Overview

ResourceFirst comes with a powerful business rules engine called the Pulse Engine. It can be used for automation functions, notifications, and more.

Examples of Pulse Engine use could be:

• Missing or late timesheet notifications
• Automatically updating the window of active periods at the end of each month (e.g., for Actuals Tracking purposes)
• Populating field values based on a certain condition
• Making completed projects inactive
• Notifications of changed values (such as when forecasts are changed)
• Updating certain Project KPIs
• Workflow approvals

Generally, your PDWare representative will work with you on setting up Pulse Engine rules or notifications, though SQL-savvy customers can and do set up automations themselves.

To access Pulse Engine settings, click Administration->Pulse Engine:

To add a new Pulse Engine item, click the “+” button in the leftmost pane. You’ll be prompted to enter the name and description. Then you can complete the information on the main panel. The example shown below is a weekly notification for missing timesheets.

For writing queries, PDWare Professional Services can provide training on the ResourceFirst data model. Then you can enter a SQL query statement to define the selection and automation criteria. Required fields (in CAPS) are: USERID, EMAIL, MSG, and optionally CC.

You can make the item active (using the Active checkbox), have an email sent when the item is executed (using the Send Email checkbox), and specify the run interval timing. Be sure to enter a “Last Run” date and time (even for a new item) to represent the last time the event would’ve run, for the new Pulse item to run properly.

To have the notification sent to the Messages Center of the recipient (via the envelope icon in the top right of the ResourceFirst main icon row), click the “By Pulse Feed” checkbox. You can have messages sent via email, Pulse Feed, or both.

You can test your query using the Test Query button at the bottom of the main panel. Test emails generated will appear in the bottom pane:

Note: While debugging new Pulse Engine scripts/notifications you may want to limit the effect of the scripts. Possible approaches for this include using Development Environment instead of Production, keeping the script inactive and using the Test Query function initially, and inserting clauses in the SQL logic to artificially limit the scope of notified users. Please contact your PDWare representative if you have questions about this process.