Notification state policy item

The Notifications system registers the Notification state policy item with the Policy system, as a tool to use when editing policies based on notification events. When an incident triggers a notification plan, the notification events in the plans schedule are triggered in a selected order.

Note

When you create a policy based on a notification event, the Notification state policy item allows you to have the policy check the current state of the incident that triggered the relevant notification plan. By checking the current status of the incident, the Notification State policy item can be made to control the path the policy processing will take.

Since an incidents status can be changed by other people during the course of its escalation, checking the status of the incident allows you better control of what should happen when a particular notification event occurs during the execution of a notification plan (as shown in the example of a policy flow chart below).

In the policy flow chart example, a policy has been created based on notifications event called Notify Manager as part of a notification plan. When an incident activates the notification plan, and the subsequent Notify Manager notification event is triggered (as part of the plans schedule) this policy will use the Notification state policy item (labeled What is the incident state ? in the example) to check the current status of the incident.

If the incident status is Active, then the policy will use a Send email policy item to send the manager an email (like a normal email notification). If however the status of the incident is Closing, then the policy will use a Run SQL statement policy item to simply log the details of the incident to a database.

To use the Notification state policy item:

(Please refer to the Policy system help for more information on creating and editing policies)

1. Open the WinGate Management console.
2. Navigate to Control Panel > Policy.
3. On the Policy panel, select the required policy you wish to use the Notification state policy item in, or create a new one (based on a notification event) to open the Policy editor.
4. In the Items section of the Policy editor toolbox, select a Notification state policy item and drag it on the worksheet. In the example the Notification state policy item is connected to the notification event policy item (Notify Manager) that the policy is based on. This means that when the Notify Manager notification event occurs (as part of its notification plan) it will process the Notification state policy item first. The Notification state policy item can however be placed in a different position in the policy flow chart depending on your requirements.
5. The Notification state policy item does not have any configurable properties. Instead it will have two output connectors to indicate the two available states of an incident. These are Active or Closing. You can attach subsequent policy items to each output connector, to create a processing path that will be taken depending on the status of the incident.
6. Save the changes you have made in the Policy editor.