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Alarms - Configuring

Creating alarm groups

Alarms are organised into groups in WideQuick Designer®. Each group defines shared defaults — colors, icons, and measures — that its alarms inherit unless overridden individually.

  1. In the project tree, right-click Alarms under Data Store and select Add Group....
  2. Enter a Name for the group.
  3. Set the Monitor variable — a boolean variable that will be true whenever any alarm in the group is active.
  4. Optionally configure default Colors for each alarm state, default Icons, and a default Measure for the group.
  5. Click OK.

Add alarm group dialog

Adding alarms

Once a group exists, open it (double-click or right-click → Open) and click Add to create a new alarm.

New alarm dialog

Field Description
Name Unique name for the alarm within the group
Alarm class Label used to rank or categorise alarms — for example 1, A, or High
Ack rule When the alarm can be acknowledged — see below
Text Short label shown in the alarm list, e.g. Motor overheating
Details Longer description shown when the alarm is expanded in the log
Activation Trigger condition and optional delay before the alarm fires
Block type Whether the alarm can be suppressed: None, Manually (by operator), or Automatic (by a variable)
Block variable Variable used when Block type is Automatic — alarm is suppressed while this variable is true
Colors Per-alarm color overrides. If left blank, the group defaults are used
Activation monitor Boolean variable set to true while the alarm is active
Acknowledge monitor Boolean variable set to true while the alarm is acknowledged
Measure Action available in the alarm list — used to add a GoTo link. See GoTo in Alarm Groups
Description Internal note about the alarm. Not shown at runtime

Activation

Double-click the Activation field to configure the trigger. Set the variable the alarm monitors and optionally add a delay — the alarm will only fire if the condition has been true for the full delay period.

Activation settings

Acknowledgement rules

  • Normal — can be acknowledged at any time.
  • Strict — can only be acknowledged after the alarm has gone inactive.
  • Auto — acknowledged automatically when the alarm goes inactive. Can also be acknowledged manually while still active.

Measure

The Measure field on an alarm enables an action column in the alarm list. Configuring a GoTo measure lets operators navigate directly to the object that triggered the alarm by pressing the measure in the list. See GoTo in Alarm Groups for setup instructions.

Measure settings

Alarm notification schedules

The Alarm - Schedule view controls when and to whom alarm notifications are sent by email or SMS. It shows a bar chart of emails and SMS messages sent and failed over the last month, a list of all configured schedules, and a status panel with schedule counts, current alarm counts, and SMTP status.

Requirements

Notification schedules require scAlarmSender to be running and a configured email or SMS channel. See Extending.

Alarm - Schedule view

Creating a schedule

Click New schedule to open the creation wizard. It steps through three pages.

Step 1 — When

New schedule step 1

  • Name — name for the schedule.
  • System — which system this schedule applies to: the local system or a connected remote system.
  • Active schedule — toggle to enable or disable the schedule without deleting it.
  • Weekdays — select which days of the week the schedule is active. Only the selected days will appear in the Time interval section below.
  • Time interval — configure the active time windows for each selected day. Each day shows a primary From/To time slot. Click the + button to add a secondary time slot for that day, allowing two separate notification windows on the same day. Setting both From and To to 00:00 disables notifications for that time slot. To receive notifications for the entire day, set From to 00:00 and To to 23:59.

Note

Setting To to 23:59 covers the full day including the final minute.

Step 2 — What

New schedule step 2

  • Severity level — which alarm classes trigger this schedule. Leave empty to include all classes.
  • Alarm groups — which alarm groups are monitored. Use Select all to include all groups.

Step 3 — Who

New schedule step 3

  • Subject line — subject used for outgoing email notifications.
  • Recipient — add individual email addresses or phone numbers directly.
  • Alias — select from configured aliases to add a group of recipients at once.
  • Collect alarm dispatches — delay in seconds before sending. Alarms that trigger within this window are collected and sent together in a single notification.

Editing and deleting schedules

Select a schedule in the list and click Edit schedule to modify it. Active and inactive status can be toggled from within the edit dialog.

Click Delete schedule to remove the selected schedule.

Next Steps

  • Extending — configuring email and SMS for alarm notifications