Database Activity Alerts

This new accessory, available as a trial in Release 6.2, allows the system to create/send emails when, for example, an account is placed on stop or goes over its credit limit. The Alerts option also allows for the addition of a note against an application where appropriate.

As a database record is added, updated or deleted the system will check to see whether an alert needs to be triggered and, if required, launches the alert process creating an email or adding a note.



If set to launch email then the usual email client is used to create the message – this message can be set to be sent automatically. Similarly the system could launch the Add Note processes and again the note can be added automatically.

Installation

The Alert options are stored within the database.INI file and can be added when restructuring the database (via the F4 key from the list of data items) or, forDiamond and Premier Users, from within the Ledger Enquiry Manager.

Within the INI settings the ALERTS button allows definition up to ten alerts. If this option is on Release 6.2 trial basis an advisory warning is displayed to indicate this before proceeding to the INI definition.

Title – enter the title for the alert (this title is displayed on screen). On entry of the criteria you are asked for the criteria on which the alert is to be triggered.



Selection criteria are entered using the standard system options. The alert is triggered when the condition is not met prior to the update of the database record but is met after update so, for example, if the criteria is that the account ‘stop’ flag is equal ‘Y’ then the alert will only be triggered when the value is set as ‘Y’, it will not re-trigger if you (say) updated the account address whilst the account was on stop.

If you want to set a trigger for when a record is created (or deleted) then you can set criteria based around a mandatory field – for example criteria of account code not blank would trigger an alert when the account is added, account code blank would trigger an alert when it is deleted.

Action – the Action option allows you to select whether you are to ‘Send Email’ for the alert or to ‘Add Note’.Select as required, further options are then available depending on the action selected.

Send Email

To / CC / BCC – select the email address(s) required. You can select the email address from the current database record by using the ‘!’ character followed by three-digit value of the data item number.

Subject – enter the subject title of the email. Again you can use ‘!nnn’ to update value from the current database record.

Message – enter email message.As above you can use ‘!nnn’ to include data from the current record, if set for ‘wordwrap’ later you can force a new paragraph by including ‘%%’ at the start of the line.

Attach - enter filename for any attachment to be sent, leave blank if not required.

Auto – set if email message is to be sent automatically with no operator interaction. If left blank the email message is displayed for the operator to amend as required before sending (they can of course abandon the message)

Wordwrap – set to merge the email message in continuous text (blank line or %% at the start of a line forces new paragraph), leave blank to send as entered.

Add Note

Title – enter the title for the note – you can use !nnn to include data from the current database record.

User – if wish to record the note as made by a specific user then enter the user-id here, leave blank to record as per the user who triggered the note

Applic – set the application id the note is to be stored against. Items allowed are:

SL – Sales Ledger

PL – Purchase Ledger

NL – Nominal Ledger / Cashbook

ST – Stock Control

IN – Invoicer Products

PR – Payroll

JC – Job Costing

SP – Sales Order Processing

PP – Purchase Order Processing

BM – Bill of Materials

Company – set the company the note is to be recorded against, leave blank for the default company. You may set an alternate company within the likes of Sales Order Processing when using cross-company updating.

Key Item – if the database used to generate the note is not the primary database of the application against which you wish to save the note then you need to nominate the ‘key’ item for that application here. For example, if add a note to the sales ledger account based on the addition of a sales order with a value of £5000 or more then the trigger database is the SOH but the key item needs to be the ACCOUNT field to store the note against the sales ledger application. Leave blank if key field is the prime-index of the current database.

Message – enter notes message.As above you can use ‘!nnn’ to include data from the current record, if set for ‘wordwrap’ later you can force a new paragraph by including ‘%%’ at the start of the line.

Auto – set if note is to be added automatically with no operator interaction. If left blank the note is displayed for the operator to amend as required before saving (they can of course abandon the note)

Wordwrap – set to merge the note message in continuous text (blank line or %% at the start of a line forces new paragraph), leave blank to send as entered.

Release 6.3+