Subscribing to a Watch

Users can personally subscribe to "watch" specific resources, Project Planner gates and MPC tasks that are of particular interest to them. This generates an alert (via e-mail, SMS text message and/or ReliaSoft portal message) each time the record is changed.

Subscribing and Unsubscribing

To personally subscribe/unsubscribe to a watch, open the resource, Project Planner gate or MPC task and select or clear the Alert me on changes to this record check box. The alert types shown for this option will depend on your alert preferences, as described in the section below.

Note that the “watch” feature is not applicable for the following types of resources: Variables, Profiles, Maintenance Groups, Mirror Groups, Controls, Maintenance Templates (in BlockSim) or resources specific to BlockSim's event analysis flowcharts (Functions, Static Functions, Simulation Definitions and Tables).

Receiving Alerts

Alerts can be sent via e-mail, SMS text message and/or ReliaSoft portal message, depending on the Receive automated alerts preference specified in your personal user account.

  • Alerts via portal message are always available in any database.
  • Alerts via e-mail or SMS are only available if they are enabled for the database, and a valid SMTP server has been defined. (See Enable Alerts via E-mail or SMS.)

No Cascading Alerts

Alerts are generated only when the record you’re watching is edited directly. For example, if you are watching a universal reliability definition (URD):

  • An alert will be sent if someone replaces Model A with Model B in the URD window.
  • An alert will not be sent if there is a change to an existing model, crew, etc. that is already assigned to the URD, unless you have also subscribed to watch the dependent resource that was changed.

Special Considerations for Actions and Gates

For action resources only, there are some additional features designed to maintain continuity with prior versions and enhance the actions management functionality. Specifically:

  • Action changes that are applied via the FMEA worksheet in XFMEA/RCM++ will not initiate an alert. The change must be saved via the action properties window.
  • The database can be configured to auto-subscribe watches for users with the following roles: Action Creator, Person Responsible or Reviewer (aka "approver"). Each user can choose to personally unsubscribe later if desired. (See Action Alert Preferences.)
  • The Action Monitors window allows you to specify individual users and/or groups of users who will always receive alerts for the action, regardless of whether they have personally subscribed to a watch. For example, this allows you to set up an alert for a user who doesn’t have access to view or modify the project (and therefore can’t personally subscribe to a watch).

A similar feature, the Gate Monitors window, is available for Project Planner gates. (See Action and Gate Monitors.)