Background

You should review how to set ranges in metrics before configuring email based notifications. This article will focus on the ability to enable email notifications when a metric triggers an out-of-range alert. The email notification feature is designed to assist supervisors and operators to identify issues in operations and address them before they escalate. 


How To Enable Notifications For A Metric

The ability to change notifications is available to Supervisors and above. An operator can enter data and trigger an out-of-range flag and email notification (if that feature is enabled). Note: At this time only metrics that require a numeric input are available for email notification.   Accessing the option for email notification is similar to editing any metric. Navigate to the top right of the data entry screen and select the three "More" vertical dots. Then toggle the "Enter Edit Mode" switch as shown below.  If you don't see the Enter Edit Mode item, you do not have Supervisor or above permissions. 


After toggling Edit Mode on, the screen will refresh. A pencil icon will appear next to each metric. By clicking on the pencil, the editable fields for the metric will open below in the metric editor.



Among the editable fields are the range settings and the "Enabled For Notifications" check box (see below). Any numeric metric has the ability to set high and low ranges. Normally, the Range Min and Range Max are not required for metrics but once the "Enabled for Notifications" box has been checked, the ranges are required (as indicated by the asterisks shown below). Once the "Enabled for Notifications" box has been selected and the ranges are entered, click the save button to save the edits.


In the illustration above, the ranges are "1" as the minimum and "2" as the maximum. The metric will accept any data beginning from, and including, "1" and up to, and including, "2" as an acceptable entry. In the example below, we see the entry is "2.1" which is above the acceptable range of "2". Once a data point has been saved by clicking the "Save" button or the site auto-saves, a number of events are set in motion:

  1. The operator receives a visual warning in red of what the expected range should be.
  2. An timer in the background begins a countdown. This 10-20 minute timer allows the operator time to examine the data point for validity (was it a typo or is the entered data correct?).  The operator can change and save the data before the 10-20 minute timer expires.  


Once the time limit has been reached, email notifications are sent. The email will be sent to all of the local Supervisors of the system as well as the operator who entered the data. Depending on the timing of data entry on the site, the notification email could contain more than one out-of-range metric.   Waterly batches the notifications (if there are more than one) one email for each time data is saved.  In an effort to keep things simple, Supervisors cannot "opt out" of receiving emails.  


The notification email will contain several relevant pieces of information to assist with determining a response. See the diagram below which corresponds to the numbers below:

  1. Organization and System. "Waterly Internal" is the Organization and the System is "Lake Zebra, IL".
  2. Out-of-range metrics. This shows the Site, Process, Component, and metric. "Demo - WTP2 (site) > Raw Water (Process) > Well 2 (Component) > Daily Flow (Metric)"
  3. The Report Date the metric data was entered for.  This is NOT the date the data was saved, it is the Report Date in Waterly the operator was on where they saved the data.
  4. The metric data point value that was entered and triggered the out-of-range notification. In addition, the range min and max at the time the data was saved are displayed for convenience. 
  5. Saved By shows the date the data was saved, as well as who saved it (and their user email address). 



Summary

The out-of-range metric email notification feature assists water/wastewater agencies with identifying issues before they become bigger problems. The email will be sent to all of the supervisors of the system, as well as the operator who entered the data. This feature can also be used to train new operators how the facility is designed to operate while having confidence you can be notified of anomalies.


Video

This video demonstrates the tutorial for how to enable email notification for out-of-range metrics.