, as long as a user for that management level exists in Infor Federation Services (IFS).

Save the monitor.

Click Save. The monitor definition is now complete. You can now activate the monitor.