To access the Application Options dialog, in the Display Builder select Tools>Options.

Options specified on Alerts tabs can be saved in an initialization file (ALERTOPTIONS.ini). On startup, the initialization file is read by the Display Builder, Display Viewer, Display Server, Data Server and Historian to set initial values. If no directory has been specified for your initialization files and ALERTOPTIONS.ini is not found in the directory where you started the application, then RTView will search under lib in your installation directory. NOTE: When you start an RTView application from the Windows Start menu, it runs from the demos directory.  

NOTE: Options specified using command line arguments will override values set in initialization files.

There are five Application Options tabs for Alerts: Alerts, Alert Definitions, Self Service Alerts, Custom Alert Fields and Alert Persistence.

Alerts
Select Tools>Options>Alerts>Alerts. The Alerts tab allows you to set alert options.

 
 

Alert History Depth	Set the number of rows stored in the AlertTable. This option limits the size of the AlertTable to the number of rows specified. When the AlertTable goes over this limit, RTView removes cleared alerts from the table starting with the alerts that have the oldest Cleared Time. If all cleared alerts have been removed and the specified Alert History Depth is still not reached, then RTView will remove active alerts starting with alerts that have the oldest Time value. In this case, these alerts are cleared before being removed and the cleared reason is set to ALERT HISTORY DEPTH EXCEEDED.
Time (in seconds) to Keep Cleared Alerts	Enter the time, in seconds, to control how long RTView retains cleared alerts from the Alert data source. RTView checks for cleared alerts to remove on each update pass. If more than the specified time has elapsed since the time the alert was last cleared, then the alert will be removed. If the value is set to 0, cleared alerts will not be removed until the specified Alert History Depth has been exceeded.
Update Count on Acknowledged Alerts	Controls whether or not acknowledged alerts are included in the value of the Count column (in the AlertTable). If selected, the count will increase incrementally each time an alert receives an update until that alert is cleared. If deselected, the count will stop if an alert is either cleared or acknowledged.
Update Severity on Acknowledged Alerts	Controls whether or not the severity of acknowledged alerts is updated. By default this option is off, so the severity on acknowledged alerts does not update.
Unacknowledge on Severity Change Mode	Specifies the conditions to automatically unknowledge alerts when the alert severity increases. By default this option is None. When an alert is unacknowledged, the alert resumes renotifying if the reNotificationMode property is configured to do so. It also means that if the condition meets the specified reNofifyOnSevChangeMode property on the alert, it resumes renotifying regardless of the reNotificationMode. This unacknowledge action is not tracked in the Alert Action Audit Table because it is not a user action. There are three modes: First Severity Change: Reverts acknowledged alerts to unacknowledged when the severity increases for the first time. This means that the alert will start to renotify again, that is if the reNotificationMode property is configured to do so. If the reNofifyOnFirstSevChangeFlag property is selected, then the alert will renotify once regardless of the selected reNoficationMode. NOTE: This option is not tracked in the Alert Action Audit Table since it is not a user initiated action. All Severity Increases: Reverts acknowledged alerts to unacknowledged every time the severity increases. None: Do not unknowledge alerts when the alert severity increases. NOTE: When run against Application Options set from an older version of RTView where the Unacknowledge Alerts on First Severity Change was enabled, that option automatically converts to the First Severity Change mode so the behavior is the same.
Enable Alert Auditing	·     Enable auditing of alert actions. If selected and configured, alert actions will be stored to the specified Alert Action Audit Table Name. See the Alerts>Audit Alert Action section for details.
Alert Action Audit Database Name	Enter the name of a database, as defined on the SQL tab, that contains the Alert Action Audit table. See the Alerts>Audit Alert Action section for details.
Alert Action Audit Table Name	Enter the name of a table, in the specified Alert Action Audit database, in which to store the alert actions audit information. See the Alerts>Audit Alert Action section for details.
Alert Action Audit Data Server	Optionally specify a Named Data Server connection to use for reading and writing alerts to the specified Alert Action Audit Database Table.

Alert Definitions
Select Tools>Options>Alerts>Alert Definitions. This tab allows you to to enable alerts, set options for your alert definitions, and add, remove or refresh your Alert Definition files. Once you have added an Alert Definition file and, optionally, entered a corresponding substitution, click Apply to execute. The Alert Definition file will be added to the data source. The Alert Variables Table updates with all active alerts from the Alert Definition file and the alerts begin executing. NOTE: Alerts without names or with duplicate names will not be added.
   

Enable Alerts	Enables/disables all alerts in all active Alert Definition files.
Initial Delay	Duration (in seconds) to wait after startup before evaluating alerts.
Multiple Index Delimiter	For alerts with multiple index columns, RTView creates a unique Alert Index by concatenating all of the index column values separated by the specified Multiple Index Delimiter. The value can be any string, except the following: comma (,) semi-colon (;) or empty string. Default is tilde (~).
Alert Definition File	File(s) that contain alert definitions. See Alerts for information on creating Alert Definition files.
Substitutions	Optionally specify substitutions for this Alert Definition file. Substitutions must use the following syntax: $subname:subvalue $subname2:subvalue2 If a substitution value contains a single quote, it must be escaped using a / : $filter:Plant=/'Dallas/' If a substitution value contains a space, it must be enclosed in single quotes. Do not escape these single quotes: $subname:subvalue $subname2:'sub value 2' A substitution string cannot contain the following: : | . tab space , ; = < > ' " & / \ { } [ ] ( )
Add	Click Add and select a (.rtv) file to include in Alert Definition File list. NOTE: Alert definitions are only added after you click OK, Apply or Save.
Remove Selection	Remove the selected Alert Definition file. Alerts in this Alert Definition file will no longer execute and the alert data for these alerts will no longer be available in the Alert data source. NOTE: Alert definitions are only removed after you click OK, Apply or Save.
Refresh Selection	Reload the selected Alert Definition file immediately. This option allows the data source to re-read an Alert Definition file without restarting the Display Builder. NOTE: Refresh Selection is enabled when you select an Alert Definition file that has already been added and applied.

Self Service Alerts
Select Tools>Options>Alerts>Self Service Alerts. Self Service Alerts make it easy to set and persist threshold, duration and enabled settings for your alerts in a database. For details, see Alerts>Self Service Alerts.
   

Custom Alert Fields
Select Tools>Options>Alerts>Custom Alert Fields. This tab allow you to define custom properties on your alert definitions and set custom alert event attributes that will show up as columns in the AlertTable when an alert is executed.

NOTE: All additions, modifications and deletions of Custom Alert Definition Properties and Custom Alert Event Attributes are applied when you click OK, Apply or Save in the Application Options dialog. All of your Alert Definition files will be unloaded and reloaded whenever changes are applied to the Custom Alert Fields tab.
 

Custom Alert Definition Properties These properties are useful when you want to store additional information about an alert definition and have it be accessible in the AlertTable. For example, you might want to organize your alerts by Category. In that case, you could add a Custom Alert Definition Property named Category. When you define your alerts, you specify a value in the Category property for each alert. When the alerts are executed, there will be a Category field in the AlertTable that you can use for sorting and/or filtering. Once you have applied your Custom Alert Definition Property, a Custom Properties section will be added to Object Properties window that contains a property for each of your Alert Definition files. These properties can be static or attached to data. You will also see a column in the AlertTable for each Custom Alert Definition Property. The value in that column will be the value specified for the property in the corresponding alert definition. The alert will also create a substitution for each custom property by collapsing the name into $alertXX (where XX is the name of your custom field) in camel case with spaces removed. For example, if your custom property name is my property, the corresponding substitution will be $alertMyProperty. You can use this substitution to show the value of your custom property in the alertCommand, reNotificationCommand, clearedCommand or in the alert text. NOTE: Renotification commands will update with the new value of the property if it changes, but the alert text in the table will not update after the alert is generated.  These properties can also be mapped to a column in the valueTable input for your alert if the useTabularDataFlag is on. Use the customPropertyMap property to specify which column from the valueTable contains the value to use for the custom property using the following syntax: customPropName:valueTableColumnName;customPropName2:valueTableColumnName2 For example, if you have a custom property named My Custom Property and you want to use the value from the My Data Column column in your value table, you would specify the following: My Custom Property:My Data Column To add a property, click on Add Custom Alert Definition Property. To edit an existing property, double-click on it in the Custom Alert Definition Properties list.
Add	Name	Name of the Custom Alert Definition Property. This will be used as the property name in the alert definition and as the column name in the AlertTable. This field is required and the name must be unique within both the the Custom Alert Definition Properties and Custom Alert Event Attributes.
	Data Type	Select the type of data for this Custom Alert Definition Property: String, Double, Integer or Boolean.
	Default Value	Specify a default value for this Custom Alert Definition Property. This field is optional. If specified, this value will be used for new alert definitions. NOTE: The Default Value must be of the specified Data Type.
Remove	To delete a Custom Alert Definition Property, select it from the list and click Remove Custom Alert Definition Property.

Custom Alert Event Attributes Alert event attributes show up as columns in the AlertTable and are set via the Set Custom Alert Event Attribute command. This is useful when you want to add table information on a per-alert instance basis. For example, you might want to add a Status attribute to the alert, so that the user can indicate whether the problem is Under Investigation, Being Tested, or Resolved. To add an attribute, click on Add Custom Alert Event Attribute. To edit an existing attribute, double-click on it in the Custom Alert Event Attributes list.
Add	Name	Name of the Custom Alert Event Attribute. This will be used as the column name for this attribute in the AlertTable and will also be the name you will use to reference this attribute in the Set Custom Alert Event Attribute command. This field is required and the name must be unique within both the Custom Alert Event Attributes and the Custom Alert Definition Properties.
	Data Type	Select the type of data for this Custom Alert Event Attribute: String, Double, Integer or Boolean.
	Default Value	Specify a default value for this Custom Alert Event Attribute. This field is optional. If specified, this value will be used for new alerts. NOTE: The Default Value must be of the specified Data Type.
Remove	To delete a Custom Alert Event Attribute, select it from the list and click Remove Custom Alert Event Attribute.

Alert Persistence
Select Tools>Options>Alerts>Alert Persistence. Configure the alert engine to persist alerts directly to the database or via data server.