Triggering Alerts in Integration Processes 

Use

When you define an integration process, you can specify that if a specific situation occurs at runtime, an alert is to be triggered using Alert Management. To do this, you insert a control step at the required position in the process.

If the control step triggers an alert at runtime, Alert Management sends the alert to the relevant user. The process is not terminated and resumes on completion of the control step. The user who is informed by Alert Management must then decide whether to intervene in the process or not.

For an overview of Alert Management, see Alert Management.

Procedure

Defining or Selecting the Alert Category

An alert has two texts: a short text and a long text. The short text for an alert displays the ID of the process instance automatically at runtime. You can specify the long text in the alert category or in the control step.

       1.      Call transaction ALRTCATDEF.

       2.      Check whether you can use an existing alert category or define your own alert category.

See also: Defining Alert Categories

       3.      Decide whether you want to specify the long text for the alert in the alert category or in the control step.

If you want to specify the long text in the control step, you need to select the Dynamic Text field in the alert category definition.

       4.      Make a note of the name of the category, since you will need to enter this later in the process editor. 

Defining E-Mail Addresses

...

If Alert Management is to send the alert by e-mail, you need to define the e-mail addresses for the sender and receiver on the Integration Server.

       1.      Open user maintenance on the Integration Server (transaction SU01).

See also: Creating and Maintaining User Master Records

       2.      Enter the e-mail address of the workflow background user as the e-mail address of the sender. This is generally WF-BATCH.

       3.      Specify the e-mail address of the receiver.

Defining the Control Step for the Alert

...

       1.       In the process editor, open the integration process that is to trigger the alert.

       2.      Insert a control step at the required position in the integration process.

       3.      Choose Trigger Alert for the Action property.

       4.      For the Alert Categoryproperty, specify the required alert category from Alert Management.

       5.      If you want to specify the text, which is displayed as the alert, in the control step, specify the required text for the Alert Message property.

To be able to display this text, you must have selected the field Dynamic Text in the alert category definition.

Using Variables in the Alert Text

You can use variables in the alert text to make the long texts for alerts more meaningful. You can populate these variables with values from the message payload, for example.

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       1.      In the process container, define the container element that delivers the value for the variable.

Specify a simple XSD data type for the container element. You cannot include tables in alerts.

       2.      Define a container operation that is to set the value for the variable.

See also: Container Operation

       3.      Use the following syntax when specifying variables in the alert text of the control step:

For container elements: &variable& 

For values from the message payload, specify the path to the required field: &message.PAYLOAD.attribute&

Example

The following example is an alert text with two variables:

●     Definition of the alert text in the control step:

Number &price& exceeds the upper limit &limit&

price and limit are defined in the process container.

●     The alert text is displayed as follows at runtime:

Number 5000 exceeds the upper limit 2000

The following example is an alert text with one variable for a value from the message payload:

●     Definition of the alert text in the control step:

Check purchase order with purchase order number &MyMessage.PAYLOAD.OrderNumber&.

MyMessage is defined in the process container. OrderNumber is the required field from the payload.

●     The alert text is displayed as follows at runtime:

Check purchase order with purchase order number ABC123456789.