Creating and editing signal triggers

Signal triggers fire when a system or user-defined signal is raised. System signals are raised spontaneously by the ObjectServer when it detects changes to the system. User-defined signals are explicitly created, raised, and dropped.

About this task

For example, you can create a signal trigger to send an email to an operator when the ObjectServer starts or stops, since a system signal is generated when this occurs.

To create or edit a signal trigger:

Procedure

  1. From the Netcool/OMNIbus Administrator window, select the Automation menu button.
  2. Click Triggers.
    The Triggers pane opens.

    This window lists all database, signal, and temporal triggers that are set up.

    Tip: To view only one type of trigger, click Show Database Triggers Only, Show Temporal Triggers Only, or Show Signal Triggers Only in the toolbar.
  3. To add a signal trigger, click Add Signal Trigger in the toolbar.
    The Signal Trigger Details window opens.
  4. To edit a signal trigger, select the signal trigger to edit and then click Edit Trigger in the toolbar.
    The Signal Trigger Details window opens.
  5. Define or edit the trigger setup details as follows:
    Name
    Type a unique trigger name. If you are editing a trigger, you cannot change the name.
    Tip: When you create ObjectServer objects, their names must begin with an uppercase or lowercase letter, followed by uppercase or lowercase letters, numbers, or underscore (_) characters, up to 40 characters in length. User, group, and role names can be any text string up to 64 characters in length and can include spaces. Names of ObjectServer objects are case-sensitive.
    Group
    Select the trigger group to which you want to assign the trigger.
    Add New Trigger Group
    Click this button if you want to create a new trigger group to which the trigger can then be assigned. The Trigger Group Details window opens. Complete this window and save your changes.
    When you return to the Signal Trigger Details window, the new trigger group is shown as the currently-selected trigger group.
  6. Complete the Settings tab as follows:
    Signal
    Select the signal that must cause the trigger to fire.
    Priority
    Select a priority that determines the order in which the ObjectServer fires triggers when this signal causes more than one trigger to fire. You can select numbers from 1 to 20, with 1 being the highest priority.
    Debug
    Select this check box to send debugging information to the ObjectServer message log each time the trigger fires.
    Enabled
    Select this check box to activate the trigger and make it available for use. Clear this check box to create the trigger without activating it at the present time, or to make the trigger unavailable. A disabled trigger does not fire when the associated signal is raised.
  7. From the When tab, specify an optional WHEN clause that allows you to test for a particular condition before the action is performed. If the condition is not met, the action is not performed. You can use the helper buttons shown to the right of the field to construct the WHEN clause.
  8. From the Evaluate tab, optionally build a temporary result set from a single SELECT statement to be processed during the trigger action that is defined on the Action tab. Complete the tab as follows:
    Bind As
    Type the name of the temporary table in which to store the result set.
    SQL editor panel
    Type the statement using the format:
    EVALUATE SELECT_cmd
    You can use the SQL helper buttons shown to the right of the field to construct the statement.
  9. From the Action tab, enter SQL commands for the trigger.

    The body of a trigger contains a set of SQL commands and programming constructs that manipulate data in the ObjectServer. The body of a trigger is enclosed within the keywords BEGIN and END. Each statement, except the last one, must be separated by a semi-colon (;).

    You can optionally define (declare) local variables for use within a trigger. A local variable is a placeholder for values used during the execution of the trigger. Local variable declarations within a trigger must be separated by semi-colons (;).

    The trigger body has the following syntax:
    	[ DECLARE variable_declaration;...[;] ]
    	BEGIN
    		trigger_statement_list
    	END;

    You can use the SQL helper buttons shown to the right of the SQL editor panel to construct the SQL commands.

  10. From the Comment tab, enter an optional text comment for the trigger. This can be useful to anyone who is trying to understand how the trigger works.
  11. Save or cancel your changes as follows:
    OK
    Click this button to save the trigger details and close the window. New triggers are added to the Triggers pane.
    Cancel
    Click this button to close the window without saving your changes.