Using the Pulse Engine

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.

How To

Step 1: To access Pulse Engine settings, click the Administration icon (gears) on the ResourceFirst Main Menu column and select the Pulse option:

The Pulse page will appear:

Step 2: To add a new Pulse Engine item, click the “+” icon in the leftmost pane. The following dialog will be presented:

Step 3: Enter the name of the item and description when prompted and click Add. Then complete the information on the main panel.

For writing SQL 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.

To have an email sent when the item is executed, check the Send Email checkbox, and/or you can have the notification sent to the user(s) messages feed by checking Update User Feed.

In the Schedule section:

To make the item active, check the Active checkbox.

Specify the run interval timing. [Note: Be sure to enter a “Last Run” date and time (even for a new item) to represent the last time the event would have run. Otherwise, the new Pulse item will not run properly.]

Step 4: Test your query using the Test Query button at the bottom of the main panel (see screenshot below). Test emails generated will appear in the bottom pane. For scripts that perform an action rather than sending a notification, the action will be performed.

[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.]