Alerts terminology
This topic provides a glossary of terms that are helpful to know when you work with alerts.
Parent topic: Using the alerts module
- Alert definition
- And alert definition is the metadata needed by the alerts engine to generate a set of related alerts at runtime. This metadata includes the alert's name, the alert's category, whether the definition is enabled, and the list of users and roles allowed to see alerts generated from this definition. The metadata also includes a reference to the class, model, or web service that is responsible for evaluating the current state of the alerts for the definition. Finally, the metadata may include a set of name/value pairs that represent properties the evaluator will use in its computation. These properties allow users to specify custom values (for example, a custom EBITA Variance that overrides the default set by the administrator).
- Alert evaluator
- An alert evaluator is the class or model responsible for evaluating alerts for a definition. All application specific business logic related to alert evaluation is centralized here. When invoked by the alerts engine the evaluator will return zero or more alert instances. The evaluator is responsible for returning alert instances that are customized for a user. The user's custom property values and preferred locale is passed into the evaluator to support this.
- Alert instance
- An alert instance is the concrete instance of an alert that takes into account a user's custom properties and preferred locale. The instance contains data such as the alert's display text, detailed display text, display category, priority, status, and so on. This is all of the data that would typically be displayed to a user in a data portlet or in the My Alerts portlet. Consider, for example, an alert definition whose evaluator will always return a single alert instance when invoked. If two users with different preferred locales "get" this alert they will each receive a different alert instance (because the display text will need to be in their preferred language), but conceptually at least, it is the same alert because it was generated from the same definition
- Class-based alert definition
- A class-based alert definition uses a Java class for alert evaluation.
- Data portlet
- A data portlet is any portlet where specific alerts are evaluated and the results are displayed or used to drive formatting of page content.
- Import Definitions portlet
- A tool provided with WebSphere Dashboard Framework that is used for importing XML-based alerting data into the database tables used by a database persistence manager.
- Manage Alerts portlet
- The Manage Alerts portlet allows administrators and developers to create and manage alert definitions.
- Model-based alert definition
- A model-based alert definition uses a model for alert evaluation.
- My Alerts portlet
- The My Alerts portlet displays a summary of the alert instances a user is allowed to see. It also allows users to personalize their alerts.
- Script-based alert definition
- A script-based alert definition is created using the Manage Alerts portlet. The definition uses an alert evaluator supplied with WebSphere Dashboard Framework that is designed to accept simple mathematical comparison expressions. These expressions usually compare application data against a threshold limit. When the data is outside the bounds defined by these mathematical expressions, an alert gets generated.
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Last updated: Thursday, March 15, 2007 11:57am EST
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