Presented By :

M V Rajesh
Sr. Technical Consultant

Oracle Alerts

Presented To : HMC

Alert Manager Responsibility

To Define a new alert.

To Run an alert.

To choose the e-mail server.

What is an Alert?
Oracle Alert is a complete Exception Control and Reporting System. Oracle Alert facilitates the flow of information within your organization by letting you create entities called Alerts to monitor your business information and to notify you of the information you want.

Alerts are of TWO types:

Event.
Periodic

M V Rajesh

Whats the difference? Event Alert:

Notifies immediately as the EVENT occurs . What we need to specify?

Periodic Alert:
Checks the database as per the schedule we define. What we need to specify?

The event to be monitored. The selection criteria; i.e., the SQL statement. The action to be taken.

The Frequency. The selection criteria; i.e., the SQL statement. The action to be taken.

M V Rajesh

Whats an Event?
An event can be Insert/Update on any particular record(s) of the database. An Event Alert is similar to any database trigger. The only difference is in the choice of Actions provided. In a trigger, this action can only be to Insert/Update/Delete any records from the database; that is, running an SQL statement script.

What can the Action be?

Oracle Alert can be configured to perform any or all of the following functions: Sending the retrieved information to someone in a (reasonably formatted) e-mail message . Invocation of a Concurrent Program, Operating Script, SQL Statement Script.

Other important features:

Keep us informed of exception conditions through a single point; our electronic mail. Take predefined actions when it finds exceptions in our database, without user intervention.

Take the actions we specify, depending upon our response to an alert message.

M V Rajesh

Other important features: contd

Perform routine database tasks automatically, according to the schedule we define. Be fully integrated with our e-mail system: it is configurable with Oracle Office, Unix mail, Windows NT mail, and VMS mail. Allows definition of distribution list, so that one can avoid typing the same set of recipients for many messages.

M V Rajesh

Other important features: contd

Alert can send messages or perform predefined actions in an action set when important events occur. Alerts can be defined to any of the Oracle Applications; viz., Oracle Financials, Oracle Manufacturing, Oracle Human Resources, or Oracle Public Sector Financials application as well as any custom Oracle application.

Other Important Features: contd Easy to define. Easy customization (of Frequency, Actions, etc.) Actions for singular exception, a combination of exceptions, or no-exception condition.

M V Rajesh

Other important features: contd

Alert History is maintained. Action Escalation: e.g., if an alert has to be defined to send mails to for credit card defaulters. The severity of the mails can be made to vary depending on the period for which the defaulter has defaulted. This means that different Actions can be taken based on practically any parameter. In this example, the parameter was(sysdate-last_date_for_payment).

Two types of Actions:

Oracle Alert automatically determines whether to perform detail actions or summary action depending on the number of exceptions. Summary Action: Detail Action: Action is taken Individual action is collectively per type of taken for each exception. exception.

E.g., Mails are sent to each defaulter individually.

E.g., A common mail is sent to a set of defaulters.

M V Rajesh

Summary Threshold:
Oracle can automatically determine whether to perform a detail or summary action, depending upon the number of exceptions found by the alert Select statement.
If we define a summary threshold, Oracle Alert performs a detail action for each exception found by the Select statement, but if the number of exceptions found exceeds the summary threshold, Oracle Alert performs a summary action. You need to first define a detail and a summary action, include them in a threshold group, and then specify a summary threshold.

Other important features: contd

Self-Referencing Alerts: (DATE_LAST_CHECKED):

An alert that checks the database for only those exceptions that are new since the last time the alert was checked without saving history.
WHERE ... AND creation_date > TO_DATE(:DATE_LAST_CHECKED, DDMONYYYY HH24:MI:SS)

Response Processing
Oracle Alert can process responses to the alert messages. When Oracle Alert receives a response to a specific alert message, it automatically performs the actions you define. Optionally, respondents can supply values that Oracle Alert uses to perform these actions. Response processing lets you automate routine userentry transactions, streamlining your organizations operations. We must have a Windows NT MAPIcompliant mail server and define at least one mailbox in this mail application if we want to use response processing.

The Periodic Alert Scheduler

The Periodic Alert Scheduler (ALEPPE) is a concurrent program that automatically checks the scheduled periodic alerts. The Periodic Alert Scheduler runs at each day at 12 AM. When it runs, the Periodic Alert Scheduler looks for all periodic alerts scheduled to be checked that day, and then submits one concurrent request for each scheduled check.

M V Rajesh

A sample Mail from Alert:

=== G1: New Item List === Org FD GropCode Global Item ProdCode Type Date Status

---- ---- -------- ------------------------- -------- ----- ------ ---------04N X81 LZ3CB CDT-TEST-ITEM 123 FG 020528 ACTIVE

43A X81 LZ3CB

43S X81 LZ3CB 46X X81 LZ3CB 49C X81 LZ3CB 580 X81 LZ3CB

CDT-TEST-ITEM
CDT-TEST-ITEM CDT-TEST-ITEM CDT-TEST-ITEM CDT-TEST-ITEM

123
123 123 123 123

FG
FG FG FG FG

020528 ACTIVE
020528 ACTIVE 020528 ACTIVE 020528 ACTIVE 020529 ACTIVE

A01 X81 LZ3CB

GLO X35 AA GLO X81 LZ3CB GLO X85 GLO TSB X35 AA TSB X81 LZ3CB

CDT-TEST-ITEM
TEST-ORD CDT-TEST-ITEM

123
1234 FG

FG

020529 ACTIVE

020529 INACTIVE FG 020528 ACTIVE

123 FG FG 1234

C-ITEM D-ITEM TEST-ORD CDT-TEST-ITEM

020528 ENGINEER 020528 ENGINEER FG 020529 INACTIVE FG 020528 ACTIVE

123