Alert Mappings
Generating meaningful alert messages is tricky because API's generally produce error messages that are technical in nature, or messages that don't take into account the overall scope of what a particular automation is trying to accomplish.
The system provides alert mapping functionality as a mechanism to help generate meaningful alerts in emailed alert reports. For information about emailed alert reports, see here: Automation Alert Reports
The system's alert mapping functionality provides a way to replace raw error messages with different text.
Alert mappings are very flexible, in that they can be defined at three levels:
- Each trigger and action within an automation
- Each automation in an account
- The entire system
Alert mappings are processed bottom-up in the order above, such that mappings are performed first at the trigger/action level, then at the automation level, then at the system level.
Regardless of which level they are defined, alert mappings are entered in the same manner:
Alert mappings are evaluated top-down, in order, and don't stop when a replacement is made. Each mapping criteria gets evaluated, in order.
Each alert mapping consists of the matching criteria on the left side, and the replacement value on the right side. Click the plus icon at the upper left to enter a new mapping:
Click the X icon to remove a mapping:
Mappings can be re-ordered by dragging and dropping them with the up/down arrows icon:
By default, the left side matching criteria is entered as a Regular Expression. Regular Expressions provide a lot of power and functionality for matching text, but are complex and beyond the scope of this documentation to teach. You can search for information about them on Google. A much easier way to define alert mapping criteria is to just use literal text matches, which can be entered on the left side by surrounding the text with single quotes.
If the criteria on the left side matches a generated alert message, the text on the right side will get substituted.
The right side text can contain {ORIGINAL} to have the original alert message inserted in its entirety.
The right side text can be left empty to suppress the alert. If the alert is suppressed, the alert will not be included in the emailed alert report.
To define alert mappings for specified triggers/actions in an automation, right click on a trigger/action and choose the Alert Mappings option:
To define alert mappings are the automation-level, choose the gear menu option here:
Accounts with permission to access to the system's Admin Console can define system-level alert mappings on this screen:
