Before you set up an alert rule, consider when or in what situations you want alerts. When you know which event you want to be notified about, you can locate the form in Microsoft Dynamics AX where the data that causes the event is displayed. The event could be a date that occurs or a change that happens, so you should find the Microsoft Dynamics AX form where this date is stated or where the changed field or new record is displayed. When you have this information, you can create your alert rule.

By creating an alert rule you compose the criteria that the system should meet to trigger an alert. You can think of criteria as a match between the occurrence of an event and the fulfillment of specific conditions. When an event occurs, the system starts checking according to the conditions that are set up in Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Event (Alert me when)

The event could be a date that is reached or a specific change that occurs. Events are predefined, and the events that are available for a field depend on the field that you have selected. For example, if the field where you want to set up an alert rule is Start date, the event type is due inis available, but for a field like Cost center, the due date event is not available. For Cost center, an event like has changedis available.

Event types

Due date-type events: Trigger an alert when a date is met.

Update-type events: Trigger an alert when data in a particular field changes.

Create-type and delete-type events: Trigger an alert when a record is created or deleted.

Changes that can occur could be either a change that a user initiates or a change that is part of a process. An example of a change initiated by the user could be that the user changes the delivery date of a purchase order. An example of a change that is part of a process could be that the Statusfield of a form changes to reflect the life-cycle of various processes in the system.

Conditions (Alert me for)

You can use conditions to control when you are alerted about events. You can tell the system that you want to be alerted when a date on a record occurs, but only if the record matches a certain set of conditions.

For example, suppose that you want to be alerted when the status of a purchase order changes to received. This is the event.

You then need to decide what should be implied with purchase order -- should it be all purchase orders ( All records in %1option), a specific purchase order ( Current record in %1%2option), or a purchase order that is limited with specific criteria ( Only records in %1 that match the selected filteroption). This is where you choose the condition.

If you choose to be alerted for a specific purchase order, you receive an alert when the status of this specific purchase order changes to received.

When you select the Only records in %1 that match the selected filteroption, you use the query functionality in an Inquiryform in Microsoft Dynamics AX to set up your conditions in a very flexible way.

Expiry of rule (Alert me until)

You can specify for how long you want the alert rule to be active.

Alert contents (Alert me with)

You define the subject and message that you want to be alerted with.

Delivery method (Also alert me by)

You can specify whether you want your alerts delivered as pop-ups or by e-mail.

Note
You can disable the e-mail message option and the pop-up option in the Options...form, and if disable them, the options are not visible in the Create alert ruleform.