The Alarm Analysis Object

You can display iFIX alarms from a relational database using the Alarm Analysis object. This object displays the retrieved alarm data and lets you filter and sort the data, much the same way that the iFIX Alarm Summary object does.

In order to use the Alarm Analysis object, you need to configure the Alarms connector using the Administration application. See Adding an Alarms Data Source for details. This connector reads alarms from a relational database table and displays the data in the Alarm Analysis object, as the following figure summarizes.

The column properties determine which columns to display and in what order. When you select a data source for the object, you can select the columns you want to include in the object. By default, the Alarm Analysis object displays the following columns:

Column Name	Description
Native Date/Time In	The date and time the alarm first occurred. The supported date format is month/day/year (mm/dd/yyyy) and is determined by the Regional Settings. The default time format is hour:minute:second.subsecond (hh:mm:ss.n). You can change this to display time down to the millisecond. The date/time in this column is provided as a datetime data type. On Oracle databases, the data type is DATE.
Native Date/Time Last	The date and time the alarm last occurred. The supported date format is month/day/year (mm/dd/yyyy) and is determined by the Regional Settings. The default time format is hour:minute:second.subsecond (hh:mm:ss.n). You can change this to display time down to the millisecond. The date/time in this column is provided as a datetime data type. On Oracle databases, the data type is DATE.
Logical Node Name	The SCADA server that generated the alarm or message. If you enable logical node names in the SCU, the name of the SCADA server is the logical name you define.
Tag Name	The block (tag) that generated the alarm or message.
Tag Description	The description of the tag in an alarm state.
Value	The current value of the tag in an alarm state.
Message Type	The specific alarm type. Alarm types can be: SQL Recipe Operator Network Text Alarm Esignature
Message Description	Text describing the alarm condition.
Alarm Area	The alarm areas of the tag in an alarm state. Alarm areas can be: A through P ALL None A user-defined name
Alarm Status	The alarm state of the tag. Examples of alarm states include: LOLO HIHI LO HI Change of State Rate of Change Deviation Change of Normal Under Range Over Range Out of Range No Exception Data No Data SQL_CMD I/O Failure Device Failure FIELD_READ FIELD_WRITE
Alarm Priority	The alarm priority of the tag in an alarm state. Alarm priorities can be: Low Medium High

To these columns, you can add the following:

Column Name	Description
Alarm Ext.Field1	Data from the first alarm extension field of the block in an alarm state.
Alarm Ext.Field2	Data from the second alarm extension field of the block in an alarm state.
Date In	The date the alarm first occurred. The supported date format is month/day/year (mm/dd/yyyy) and is determined by the Regional Settings. The date in this column is provided as a string data type.
Date Last	The date the alarm last occurred. The supported date format is month/day/year (mm/dd/yyyy) and is determined by the Regional Settings. The date in this column is provided as a string data type.
Message ID	A unique identifier for the row in the table supplied by the database.
Operator Login Full Name	The full name of the operator logged in (included for operator messages only, when security is enabled).
Operator Login User Name	The user name of the operator logged in (included for operator messages only, when security is enabled).
Operator Node Name	The node name of the computer that the operator is using (included for operator messages only, when security is enabled).
Performed By Comment	A comment provided by the person performing an action. This value is included when electronic signatures is enabled.
Performed By Full Name	The full name of the person performing an action. This value is included when electronic signatures is enabled.
Performed By User Name	The user name of the person performing an action. This value is included when electronic signatures is enabled.
Physical Node Name	The SCADA server that generated the alarm or message.
Time In	The time the alarm first occurred. The default time format is hour:minute:second.subsecond (hh:mm:ss.n). You can change this to display time down to the millisecond. The time in this column is provided as a string data type.
Time Last	The time the alarm last occurred. The default time format is hour:minute:second.subsecond (hh:mm:ss.n). You can change this to display time down to the millisecond. The time in this column is provided as a string data type.
Unit	The EGU label of the tag in an alarm state.
User Field1	User-defined data.
User Field2	User-defined data.
User Field3	User-defined data.
User Field4	User-defined data.
Verified By Comment	A comment provided by the person verifying an action. This value is included when electronic signatures is enabled.
Verified By Full Name	The full name of the person verifying an action. This value is included when electronic signatures is enabled.
Verified By User Name	The user name of the person verifying an action. This value is included when electronic signatures is enabled.