Watch Rules in Saved Reports

Report users define watch rules in IBM^® Cognos^® Viewer so that they can monitor events of interest to them in saved reports. You can view and edit watch rules in a single location from the My Watch Items area in IBM Cognos Connection.

Watch rules are based on numeric event conditions that are evaluated when a report is saved, not when the report runs interactively. When an event condition is satisfied, an email message or news item alerts the report user. Alternatively, the report user can alert other users by sending notifications to their task inbox.

There are two types of watch rule for a saved report:

• Watch rules that send an alert when a specific condition is satisfied

  For example, you could set up a watch rule that sends an alert when sales figures for a product fall below a specific level.

• Watch rules that send different alerts depending on the status of a condition

  In this case, you set up thresholds to map a range of numeric values to performance status (good, average, and poor). You define the threshold boundaries, and the association between boundary values and status.

  For example, you could set up a watch rule that sends different alerts to a sales team depending on the sales figures for a product. If sales fall below 50 (the minimum threshold), the performance is poor. The alert for poor performance may be to send an urgent notification to the sales manager to review the figures. When sales exceed 100 (the maximum threshold), the performance is good. The alert for good performance may be to distribute the sales figures to the team.

You can create event conditions using numeric measures only in saved HTML reports. You can define an unlimited number of conditions for a report. The conditional report output uses the same locale information as the report that contains the event condition.

The report owner must enable watch rules for the report before a report user can create watch rules and send alerts.

To create watch rules, the report user must have read and traverse permissions to the report output.

Enable Watch Rules for a Report

Enabling watch rules lets the report user specify conditions in saved HTML report output, and send alerts based on these conditions.

For information about creating a watch rule, see Create a Watch Rule for a Specific Condition and Create a Watch Rule for Different Condition Status Indicators.

You must have write permission for the report to enable watch rules for a report.

Steps

1. In IBM^® Cognos^® Connection, click Set properties  next to the report.

2. On the Report tab for IBM Cognos Report Studio reports, or the Analysis tab for IBM Cognos Analysis Studio reports, under Advanced options, select both the Enable selection-based interactivity in HTML reports and Enable enhanced user features in saved output versions check boxes.

   Selecting these options specifies that additional context information is saved with the report output.

3. Click OK.

Report users can now run the report and save the output in HTML format before creating watch rules.

Create a Watch Rule for a Specific Condition

You can set up a watch rule to send an alert when a specific condition in a saved report is satisfied.

Note: You can only create watch rules for reports saved in HTML format.

You must have read and traverse permissions to the report output to create watch rules.

Steps

1. Run the required report and save the output in HTML format.

   For more information, see Set Report Options for the Current Run.

2. In the IBM^® Cognos^® Connection portal, open the saved HTML report in IBM Cognos Viewer.

3. In the report, right-click a numeric data item and then click Alert Using New Watch Rule.

4. In the Specify the rule - Alert Using New Watch Rule page, select Send an alert when the report contains.

5. In the conditional expression, from the drop-down list, select the expression to use for the watch rule, for example, >= (greater than or equal), and specify a value in the box.

6. Under For the selected context, select the report items to which the rule applies.

7. Click Next.

You must now set up the alert details for the watch rule. For more information, see Define the Alert Details for the Watch Rule.

Create a Watch Rule for Different Condition Status Indicators

You can set up a watch rule that sends alerts depending on a metric-like change in the performance status of a condition (good, average, or poor).

To set up the watch rule, use thresholds to map a range of numeric values to performance status. When setting up your threshold boundaries, you must decide whether low, medium, or high values are favorable for the condition. For example, if you are setting up a condition to monitor sales figures for a product, you would indicate that high values are favorable. This is known as the performance pattern.

You can only create watch rules in saved HTML reports.

You must have read and traverse permissions to the report output to create watch rules.

Steps

1. In the IBM^® Cognos^® Connection portal, open the saved HTML report in IBM Cognos Viewer.

2. In the report, right-click a numeric data item, and then click Alert Using New Watch Rule.

3. In the Specify the rule - Alert Using New Watch Rule page, select Send an alert based on thresholds.

4. In the Performance pattern box, select the range of values to associate with "good performance" status.

5. In the Threshold boundaries box, specify the boundary values for the condition.

   Tip: For each boundary value, click the arrow attached to the numeric value box to adjust them as follows:

   • To include the specified boundary value in the higher threshold, click the up arrow.

   • To include the specified boundary value in the lower threshold, click the down arrow.

6. Under For the selected context, select the report items to which the rule applies.

7. Click Next.

You must now set up the alert details for the watch rule. For more information, see Define the Alert Details for the Watch Rule.

Define the Alert Details for the Watch Rule

When you have defined the type of watch rule that you are creating, you must define the type of alert that you want to generate. You can choose one or more of the following options:

• Send the report by email to be alerted by email.

• Publish a news item to be alerted by news item.

• Send a notification to alert other users by sending notifications to their task inbox.

If you have set up a watch rule for different condition status indicators, you can define multiple alerts, depending on performance. For example, for average or poor performance, you could choose to be alerted both by email and by sending a notification to the sales manager to review the sales figures. For good performance, you could send a notification to the sales manager to distribute the figures to the sales team.

Steps

1. In the Specify the alert type - Alert Using New Watch Rule page, specify the alerts to send when the rule is satisfied.

   Tip: To change the details for an alert type, click Edit the options.

2. If you have defined a watch rule for different condition status indicators, select the required check boxes to associate the alert with poor, average, or good performance.

   Performance is defined by the performance pattern.

   Click Next.

3. In the Specify a name and description - Alert Using New Watch Rule page, specify a name, description, screen tip, and location for the watch rule.

   Tip: You can organize watch rules in folders on the Rules tab of the My Watch Items area of the portal.

4. Click Finish.

View, Edit, or Delete a Watch Rule in IBM Cognos Viewer

You can use IBM^® Cognos^® Viewer to edit and delete watch rules you created in saved HTML reports.

For information about creating a watch rule, see Create a Watch Rule for a Specific Condition, and Create a Watch Rule for Different Condition Status Indicators.

You can also delete and edit watch rules from the My Watch Items area of the portal. For more information, see My Watch Items.

You must have write access to edit or delete a watch rule.

Steps

1. Open the saved report output in IBM Cognos Viewer.

2. On the toolbar, click Watch New Versions and, then click

   • Modify to edit the watch rule. When the Set properties dialog box appears, proceed to step 3.

   • Delete to delete the watch rule, and then click OK to complete the deletion.

3. Click the General tab to change properties, such as the language, name, and description of the watch rule.

4. Click the Rules tab to edit the rules properties, such as the conditional expression for the rule, the items to which the rule applies, and the alert type.

Changes made to a watch rule in IBM Cognos Viewer are also made in the My Watch Items area of the portal.